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Glendale: Weaver Fury Is Calming

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  • Glendale: Weaver Fury Is Calming

    WEAVER FURY IS CALMING
    By Jason Wells

    Glendale News Press
    Aug 21 2008
    CA

    At meeting, critic rebukes councilman while past opponent only watches
    from the audience.

    CITY HALL -- The ongoing controversy surrounding Councilman Dave
    Weaver's alleged comments about Armenian smokers in a June 26 Pasadena
    Weekly article appeared Tuesday to have fizzled.

    Only one speaker at the City Council meeting, Vache Mangassarian --
    a staunch Weaver critic -- returned to berate the councilman over the
    article despite expectations in the past week that a larger contingent
    of critics would take to the speaker's podium at the meeting.

    Critics, including representatives for the Armenian National
    Committee-Glendale Chapter, maintained their calls for Weaver to
    resign, issue a full apology or for his colleagues to censure him
    based on assertions in the Pasadena Weekly article that Weaver had tied
    opposition to the city's coming anti-smoking ordinance to Glendale's
    "substantial and politically influential Armenian community."

    Last week, Weaver denied making those comments and publicly condemned
    the reference after prodding from Councilman Ara Najarian.

    No representatives of the Armenian National Committee attended
    Tuesday's council meeting.

    Chahe Keuroghelian, a former council candidate who publicly admonished
    Weaver last week, sat quietly in the audience.

    Najarian, who has repeatedly pressed Weaver about the article, defended
    his decision last week to drop the matter in order to avoid stoking
    a controversy based largely on hearsay.

    "If any new information comes out, I'll be happy to reevaluate my
    position," Najarian said.

    The writer of the Pasadena Weekly article, Carl Kozlowski, and his
    editor, Kevin Uhrich, are scheduled to address the controversy live on
    "The Larry Zarian Show" tonight, about three weeks after it exploded
    at City Hall.

    Weaver declined an invitation from Zarian to join the panel, citing
    fears that his comments would be either misinterpreted or taken out
    of context.

    "It's in the eye of the beholder in so many of these things,"
    Weaver said.

    Defending himself on live television after having issued a public
    statement last week would only fan the flames of a politically
    motivated agenda pushed by the Armenian National Committee, he said.

    "It's all political," Weaver said.

    "How far can you go with this?"

    But Uhrich said the live television format should erase any fears of
    being misinterpreted.

    Uhrich was also disappointed Weaver had declined to appear on the
    show because he and Kozlowski were "kind of confused by that statement
    and would like some clarification."

    A column addressing the controversy was also scheduled to appear in
    this morning's issue of the Pasadena Weekly.

    Elen Asatryn, executive director of the Armenian National Committee
    Glendale, said Wednesday that the organization would continue to
    pressure Weaver for a full apology, or for more response from his
    colleagues.

    "We hope that in the future they will work together to unite the
    community and not divide," she said.
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