myBurbank Talks
The Week That Was and That Will Be - October 9
There's never a dull moment in Burbank, and the latest episode of Burbank Talks is no exception. We delve into a range of hot topics, from a potential lawsuit against the city to community bonding events and our local culture.
At the heart of the episode is a detailed discussion on a potential lawsuit against Burbank involving a character named Nick Gutierrez. This mysterious figure and his voting rights could alter the city's voting system forever. The intricacies of this case are examined meticulously, raising questions about voter validation and previous election participation. The low voter turnout in Burbank also comes under scrutiny as we brainstorm ways to boost civic engagement.
But it's not all serious legal talk. The episode also highlights some heartwarming local events. We recount the touching story of a woman facing eviction and the incredible outpouring of support she received from the Burbank community, defying language barriers. From the Burbank Sports Federation induction ceremony to the FSA Gala, the episode captures the spirit of community cohesion and the ways we come together to support worthy causes.
We also take a playful turn, exploring the potential of the Greenhouse Arts and Media Program and pondering new construction projects that could add a cultural flourish to Burbank. The possibilities are endless and the potential for growth is exciting.
The conversation doesn't stop there. We delve into noteworthy updates on city events and local developments, discussing the Burbank Center Stage Theater situation and the transparent proposal process for public facilities. We tout the State of the City address and Vice Mayor Nick Schultz's appearance.
Despite the range of topics, everything circles back to our beloved Burbank community. The bonds we share, the challenges we face, and the dreams we harbor for our city are at the core of the conversation. The episode paints a vivid picture of Burbank's civic spirit, community cohesion, and cultural vibrancy, offering a deep dive into what makes Burbank special.
Burbank Talks offers an insightful look into the heart of our community, shedding light on critical issues, highlighting our collective triumphs, and fostering a sense of community engagement. This episode serves as a reminder that we are more than just residents of a city; we are a community bound by shared experiences, common goals, and a deep love for our city.
There's never a dull moment in Burbank, and the latest episode of Burbank Talks is no exception. We delve into a range of hot topics, from a potential lawsuit against the city to community bonding events and our local culture.
At the heart of the episode is a detailed discussion on a potential lawsuit against Burbank involving a character named Nick Gutierrez. This mysterious figure and his voting rights could alter the city's voting system forever. The intricacies of this case are examined meticulously, raising questions about voter validation and previous election participation. The low voter turnout in Burbank also comes under scrutiny as we brainstorm ways to boost civic engagement.
But it's not all serious legal talk. The episode also highlights some heartwarming local events. We recount the touching story of a woman facing eviction and the incredible outpouring of support she received from the Burbank community, defying language barriers. From the Burbank Sports Federation induction ceremony to the FSA Gala, the episode captures the spirit of community cohesion and the ways we come together to support worthy causes.
We also take a playful turn, exploring the potential of the Greenhouse Arts and Media Program and pondering new construction projects that could add a cultural flourish to Burbank. The possibilities are endless and the potential for growth is exciting.
The conversation doesn't stop there. We delve into noteworthy updates on city events and local developments, discussing the Burbank Center Stage Theater situation and the transparent proposal process for public facilities. We tout the State of the City address and Vice Mayor Nick Schultz's appearance.
Despite the range of topics, everything circles back to our beloved Burbank community. The bonds we share, the challenges we face, and the dreams we harbor for our city are at the core of the conversation. The episode paints a vivid picture of Burbank's civic spirit, community cohesion, and cultural vibrancy, offering a deep dive into what makes Burbank special.
Burbank Talks offers an insightful look into the heart of our community, shedding light on critical issues, highlighting our collective triumphs, and fostering a sense of community engagement. This episode serves as a reminder that we are more than just residents of a city; we are a community bound by shared experiences, common goals, and a deep love for our city.
from deep in the Burbank Media District. It's time for another edition of my Burbank Talks, presented by the staff of my Burbank. Now let's see what's on today's agenda as we join our program.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody. Craig Sherwood here once again with you, along with, of course, ross Benson, and this week, craig Dirling is on assignment. Isn't that what I say in the news business? They're on assignment, right, and yeah, before we start today, we just like to make Ross like a little statement about the situation going on in the world right now. So, ross, go ahead. What's in your mind about that?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, in the Middle East it's just chaotic and being of the faith that resides over there Jewish, you know heavy on our hearts every hurt, you know. You see people killed unnecessarily and bombs blasting in the air and so forth, you just wonder. But I will say that, locally, our police department has been on top of it since last, since it occurred. They have intelligence that they're listening to. There was a Jewish holiday on Saturday and the police department made several, you know, drove around all the synagogues in Burbank and had some cars at the synagogue. So they're on it and we just pray for, you know, it to be settled. And now for the week that was. A week that was, and the week that will be well, let's.
Speaker 2:Let's start off with the last Monday, on October 2nd, providence St Joseph's Medical Center lit up their Disney Cancer Center in Tennessee, disney Cancer Center in pink and they had a reception for breast cancer awareness month. Ross, I think you stopped by the reception and, yeah, how was it?
Speaker 3:I did. I showed a picture. It was right 7, 7, 30. They had a couple of speakers, survivors of cancer. A lot of people know that the Disney Cancer Center very, very popular and it's you know point of this stand, alameda and the center itself. They did a little ceremony inside yeah, listen to a couple speakers. Then everybody went outside and boom, they turned on some pink lights Lights lighting up the building. Pink is cancer awareness. This is the second or third year they've had me come out and shoot it and if you drive by and wonder why, that's their participation.
Speaker 2:And that was Monday night. In fact, we're actually trying to set up a podcast right now, or with St Joseph's to doa podcast about breast cancer awareness and what we're calling our doctors, so we're trying to work on that right now. Well, you went from Monday night and set that alarm clock and got up Tuesday morning and got over the police department for the unveiling of their Pink Cruiser once again this year. So why don't you talk about that also?
Speaker 3:Well, you know Burbank police. I think they said this is the sixth year that they have wrapped a Florida Explorer in pink and we're very fortunate in Burbank company on Palm called Rapix Imagerine Imaging. The owner, adam Sumer, is a Burbank resident and he does this professionally and he got a hold of the police department and in the prior years they've done a car and a motorcycle. I guess we don't have any spare motorcycles right now, but they've wrapped a car different colors. We give them the you know, the art, artistic, creative, whatever they want. And every year and I'll tell you that I talked to Renee and community, the community resource area of Burbank PD that car is scheduled to be everywhere in town and the next this Saturday or last Saturday it was even at the pack of soldier box sitting there. Just so people are aware of Burbank police, they're also selling the pink, the pink police patches.
Speaker 2:We saw the chief yesterday and he had one on.
Speaker 3:All the command staff have them on. It's a choice of the officers, but quite a few.
Speaker 2:The public can buy those too, that's right the Burbank police website or the foundation website.
Speaker 3:No, I'm told you, you can buy them in the lobby.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's in the lobby, okay.
Speaker 3:I believe in the lobby and they're like five dollars. That money will be all donated to the cancer city of Hope and it's just more funds to help.
Speaker 2:It's just another small way of doing something. You know, if we all do small things, the big picture, you know, is helped.
Speaker 3:Yep, exactly, you don't have to give a million dollars.
Speaker 2:We can just give that five dollars here and there, and if we all do that that becomes a million dollars.
Speaker 3:And it's kind of nice those pick. I know my granddaughters love to. I have that pink patch in their room, you know, and especially pink. That's my grand daughter's favorite color. But if you look on the uniform of our these officers that have the pink patch, they look really classy.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and it's. It's good for the chief and the staff to acknowledge that every year.
Speaker 3:And you're gonna laugh. People go in front of the station and just pose in front of the car and shoot a picture with the car, oh, absolutely sure, so it's always there. If it's not being occupied or used out in the field, that's, you can go by the station at third and Orange Grove, and if it's parked there, you can shoot a picture of it right in front of the just park, legally, yeah right. Well, that construction right now is makes it real hard.
Speaker 3:Yes, it does, and that was a worry during the ceremony on veiling last week. They were working on the road and the, the, the pile drivers or whatever that was working was making a lot of noise, so it was a little annoying. But now the car's there and that's what happened last Tuesday, or at least in the morning of Tuesday.
Speaker 2:Well, tuesday night we had ourselves another council meeting. Something happened during oral communications which caught my eye and you know, I thought it was a really a real positive thing that one of the speakers came up, who's, I guess, being evicted and trying to get help in the city, and she had a little speech and it was in Spanish and she was trying to reading and one of the city staff members went up to the podium with her and basically translated for her and the mayor I thought, in a good gesture, also doubled the minister from three to six, because it would take time to translate, you know. So it wouldn't be fair if she was cut off halfway through.
Speaker 3:So you know it was Viviano Garzón who ran for the city clerk position, who is Hispanic, and she got up very quick and I thought it was a great gesture. We don't we've never seen that where we've had an interpreter. I know at a council meeting a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 2:You know, and Nicky, yeah, we don't want people to think that just because they might be here illegally, they don't have they have rights to and you know, we're not judging them on on how they got here and the house, we're just saying you know, we respect your right to come speak. You know, I mean as a citizen of Burbank, and she did it and like, and you said, nicky Perez, councilmember, nicky Perez at the end even addressed her in Spanish, which I thought was very was nice also. I thought it's just nice that we were very inclusive and she didn't feel like she was, you know, scared to talk to the authorities or something else and and I was a speaker or piece so you know, I just heard the other day somebody say that Los Angeles is a melting pot of how many different nationalities.
Speaker 3:But when you're getting evicted, I know that, for I know the feeling right and she's probably Panic City, and then you try to say something in English especially if your English is broken and you really can't.
Speaker 2:You can't understand if somebody's talking back to you in English that quickly. You can't process it. So yeah so hopefully she got some help and where she needed it. But I just thought our city was very accommodating. Never seen it happen before. Curious that if somebody from with our Armenian, you know language came up, would they have somebody be able to translate for them also well, you know, I would think that we have some Armenians working.
Speaker 3:That's right like now.
Speaker 2:When you call the police desk, they can hook you into a Armenian transmission translation line and I would say this, and if you can understand what I'm saying, of course, but if you do speak a different language and you do want to go talk at the council meeting, let them know in advance. Hey, I'm gonna be speaking. I could I need a translator? In whatever language, I'm sure they're gonna accommodate you yeah, it's, don't ever feel you can't yeah address the you know you have the same rights. Everybody else does yep what else?
Speaker 3:do they talk about?
Speaker 2:well, the rest of the big thing that meeting was the lawsuit for the council districts and, as they say, what's that move? Something strange happened on the way of the forum or something they went from their typical. Well, whatever, the city staff we're going to remember stamp this number, stamp that passes past that. All of a sudden, some hard questions got asked and vice mayor Nick Schultz and a surprised me but made me happy because he's asking the questions that we've been asking for months and months. Number one is Nick Gutierrez, whose this lawsuits filed on behalf, actually not face in the drought.
Speaker 2:We've seen the draft, the letter was drafted in his name, but as Nick Gutierrez been involved in the process of you know what, in other words, the council saying okay, nick Gutierrez, we understand, you have a problem. What is the problem? How can we address it for you? Besides just and they asked the city attorney that you know our is even involved in the process at all he goes. No, nobody not him or any of his representatives, or the law firm has said anything since the letter, nothing. He goes, and it's unusual because usually when somebody brings this action, they would be part of the process that fixes the problem. Once again, I still think we're being. It's a shakedown and he's shaking down every city, because in the letter it says yeah, just give us $30,000. And you know, make this go, we won't do anything, we won't move further along and I'm trying to find out.
Speaker 2:Right now we're looking into Nick Gutierrez. Is he a registered voter in Burbank? We're trying to find that out. And if he is, has he voted in any election ever? Because I think you know, if he says, well, I'm just in franchise, so I don't vote, yeah, you know what? That's kind of a you'll coward's way out. I just don't think. I don't think he exists, I really don't. I think if you read the letter and and how it's worded, there's things that don't apply to Burbank. It's kind of a form letter they probably sent to every damn city well, in fact you're right there.
Speaker 3:I believe you in one of your articles this week, specified and said there was some wording in there. They even wonder if there is Burbank. You know if he knows Burbank. There were specific things in the letter. I forget the article off top my head, but those the guy might not even be from Burbank. Is there a Nick Gutierrez?
Speaker 2:yeah, and I'll honestly. We have looked him up. We have some software that that we look up. We occasionally you know, and and we pay for, and so far they haven't found a Nick Gutierrez in Burbank in any of this, these, these databases. I'm trying to get a hold of the registrar in Norwalk to get more information. I can't believe it by the city hasn't done this either. You know why they haven't tried to look into if this person exists, because you know. If he doesn't, how is this a legal lawsuit? Then? If they're just making something up, if they're making that up, then well, like you said, we have.
Speaker 3:We have some things that in the back of our head we're thinking some people it could be, but if you're Nick Gutierrez, we'll buy you a steak dinner wherever you want Burbank up up and let's talk, and I was with us by the vice mayor.
Speaker 2:He said you know what, if we're gonna do this, I want all the options brought back. Instead of five districts, how about seven districts? How about nine districts? What will that look like? What if we have six districts and we elect a mayor, or four districts and we have a full-time elected mayor? What if? You know, he brought back a lot. He says I want, I want to hear more options than just the five districts, and that's it. And we just put it on, you know, and let the charter committee let them delve into this. You know, let the voters decide on this. I'm all for it. You know, I.
Speaker 2:You know, when the pickwick thing came up with SB 35, I knew that was a huge mistake to Not approve that project, and I knew they're gonna get sued and I knew they're gonna lose. And of course they got sued. They lost, but half a million dollars because they just they voted with their heart, because the residents wanted that, and they didn't vote with their heads and was good. But this issue, an Issue that has worked in Burbank for a hundred years, and now somebody wants it. One person one person, not not a group, not an Organs. One person wants to change how we've done things for a hundred years when he can show no proof of it and even with the districts it'll show there's no advantage to any of the you know, the minorities who feel they're not being represented. There's no way to do it. It's gonna be the same thing. Well, what gets me? I just think we're.
Speaker 2:You know, especially in the Los Angeles. They have all these council districts there, right? How many LA council members keep getting indicted Because people try to get to one member at a time when a city council, you got five people and you know what. Every, every one of those five council members is my council member. If I have a district, that means I have one person. That's it one person who represents me. Not a good thing either. I like all five representing me.
Speaker 3:Well, what gets me is they have paid a pretty penny In the appropriate every one of those signs, $300,000 allocated so far.
Speaker 2:Is that what it is? Yeah, that's a consultant and everything else. See, that's what gets me.
Speaker 3:That is to you know the city.
Speaker 2:That's chump change, you think, but come on $300,000 and these consultants could even show up to the meeting. Oh, we'll do it on. Zoom right, holy cow. Yeah, and thanks for taking our money and giving us like. So I, I just think I'm really happy that vice mayor Schultz Went, the course he did, and the council is gonna have this all brought back to them. They didn't pass anything that night, any of the recommendations or the ordinances. So, um, you know, to be continued, people, I just think sometimes there are fights worth fighting. I know Santa Monica has spent up to close to six million dollars and they don't have a decision yet. They keep getting bounced around, so we'll see if you know what happens, but I'm really, um, I, what I, what can founds me also is that more citizens of Birmingham aren't standing up for this or listening about this, or it's just not important. It's just that's why we get, you know, 15,000 out of 45,000 voting, because people just don't care, they don't, they don't want to vote, which I? I don't get that.
Speaker 3:But well, it's frustrating when they have made it as easy as they have. You don't even need to leave your house.
Speaker 2:Just like getting a credit card bill, just get it at home, put it out and put the mail.
Speaker 3:That's right. They couldn't make it much simpler and like, the scary part is, that's where our elections are going, and it's you wonder how some of these decisions are being made, because nobody votes Well you said a thousand times, the average bird rank citizen doesn't care about government.
Speaker 2:They don't care about. All they care about is is my trash picked up on a certain day? Are my streets swept on a certain day? Do my lights go on when I switch on? I mean, you said time and time again, but you know what, the reason that stuff all works Is because we have a city government that makes it work. So you know what. Sometimes you need to know how the sausage is made.
Speaker 3:That's a new one.
Speaker 2:That's a new for this, but it's an old term old term, but a new one on for our party.
Speaker 3:There you go, okay.
Speaker 2:So that's it for um, for the two yeah, yeah, then let's go into wednesday. Yeah, oh, you know what, though something um.
Speaker 3:Well, it was farther along.
Speaker 2:There. Yeah, but there's also something on the Tuesday meeting that came up at the end, which, um? I'm looking at my notes here and I don't know where I put, it was buried. Quite a quite a bit later. Okay so, but this happened at the end of the meeting. Yeah, they always have additional agenda items and councilmember tom lo tachaha. She said what can we do To modify the oral comments?
Speaker 3:think the word was manage manage.
Speaker 2:Yes, she wants to bring brought back on how to manage Oral comments, because she said we are here sometimes too late at night because there's too many people commenting on too many things and everything else. You know what? What kind of slap in the face is that to the public? And I mean, I just I heard that and I said Well, okay, a couple things for you. You know, councilmember takahashi, you, you wanted this job, you ran for this job. You knew what this job was. You know what this job is. One of the things this job is you listen to your consistent constituents. I don't think you know she realizes and and the council at times which I have disagreed with, but I get it, you know, years they've always messed around with oral communications.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, that's funny part. For years I remember David Golotsk. I remember going back here at George baddie. Let's modify the time. Yes, let's stop two oral communication.
Speaker 2:There's one before and one after they have five minutes before at the meeting before. And and what two minutes at the end of a meeting. You know, and like no one ever missed either one.
Speaker 3:Oh, he didn't, he didn't, but it kind of gets you that again. I get it. People, right now there's a lot going on in our community and the first set of oral communications.
Speaker 2:They can come up and Talk about anything that's city business. It doesn't matter if it's on the agenda or not, they can talk about anything they want to talk about. It involves the city of burbank and you know, one night it's been um, a lot of people were evicted. Not on the agenda, but a lot of people came to talk about that. Another time it was the burbanks, the center stage, not on the agenda, but people came to talk about that, in fact, that that resulted in change. But that's people's rights to come talk.
Speaker 2:You know, and to me it's like you know what if you don't like going to 1 30 in the morning. But one of the reasons is you put so much on the agenda that by the time you get to everything, it's 1 30 in the morning. So if you don't be there to 1 30 in the morning, how about three meetings a month instead of two meetings a month? If you have an extra meeting a month, maybe you split that agenda up into smaller items and all of a sudden you're either at nine or ten o'clock at night then. But you know if you're gonna put like four or five items on agenda, especially reports and and public comments and things like that. You know that need public comment and public hearings. Well, that's, that's what you're in for. Then you know. I mean, so I say have more. They just have a lot of meetings, but the the the charter says you have to have at least two meetings a month, that's and says, okay, we'll do the minimum.
Speaker 3:Then oh, we have a lot of stuff on the table. We did have.
Speaker 2:The meeting on wednesday was a special meeting, all right and and I'm glad they called it, and so on wednesday they had a special meeting to figure out the uh, ribbank center stage theater situation. Um, I was very happy the council took this up. I was very happy it was done in a public setting. There was nothing but transparency. Yeah, it was a little long because each presentation is 45 minutes and there's the same questions and everything else. But it was interesting to listen to all the answers and I thought after listening to it I go wow. Especially the first up was the ymca and and basically what we're talking about here is the colony theater was told they had to do an rfp which request for proposals and Renew their lease. And the way yes, renew their lease and the way it was done by the park and rec staff and the city finance department was not very professional and a lot of the and our lease of paratus did a great series of articles Showing the inadequacies and what was going on behind the scenes. And that's why the city council stepped in, because the process Didn't seem fair and didn't seem transparent and it didn't. It was not a good situation. So they came and said okay, we'll make the decision. You know what, and they should make that decision on every public facility, at the public you they should make. They have the same thing. When it comes to double the bell, golf course, I think they should have the same exact thing there.
Speaker 2:You know, our park and rec department, I think, is overtaxed and there's, they said, one of the reasons that they couldn't Get ahead of years ago was there was an issue at the bell and the person who was doing the negotiations for the centers, the theater. Well, they had to go run the the bell situation instead. So we've got About 500 parking wrecking floys and nobody could step in. Only got one person and he had to go run the bell for However time and then, when he got done to it and then he came back, why wouldn't we have Somebody else in charge of the theater? Why would we have separate people in charge of different things? You have one person charged the starlight bull, one person charged at the bell, one charge the centers. Let's see the theater.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I watched that meeting from beginning then and negotiations aren't easy sometimes I don't know, and those, those and these were negotiations. These are just proposals, right, and what I heard out of the three people that were vying for the agreement you know how many contracts the city signs?
Speaker 2:Oh, I, yeah, you kind of wonder but these are, these are public facilities that's used by the public, right? Yeah, I know those are, those are, um, our street paving and things like that, you know. But these are amenities that our public uses and I think they should have. You know, we don't hear the process. Um, after the ymc, a proposal that they let off and they were first, I'm going, wow, that's they. That's like a slick machine, they've covered every. But to me it wasn't. It sounded corporate. To me it didn't sound, you know, as though they it was personal, it's, it sounded corporate. Um, colony theater was second. I can't tell you I was actually impressed with their. I thought their proposal might not be All that, you know, they wouldn't have all the glitz and glitter, but they did a great job. They had, you know, pictures and you know cardboard.
Speaker 3:They literally had red carpet on theirs.
Speaker 2:They actually did and and they had the numbers, the figures, what they wanted to do had a great little video in the beginning and a great little video of Some Hollywood a celebrities who were saying save the theater, you know for them, so I don't need to get. And then the last ones were the um, the greenhouse arts and media, which I think the man was, was very, he was very honorable, he did a great job. I thought he made a great but Not not a Burbank person and you talked about how he works with the LA school system and things like that. Well, you know, we have the Burbank school system. He just sounded like he wanted a larger theater and he just come to Burbank and use ours and I thought it was a very nice. I thought he was a very well spoken man. But these are lawyer by profession, so I mean lawyer by profession.
Speaker 3:He knows how to present a case and he presented it. I said myself he was presenting it. I hope the city council is Hearing what he's saying, because he's not talking. Burbank Not talking local.
Speaker 2:In fact, I actually looked up on IMDB during the meeting. He's been like in five things and I've never heard any of the five you know, and one of the things that I Somebody said several times during the meeting you got an empty akiya store.
Speaker 3:Why don't we make that? People don't realize that land and that building is not made for the theater, that's we know what that is being used right now.
Speaker 2:I just started a new season Of hell's kitchen again. So they put dorms in there, two kitchens, a dining room. That place is all set up. You know it's in Hollywood style, you know.
Speaker 3:Um well, it was supposed to be torn down two years ago and they're making some money using it. They're making some money using it.
Speaker 2:At least they're running it out, they're. What does bother me a little is that they do have a facility called the Burbank Little Theater and they're just not using it anymore or anything else. Now to me, the greenhouse arts and media that would be a perfect little spot for them because they're a smaller place and it would have been a better place for them, but nobody brought that up. In fact, right now the plans are to demolish that and build a large new gym at Olive or George Isaiah Park and at the back of the gym put a community Rumen and the people could use that room and everything. You know that's not a theater. A room is not a theater.
Speaker 3:Well, you know you can have a theater's are in. You got Victory Theater that's across from, but that's also a private, private theater, private theater the church that I once went to at Hollywood Presbyterian has two theaters. These are like small 99 seat theaters. That was one thing about the colony it's got. It's pretty good size. Two hundred and fifty or so is that no one? Fifty six.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 3:But you saw a lot of union people get up and speak yeah For the colony, because it's a professional theater, not a amateur, and that was one of the problems that Nikki said.
Speaker 3:If we don't go with this, how many union jobs are we slicing away in this decision? I love listening to what she had to say, but also the theater the colony has been Messed around with for many years. They have not been given, no, a fair deal. I don't know From day one, and you know you cannot operate a business with a six month window, especially in the theater business.
Speaker 2:It takes months and months and months to put things together and set deals up. I think that. But on the other hand I still like to see OK, let's say you're going to tear down the barracks Little Theater. Ok, I don't. I think you.
Speaker 2:If you're going to try that entire project At George Isaiah Park, why not reconstruct a new Little Theater in there? And while they're at it, why not put an amphitheater type thing into the news? We're making central library project downtown that they're working on. Why not do a two thousand seat little amphitheater in there that they could rent out to, to, to bands and everything else? And I, you know, if you look at Englewood, englewood brings in. They are so happy to have the Rams there, they are so happy to have the forum there, and now they're going to have the Clippers there too and another arena.
Speaker 2:Because every time you buy a ticket to a Ram game or a Clipper game there or or anything else, a concert, anytime you buy a ticket, a dollar to that money goes to the city of Englewood. Like we have a bed tax here. We have a bed tax and there's every time you know you, you sleep in a Burbank hotel, you get a man goes to the city of Burbank or you park in the airport parking structure. You know dollar goes to Burbank. Well, if we had a two thousand, three thousand seat in a new city center downtown we'd be getting. Every time events be held we'd be getting a dollar or two for each thing to a cover the traffic and the police and B to go toward the city.
Speaker 3:Well, I recall many years ago that there was a proposal or a drawing of an ample theater right at third and Orange Grove. They had parking lot, for City Hall was part of it. Those, the shoe store and those little the restaurant across street was all going to be bought, made into a small ample theater outdoor style.
Speaker 2:Well, there was a time saying plan for the where the 777 Front Street project is going in now? Didn't they at one time think about trying to do an arena there too At one time? I mean.
Speaker 3:I remember when Bud Overham was city manager, out on San Fernando Road where I think it was SSP, one of the industrial companies out there. I've been out there and there's like five parking lots and you, there's a footprint and it was away from residence. It was right off the five freeway, right on the five freeway near the airport. Boom, boom, boom yeah, and it should have gone out there but that never happened. And you just wonder, you know, in this downtown area, you know in this downtown dream that they're going to come up with, will they ever do that?
Speaker 2:Well, hopefully, okay, yeah, we need a new library, but we shouldn't be calling I think that the term library is antiquated. It should be a multimedia center because, let's face it a building full of books while we still need to have books. I get all that. I'm not trying to say we get rid of books, but is that the way our future is going? Is we're going digital? I don't mind having some books, but we need to have other forms there. Also, it's easy to do a multimedia center, not a library. The library just sounds like you know, books.
Speaker 3:Well, the bottom line the council did deliberate. If anybody we had a story on it. Lisa did a follow up story. It was only four council members. Council member or vice mayor Nick Schultz recluse himself because he had received a campaign donation from somebody, from a member of the colony.
Speaker 2:So he asked he'd say which one.
Speaker 3:He just said a member of the you know he said the colony, so he reclused himself on the suggestion to city manager. So the four of them city attorney, so the four of them, after many hours of deliberation. It was, I believe, moved by council members the Zet Mullins, and then seconded that by Mayor Schultz or Mayor Constantine Anthony to move forward and it was a four or vote for the city to negotiate.
Speaker 2:Now there's no negotiate with the colony and in good faith. And then the contract, when it has been negotiated. It's just come back to the council for approval.
Speaker 3:And I think the wording and I heard it pretty loud from them is they want to see the, the YMCA work and colony work together for programs and other stuff to be done there. So hopefully they will help each other out Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, let's move on to Thursday. They had a Birb-Eye Unified School District meeting and on the agenda was a report from John, I want to say ISAM, isom, from ISAM advisors, and he addressed the board and said that he's worked with more than 200 school districts over the last eight years and he did a poll of 400 percent perspective Birbank voters for their perceptions for do a bond measure In his report. They said it was connected between separate September 22nd through the 26th. He said 80 percent of voters who made believe that local voters need to do more to protect the quality of education facilities in their local public schools. I agree. He said support for a bond measure before voter education was at 60.5 percent. Well, after information the support was at 64.8 percent. Interesting, he said, all projects tested received 60 percent voter support or above and D. There were some tax rate sensitivity to the highest tax rate tested, while also in the state of the United States there were some tax rate sensitivity to the highest tax rate tested while support increased with a lower tax rate. Of course that makes sense. Here's my two cents on it. I have no problem if we need to do a bond measure for the schools. That's fine.
Speaker 2:I am totally against it, however, unless two conditions are put in. Condition one that if this is voted for, every dollar of funding presently has to continue in the same categories it's funded in now Because, as people remember, when the lottery came around, the big selling point why everybody voted on it was wow, 60% or 20%, whatever percentage it was, would go to the schools and would help the schools financially and everything else. Every was behind that. And yes, whatever percentage is supposed to school the schools has been given to schools. But then our state legislators said well, you know what. They're getting that money in now from the lottery, so we'll just take out that much money from what we were giving them before and use it somewhere else. So at the end of the day, the schools are still getting the same amount of money they got before. And you know. So I think to me that's a flip flop sham type thing. So I have to have that in the in the proposal that says current funding levels will not be decreased in any facility. As it is now One number two, I just don't trust that.
Speaker 2:There is a secret society as far as I'm concerned. In fact, during the council meeting the other night, one of the council members. I think I can remember who one council member said has the school district taken up districting yet? And a staff member had to say yes, in fact they've already passed it. And the mayor, who has a son in Burbank school, says wow, I didn't even know that. The council didn't know that school district already done districting because it's all done. No, we'll just do see. No releases Everyone after the press or the public. You know it was. Well, it was on our website. How many people go to the school district website every day? How many people go to you know?
Speaker 3:especially if you don't have a kid in schools.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so okay, so the school district and they've passed district elections, it's a done deal. But so my second thing is I will not once again support this in any way unless five members can be appointed to a special board to oversee every expense that the money raises. And the board that this is used cannot be cannot be appointed by the school board members, it has to be at the city council or some other body.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's city council, I don't know if they can do it, but there has to be some other board or some other body that would appoint the five. Because you know what was tough? Okay, we'll have a board, oversight board, and then they elect their five best hush hush people to give them whatever they want. To me that, once again, it's another flim flam thing.
Speaker 2:So don't do that and then have a five member board appointed by an outside agency, I'm okay. If not, I will vigorously oppose it. Because what's going to stop the district from saying, oh, we got more money, now let's rip up all the administrative contracts again, like we did last year, and give everybody raises. Let's give our superintendent another huge raise. You know, I'm sorry they're just I can't trust them with public money when it comes to administrative salaries and things like that. We're not spending it on the kids, but, boy, it's nice that our you know, our superintendent now went from 175,000 to 300,000, which is 50,000 more than our last superintendent of eight years got. How, how, it's just anyhow.
Speaker 3:Okay, we're going to let Craig take a breath my blood pressure needs to come down Ross give us your thoughts. Let's turn the air on in the room and you're sweating like you wouldn't believe it. I do agree. You know, when you get funds like this Burbank, when they did Proposition P, they came up with an oversight committee and they came up with some, you know, former city council members, some commission members that sat our sitting on it and a couple of residents.
Speaker 2:The meetings are open. Yeah, and everything else that yeah, there's no behind the scenes things going on.
Speaker 3:So they should come up with this, and those meetings need to be made very public and what's going on. And I think, because they do need the funds, that we get it. We understand that. Oh, the teachers, the teachers need them to school.
Speaker 2:You got schools like Burroughs where they build new school what 15 years ago? And the school's falling apart. And that's not anything. If they're going to put money into facilities, they're going to do a better job of the, of the how the construction is and everything else. I mean Burroughs, I heard was the gym area was falling apart within five years after construction. It's like it's like when the city built a new police station, that started falling apart. They put the floor in upside down or the windows in upside down and the floor was on backwards and then, well, they're I mean, they've had.
Speaker 2:Holy cow.
Speaker 3:You know you go out to bed and on the problem with the schools, they found that the person they hired to oversee everything was kind of getting some payoff from you know the contractors and so forth, and you go for the lowest bid. You're going to get the shabbiest work, yeah, and it turns out that's what happened. Same with the police building. They're still dealing. We were there on Friday and they're replacing the carpet which you know I see carpet wearing out, but I mean the roof leaking. They're still leaking in the parking garage.
Speaker 2:I'm told that building just was not built, you know so you know it's funny, if you try to do things in your house, do you have an inspector every day saying this or that and everything else. And you know where was that inspector for those big projects. But you know that's a whole new subject. But moving on, moving on, Holy cow, Moving on, Okay. Um, moving on to the weekend. The Burbank Sports Federation held its induction ceremony at Olive Rec, next to the Bill Burton Field. Bill Burton, of course, is known as Jim Burton's father. Poor Bill Burton. Um, we have a story coming with pictures about that by Rick Assad. Um, you were there for the ceremony.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was a real nice. I've done it many times. There are many people that have been inducted in the Burbank walk of fame. If you drive down Olive and look to the right there you'll see it says walk of fame. And if you ever get out of your car they have put in people's names you know that have been inducted and so forth. Real nice ceremony for two people this year. I'm going to keep it as a secret. So people read Rick's story and, um, they had, you know, food and they had all sorts of stuff, a nice little reception.
Speaker 2:We have our friend Dodger in here trying to find his ball, what it is. Move that chair away from the wall so we can get to his ball that dog is. Yeah, that dog wants his ball.
Speaker 3:I'm going to go to that shot and maybe people can see Dodger moving around over here Just having a fit.
Speaker 2:Dodger wants that ball. And then we, rick and I, went to the um you and me Can we create union where Carol Williams held its um pack of soldiers, soldier event. Is that called pack of soldier? I think that's a box is knitter for soldiers or well, I didn't have it. It's really get together and packs up boxes to send to soldiers. They gave him a piece of home.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it was, uh, the line it was. It was to see, they said it was going to be 100 degrees and they didn't lie and at 10 o'clock it was 95 degrees. I was out there and I'll tell you when I sh fits, you know, and I was wearing a hat too, Um, but uh, our, our, our council member, Nikki Perez, was there. She had to be in her sister's wedding. Uh, a couple of hours later, I bet she was pretty toasty. Oh, I can imagine, but she stopped by. I saw that, uh, our council members, the Zed Mullins, had stopped by. Barry Gusso and, uh, Karen will pay from. This is one of their pet projects. Um, the line for packing boxes was was great. They had tons of supplies and, like Barry said, it's hard, harder and harder to get people to donate and companies to donate to put on the event.
Speaker 2:Well, it's an event we have to have and, um you know, we'll have a story on the site soon.
Speaker 3:We will, you know, and the thing, if you think about it, our soldiers are overseas, away from home. You get a handwritten letter from a kid here in Burbank, where you get a deck of cards, where you get, you know, some candy or some nuts. It's just the nicest thing.
Speaker 2:Too bad, we can't send him a Larry's cheeseburger. Too bad, we can't.
Speaker 3:Because that if we could ever figure that one out. So they packed, I know, 500 boxes. They filled the U-Haul truck up and uh, and they filled the U-Haul truck up and uh, they I'm looking down to make sure my tennis shoes still on my foot not being chewed on. It was really and like I said, we, we cut out of there a couple hours in and it was really hot. But I saw Barry later that night and he said this community participation and you got to think Thank you me, credit Union, for lending them their parking lot. It's worked out great there. So that event went on. And then there was something else Saturday night.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fsa family service agency held its a Mad Imagine a city gala at Nickelodeon Studios and Everybody who was somebody. If they were somebody or they want to be somebody, they were there, according to Ross also.
Speaker 3:I did cover that event and I was on the guest list to cover it. They honored Judy Wilkie, our assistant, and Dodger agrees, yes, they. They the purpose of FSA to raise funds so they do not have to charge Clients for some of the services that they provide. It was a sold-out event. I mean there were still tickets available. But they do a right. The FSA and her team, lori Baick from FSA and Chris Ramos and the whole team put on such an event and I'll tell you we are so fortunate to have like Nickelodeon Studios in Burbank. They are that playground you drive by on olive. You don't know what goes on behind that. They had a huge 20 by 20 screen. It's a great facility there. Oh, in, it was. And Judy I Happen to know Judy quite well. I knew her mom and dad and I said to her afterwards I could see Reverend stamper and Sue stamper smiling. Judy put in 30, 30 years.
Speaker 2:She had a lot of hats in the city and now she's assistant city manager and and anytime we've needed something or anything We've got she's always been responsive, always been helpful. You know she's not saying how the damn press again. No, she's, she's does care and and she knows the city. She knows the city very well.
Speaker 3:Well, she's been from Charger finance. She was the city clerk. I was a parking wreck, you know park a wreck director. I mean she really had. She has a lot of experience and probably a very, very, a Human, sweet person. So to see her honored our police chief was there. He's the president of FSA. Our fire chief was there. Every city department head was there. What I really love to see. I stood back in the back and I looked around off around the room.
Speaker 3:I Love community when community gets together. We had people from St Joe's there, we had people from the school district there, we had people from water and power, from all the city departments. All the honor, judy. So it was, you know, a really, really Fantastic event and I want to give a shout out or maybe I did that later on, okay, that's part of my. I also want to applaud Terry Walker. He was the emcee for the night and he did a great job. They have an M, they have a musician. You know an emcee, I do an rdj, kept the tunes rolling. It was just perfect weather, you know, mid 80s. He's out there. It was gorgeous out in their, in their yard, so great place to do it.
Speaker 2:That's the thing. We get 100 degrees in the daytime. You get nice 80 degrees in the evenings. Well, kudos to Nickelodeon, carson Smith, who is their vice president of community affairs, and Vicki Fenton, and they got, they think their crew, and I mean it was just done very professionally and right absolutely Well with that, the way that was the week that was the week that was, and now we're gonna have ourselves a little bit of a Commercial break and we will be back with you in about 30 seconds.
Speaker 1:How would you like your business advertised in this very spot? My Burbank talks is looking for local businesses interested in a 30-second spot to appear in our podcasts. If you're interested, please email advertising at my Burbank calm and we'll be glad to discuss all the exciting possibilities with you. Now back to our podcast.
Speaker 2:Okay, craig, sure would back with you, along with Ross Benson and of course Craig Dirling is on assignment this week. What we sent about Antarctica or somewhere, or I don't know if you took Alps or I'm not sure we send them somewhere for something, who knows?
Speaker 3:I know an article is on no Antarctica's on his list of Bucket items.
Speaker 2:They probably is. I heard today that there are no snakes in Antarctica. Hard to believe right in frozen, frozen tundra.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, green Bay. Frozen tundra you know, you know, having Craig Dirling gone. We were roommates. We've been very close friends for years. He has a nature photographer and his stuff is online and I'll let him. Yeah you know, talk about it some one of these podcasts, but if you see his work, I mean zebras within 10 feet or lions and you know out and he went to that an African safari and he had, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the shoot pictures, not to shoot animals.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, he doesn't do that. Yeah, but his is. Photography is fantastic.
Speaker 2:So where he's off on mission or assignment, I'm not sure well, today it was Monday, october 9th, and it was what we used to know as kids as Columbus Day, but now has been re Rebranded to indigenous day, of course, as Ross told me earlier, which I was very surprised that in Canada it's actually called Thanksgiving Day, so I had to look on my calendar, even though my you've got your, your daughter, in law from Canada, isn't that?
Speaker 3:correct. Well, and I did not call her and wish her a happy Thanksgiving. Oh, I, I hope she'll really, you know, let me go on that one.
Speaker 2:Now, of course, it's a federal holiday today. That means your banks and your and your post office is closed, but how many people realize that it was it's a federal holiday and what was closed and what was open today and everything?
Speaker 3:else.
Speaker 2:Or school were in function. Yeah, so it's not a state holiday, it's not a city holiday, it's. Walmart was open, federal holiday, so Zodays was open. There's no longer Columbus Day. Akron was open. I was sell the blue and 1492, but guess what? He never did land in the United States Anyhow. Moving on to tomorrow, tuesday, the city council is dark, it's dark, dark again. No, they don't even have a meeting because we only have two meetings a month, to last one in the morning.
Speaker 3:So it's not because today was Thanksgiving. They have to wear off their food.
Speaker 2:No, that's, that's in next month.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:So Wednesday, october 11th, is the the state of the city address and Vice mayor Nick Schultz is going to step in. Let me hit the brakes.
Speaker 3:I think you forgot the line above that I can't hit breaks. We got a break sound or anything. Oh, oh, we have sirens. We have toilet flushing.
Speaker 2:Oh, in fact, you know what this, this was. Did we talk? We didn't talk about this, did we?
Speaker 3:know you were. We saw, we did mention. He said it's later on. Oh, I'm glad we go we actually you know what.
Speaker 2:we actually put this under on the wrong Tuesday, so I Glad we went over our show.
Speaker 3:Well it's early when we need yes.
Speaker 2:Well, there was no council meeting on Tuesday. There was one the last Tuesday we talked about and and Somehow we put it on the wrong Tuesday. But something happened at the end of that meeting which bothered me, and that was councilmember Tamatake Hashi. Requestors, as a public comment was basically taking up too much time. How do you fix?
Speaker 3:that? How do you know? We talked about it at the end of last Tuesday's week.
Speaker 2:We did so. Why'd you? What are we missing, then that you're talking about?
Speaker 3:I'm so lost.
Speaker 2:We did talk about it tonight, didn't we? We did talk about it. Okay, I brought that up and you told me.
Speaker 3:I said I didn't bring it up. I'm glad we write it down.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you I shows how much you actually listen what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:Girling, where are you when we need you?
Speaker 2:We rewind the podcast and listen to everything I said about her in a public, about public comment and everything else. We want to rewind that part, oops, okay, so let me move on where I was moving on before, because I thought I did talk about that. So when's the October 11th in state of the city at the Marriott, and vice mayor Nick Schultz is going to Step in and take care of the presentation for Mayor Constantine Anthony. It's the big. The burning chamber of commerce sponsors this every year and I believe it's once again a sold-out event.
Speaker 3:I got a call today from Jamie people over 650 people are planned to be there. Kick off at 11. You'll be out of there by one o'clock. It's not just fried chicken and don't.
Speaker 2:It's not a B Y O B event.
Speaker 3:I definitely not, but it's. It's the show to be to our public information office. Johnson Jones every year comes up with a phenomenal presentation him and his crew and his video crew have have put out a great show and there's.
Speaker 2:There's no really basic news there. They didn't know before, but it's a way for everybody get together and kind of celebrate the year that in the city and what went on, and if you really want to know what plans are coming up and developments, things like that economic.
Speaker 3:They give a report on the economic thermometer in Burbank. You know we've gone through the strikes and they're gonna talk about guarantee a bit about that right. But if you've driven around town, out at the Hollywood way in San Fernando there's a brand new hotel. Most people don't see it because they don't go out that way. Drive over the Magnolia overpass. He got the new apartments and condos. On one side he got Front Street project moving along like bolsters. You drive down Hollywood Wayne. Where's the ranch? There's no more ranch water blurs ranch.
Speaker 2:It's actually not in the water blurs ranch anymore, it's now the is it that worth the Jeff worth facility? I don't know if he's namedy is it Jeff, jeff worth ranch.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm gonna find out because I. Usually he goes to the state of city but I noticed today coming down to the studio. They've wrapped that whole place with construction.
Speaker 2:All the buildings are gone. I the old scream screen gems building that was on oak, gone, you know I mean they're moving along rather quickly.
Speaker 3:I know he wants that built all to be built within two years and done for 50 for 16 new stages. So if you want to know what's going on in the city, we'll have a reporter covering the state of the city and doing an after story. But if you want to know, this is where we get a lot of our information of what's happening.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Later that day, if you're Still sober from that. Festivities at the state of the city. The board of library trustees is going to meet at 530 central library as mostly updates on their agenda. Moving on to Thursday, bourbon culture arts commission meets at 9 am. The community services building once again mostly updates on the agenda, and the park and recreation board will meet at 6 pm. City Hall. There be updates and report of the starlight Bowl for the 2023 season and we're gonna get to that later. That's not tonight's podcast, but we're gonna talk about the starlight Bowl, probably next week or a podcast.
Speaker 2:I want to watch how the meeting comes out. I think the starlight Bowl is a mismanaged, even though, yes, it makes money I okay it makes it turns a profit. I Think it's just a mismanaged facility and it's not living up to this potential and the city's let let it run down in many ways. So I want to see what the park and rec board says. If they say anything, they're gonna see report to always made money this year great, thank you very much. But I, as a citizen of Burbank, I Love the facility. I'm not proud of what it is now and are what the shows are.
Speaker 3:I know they have a lot of limitations, it's all garage bands.
Speaker 2:It's the city's not hire one real act. It's all garage, it's all you know tribute bands, you can go to any. You go to go whiskey flats oh, they're gone now you can go to um.
Speaker 3:Whiskey, a go-go whiskey. What was the place on Sam whiskey Bend?
Speaker 2:Let's keep that. I said whiskey Bend.
Speaker 3:You said whiskey, a go-go or something.
Speaker 2:You said go go Whiskey Bend, but you know you can go to all these nightclubs, you can see these, these tribute bands in these places. I mean a facility like that should not be having. True, there are so many 80s and 90s Real people out there who play small venue places that you could bring in here and, yeah, you might pay out a little more and the tickets might cost a little more, but it's gonna be quality entertainment.
Speaker 3:I know of a gentleman here in town, dominic and I would love to have him on here one of these days who has proposed Real bands in there. They do out there in Indio. He's with that company that puts that on and he can get a band.
Speaker 2:Is he a burbank person?
Speaker 3:Yes, he is. Let's do a podcast with him. You know what? For him to work with our Park's erect apartment. He's had some challenges and well what else is new?
Speaker 2:Wow, that's a long line.
Speaker 3:We talk every so-and-so. I would love to, because he has a nonprofit that they've built, that they want to take over and run that facility and make money on it, and he's just running do you know more people showed up to see motley yacht or yacht yacht Yachtly crew or whatever they call themselves, than the fireworks show on the fourth.
Speaker 2:Hey, I haven't had you sell the fireworks show in the fourth out and that they. That was their big show every year, the big money maker, and actually charge a lot more money for that one.
Speaker 3:But we would like.
Speaker 2:We said we'll talk on we're gonna talk about this later, you know.
Speaker 3:They're like ample.
Speaker 2:I hope the part the park and rec board doesn't just rubber stamp things on this. I got a feeling that they probably will you. Well, friday, you know, friday we're gonna take the day off, right? Friday the 13th. It's your favorite day, right, that's it. It used to be used to be Friday the 13th, it's just now. It's just a nightmare. Moves to the weekend and On the weekend, gain credit union. Good folks again are holding a flea market and pumpkin patch now over the four.
Speaker 3:I went out and bought some mosquito spray and they're having a flea market. Oh, oh.
Speaker 2:Dodger fleet? No, no, he has that fleet. He takes a fleet pill.
Speaker 3:Well then that last year they put on this pump. You know they have that extra parking lot of parish, right, you know, across and they have, I think, 25 vendors coming out. This year they're gonna be. You can buy a pumpkin and the money will go to local scouts. Last year there was food there, tons of stuff to buy. It's from like 10 to 4, 11, 11 to 4. I know I'll be out there.
Speaker 2:Soup and You'll be out there, soup in it.
Speaker 3:I'll be out there shooting some pictures and I know I got a note from gain looking for they hope to see a lot of people come out Saturday great community event.
Speaker 2:So go out there. Remember was that used to be for gain built there. Oh, that block. Yeah, wasn't that the block where they had the fire about? No, where the gain credit unions.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's 1800.
Speaker 2:They had a fire about 20 years ago. Right, right, or is that it? That is an orchard? No, no, I was there at that bill it was where?
Speaker 3:no, where. The credit union is now another building there before a lot. They own that lot too, and they had a couple of fires or a little.
Speaker 2:Oh, there's a big fire that did burn the whole put and they had a pool right in the inoff.
Speaker 3:In the inoff. Yeah, adolf, there you go fire. Yeah, well, cuz I shot a lot remember I was there too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's gotta be what 20, 30 years ago.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I remember I was in Way out of town. I very seldom leave Burbank and when I heard that call and when I heard Al Simmons, one of the captain said, give me a second alarm. As soon as he got there he said I have a one-city block on fire. And I got there mighty quick for me and out of town.
Speaker 2:And then I found out my tripod didn't work and I had to balance my camera on the side on an outrigger of a Fire truck that's back in the days we didn't have quick lenses and you had to use film, so every, every shot had to count and you wouldn't see a shot to. You got home and souped the film, right, okay? Well, that brings us To our last thing of the night, which, of course, is always Ross's rant, or sometimes it's Ross's Shoutout. So let's see what it is tonight. What do you got for us?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I do drive around town a lot and I see a lot of things. But I'll tell you, saturday I was impressed by our community. We talked a little about FSA's Gala at Nickelodeon. I'll tell you, besides Nickelodeon standing up and they haven't just putting on a heck of a good party and Everybody I've known Judy for For 30 years of working for the city of Burbank.
Speaker 3:I Photographed her wedding. I know Judy quite well. I remember her mom to stamper quite well and her dad, reverend Larry Pastor, larry former mayor, burbank former mayor he, you know the Judy went to Burbank high. She was a she's a Burbank kid and she has literally put her life into Burbank and what they did the other night to honor her was very, very well, rewarding and deserving. But you know, fsa puts on this gala to Offset funds so they can put Counselors at every school. They have a counselor at every Burbank school. Our two high schools have crisis centers and mental health centers that kids can talk to and the money that they raised pays for all that. And To just close this up, there is a company in Burbank, command performance, owned by Lewis. Lewis donates all the food, all the catering, at every FSA event. He feeds the families that are in FSA homes. During Thanksgiving and Christmas they had prime rib. The other day they had pasta, they had salads, they had desserts, they had everything. And Lewis doesn't charge them penny. That's Burbank.
Speaker 2:That's Burbank.
Speaker 3:So I'm my hats off to FSA and to Lewis and if you want to know, look, command performance. They do Hatering for the public. I've called them on a couple of the events. They would be glad to you know. Do work for you here in town. They're on Burbank Boulevard if you need to call them support a local Burbank business.
Speaker 2:We're always for that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it, this turns around and comes right back to you know, when it comes to Christmas and he, he makes a hundred turkeys and and takes them to you know, some of Burbank's people, there you go See that turkeys waiting to be carved up. So again, my hats off to FSA, laurie, chris, the whole team and even one of the people I used to talk to um was working the bar. It was just a great event. So, um, again, kudos to everybody over there. And you know, that kind of wrapped up A busy week and now I'm looking at this one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what? I've also got a shout out which we didn't put on the script. I just remembered about it. Something I was very impressed with the other day. Uh, we went to the. We went to um police and fire headquarters. We had a meeting with the police chief and uh, we're talking about, you know, media access to encryption and all that. It was a good meeting.
Speaker 2:We appreciate the shoes time, but while we were waiting in the waiting room, I was watching and an officer, officer Moreno. You know, I actually know his first name by a chance. I don't put you on the spot, but do you have to know his first name? You look it up for me. Um, officer Moreno, who you might remember is a guy, is the same officer who rescued a horse and and wrote him out of danger and and back to the, the residence where the horse was lost from. Uh, so he was on kind of the national media, in fact all over the world with the horse but but going bareback down the street. But I'm in the police station.
Speaker 2:An officer Moreno was there to advise a resident on a potential fraud case and gave the resident a lot of information and when he was done, there was a homeless individual who Didn't have all his wits about him sitting there and he went over to him and said sir, can I help you? And basically the conversation was Everybody's out to get me, everybody, you know I'm and he spent we were there for Waiting about 10 minutes and for 10 minutes he stood there and talked to this man Trying to see what he could get. What can I do to help you? Who's after you? How can I help you? Everything he was saying was was you know, and he wasn't doing this. He didn't know who I was. He's not my friend, I'm a media person. He had no idea who I am and I'm watching this. I'm going. This is what happens Behind the scenes sometimes and this is what we did.
Speaker 2:Personally, more additional met teams, mental you know, mental evaluation teams, because our officers, our officers you know police officer, you you sign up to go fight crime and and all that stuff, and you find out you're more become a social worker more than anything else, and and he spent a lot now I do not know how this turned out or the final, the final thing was our we got our meeting with chief and had to leave, but I he was there a solid 10 minutes and I gotta tell you what I was very impressed With him. He didn't try to hurry the man up, he didn't try to get out of here. He wasn't. He was trying to do everything he could to help this individual who was very confused, probably around 60, 65 years old, and I just thought this, this is a story you don't see or you don't hear about, unless you out there and actually see it happen. So I want to, I really want to, commend officer Moreno, who I thought did a Fantastic job. Did you find a name for your officer?
Speaker 3:No, I didn't, I only have his last name. But, um, when we went up to the chief's office, we kind of told the chief what you just witnessed or you did, yeah, and he told us about officer Moreno. This is a new officer to Burbank and on about a year or two years now, but I've gotten to talk to him in the field. This is the officer. This is why Burbank chooses the prime, the best. This, this officer has a heart of gold In his country. Um, where the chief was saying he, he's a horse rider from South America, south America. His family still lives there. I remember shooting his picture at, uh, um, graduation from LA Sheriff's Academy and, uh, his dad, his mom and dad were there and the chief. When the chief started talking about horses and everything, that's chief's language. But this officer, if you saw him on the street, I've seen him doing his job out there.
Speaker 2:You know Burbank has some great officers, oh, absolutely, and this is one of our newer officers. And then you also mentioned that you didn't know.
Speaker 3:One of the other officers is out on the street Working hard. Give me a name.
Speaker 2:You mean my former Ricky Ricky Perez, that's right, I did not know Ricky Perez.
Speaker 3:Who's a former?
Speaker 2:player, vine, or. You know, I was at Burbank high, uh, who was on our league championship team. Who's a five-tool player which, if you don't five tool player is it's more baseball talk, anything else Um, natural athlete in probably multiple sports. And he is a now a Burbank police officer and I didn't know that he's been in the department probably two years. Actually the chief didn't know that. You know he was an all-league outfielder for us and then he actually went on to play shortstop in college and the chief didn't even know that as a chief is a tremendous baseball fan. I mean, he knows he looks every day at box scores and everything else and you know he's just not a casual fan.
Speaker 3:So Um, you know I want to interject there. We had an issue come up that we found necessary to make it a point with. His Fridays, I know, are dedicated to returning phone calls, returning people's emails and meeting with people, like he did, you and I. Our meeting went over an hour and he is. My, my carbonese. We are just so fortunate to have him entire command staff.
Speaker 2:I have said before we are very lucky since chief Lachov took over and brought in a command staff and and we we promoted um chief albinies from captain what he was, he was uh who's the captain?
Speaker 3:deputy chief chief to chief and you know, came on as a captain and moved. But we're real fortunate to you know, we have a real young police department now. Uh, a lot of these officers that are laterally, you know, coming into burbank. But you know I have shot three new officers last month.
Speaker 2:I think I'm shooting three more this you know we looked at that report, that um From the civil service commission or whatever, and I guess every year they get, or every month they get, about a hundred applicants at about 15 Hospital lateral transfers. And I know one month we looked, zero lateral transfers got approved for our department, which means lateral transfer there, a police officer in another department and trying to come to burbank, and we denied them all and of that 110 or whatever it was applicants. I think there were two or three on the list to go to the academy. So you know, just because we need officers, doesn't we're just gonna take anybody out there, we're gonna get.
Speaker 2:The chief is very demanding of the of the caliber person, not just, you know, not just book learned, but the personality of the person and everything else. So you know, hats off to our department, hats off to our officers. I know they have a tough job. I know I don't agree with them sometimes and some of the policies, hey. So that's we're the media and we've got to still be a watchdog. You know we want that transparency and I think we mostly we get it too. The chief tries to give it to us.
Speaker 3:That he does. It was a good meeting and, like I say, we're real fortunate in the city of Burbank have the caliber officers we have working.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that's it for another show. It's funny we started this show on october 9th and now we're gonna finish the show on october 10th. So as we've been here long, I guess we had to watch the dodger playoff game. The dodger playoff oh, we had to watch that. The bachle night that went on, and uh, so we're a little late. Start tonight, just because we're still in mourning of Dave Roberts managing. No, did I say that? I just said that, okay, um, anyhow, that's it, we will talk to you next week.
Speaker 3:So Ross for the week. There was the week that will be. We miss, uh, mr Dirling. We hope he's back in the pilot seat soon and we'll see you next week Bye.
Speaker 1:UCLA health. Tequila's cantina and grill ups store on third street and hill street cafe.