Dive into the heart of Burbank's vibrant community as we sit down with Mayor Nick Schultz in a town hall-style conversation that goes beyond formalities. This episode, hosted by Craig Sherwood and Ross Benson, peels back the curtain on the city's pressing issues – think road safety projects and the housing affordability crisis – with a refreshingly candid approach that eschews the regular rigidity of council meetings. Get ready to uncover the detailed intricacies of public service, from emergency responses to the transformative power of the 311 app, while also appreciating the tenacious dedication of our city employees.
As the discussion unfolds, Mayor Schultz doesn't hold back on the challenges facing our city, such as implementing effective safety measures on our streets and the complex dance of enhancing tenant protections while navigating an economic tightrope. Our dialogue meanders through Burbank's green initiatives and the electrification of our transport systems, to the contentious Tin Horn Flats saga, revealing the painstaking balance of environmental sustainability and economic realities. The episode is not just informative but also a warm tribute to the city's collective efforts, as we spotlight our battle against human trafficking and our bold steps with the new plastic ban ordinance – initiatives that undeniably echo our community's values.
Wrapping up with a sense of hope and community spirit, this episode is a testament to the remarkable events that shape the city of Burbank. From the cherished Burbank on Parade to the Holiday in the Park festivities, we explore the lifeblood of our city's culture and the concerted effort needed to revive and maintain these local traditions. All the while, the conversation maintains a grounded perspective on the policies and services that define our urban experience, culminating in a sincere appreciation for the city we love and the people who make it thrive. Join us for a deep, yet accessible foray into local governance that's as enlightening as it is inspiring.
Dive into the heart of Burbank's vibrant community as we sit down with Mayor Nick Schultz in a town hall-style conversation that goes beyond formalities. This episode, hosted by Craig Sherwood and Ross Benson, peels back the curtain on the city's pressing issues – think road safety projects and the housing affordability crisis – with a refreshingly candid approach that eschews the regular rigidity of council meetings. Get ready to uncover the detailed intricacies of public service, from emergency responses to the transformative power of the 311 app, while also appreciating the tenacious dedication of our city employees.
As the discussion unfolds, Mayor Schultz doesn't hold back on the challenges facing our city, such as implementing effective safety measures on our streets and the complex dance of enhancing tenant protections while navigating an economic tightrope. Our dialogue meanders through Burbank's green initiatives and the electrification of our transport systems, to the contentious Tin Horn Flats saga, revealing the painstaking balance of environmental sustainability and economic realities. The episode is not just informative but also a warm tribute to the city's collective efforts, as we spotlight our battle against human trafficking and our bold steps with the new plastic ban ordinance – initiatives that undeniably echo our community's values.
Wrapping up with a sense of hope and community spirit, this episode is a testament to the remarkable events that shape the city of Burbank. From the cherished Burbank on Parade to the Holiday in the Park festivities, we explore the lifeblood of our city's culture and the concerted effort needed to revive and maintain these local traditions. All the while, the conversation maintains a grounded perspective on the policies and services that define our urban experience, culminating in a sincere appreciation for the city we love and the people who make it thrive. Join us for a deep, yet accessible foray into local governance that's as enlightening as it is inspiring.
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 Burbank, Greg sure would hear with you once again, along with my partner Ross Benson. How are you, Greg? You're getting good. You're actually saying hello every time now.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm running the system and it says talk. Oh yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2:You're actually looking at your picture on there for a change too. There you go. Well, another edition of Ask the Mayor, our February of 2024 edition, and, I will say this, one of my favorite shows. I have enjoyed this show now more than most. I enjoy all the shows, but I think this is a great show because we're getting some real feedback and our viewers ask questions and they're getting there, you know, on any subject. You know we call it a council meeting. Of course it's not on the agenda. They can't talk about it. So I want to welcome out the Mayor of Burbank here, nick Schultz.
Speaker 4:Oh, thank you guys. I'm glad to be back. I'm assuming this is your favorite show, because I'm here right.
Speaker 2:There you go. Absolutely, I really enjoy the whole process, you know, and I enjoy the information. You know, I think it's, you know, it's great.
Speaker 4:Well, and I just want to thank you guys for the opportunity, then we'll get right into it. But I love it because, as much as you know, you and the public feel constricted by those three minutes at council. I mean, I do too. I mean it's only three minutes for me to hear you and this is such a great conversational way to talk about the issues. I just love that you open up this platform to the Mayor, you know.
Speaker 3:I hear from people all the time. They want to know what's going on in Burbank and who's the best source to hear from other than the Mayor. You know of our city council, who gives us your time to come in and try to share, answer people's questions. We have questions today that people have emailed. People want to know and they don't always see you walking down the street and I know a lot of people interrupt you when you go to the market by eggs, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:You know. But here is, you know, kind of a little different.
Speaker 2:And plus you're not restricted by the Brown Act, so you can actually answer questions and the city attorney, which is not in the room, you know that evil eye is saying not on the agenda.
Speaker 4:Oh, you know, I just always, he's just doing his job.
Speaker 2:We know that.
Speaker 4:He definitely is.
Speaker 3:I will say Joe, last week, every week he sits, he's a real reserve and if you know Joe, I have for 18 years he's been here, real quiet guy but he knows his job well and last week a couple of times that jumped out, oh yeah, he knows city.
Speaker 2:He knows the city and he knows the history of the city too, and that remembers things.
Speaker 4:Well, and I'll start us off by answering an unasked question. A lot of people have asked me in the last couple of years how I always seem so prepared and how I do, I think, a decent job. I work really closely with our two employees. I mean, not a day goes by where I'm not in some form of contact with Joe or Justin Hess, our city manager, and I think that that's the recipe for success for anybody on council. You have got to use those resources that we have right there. I mean, joe is one of the sharpest legal minds in the region and Justin has proven to be a very capable city manager.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, justin knows the city as good as probably anybody there is and always responsive, always responsive to anything. He's concerned about the city. He might not live here, but he is concerned. You know what goes on and that's how everything operates. So people Craig and I always joke people will walk up to their light switch, turn it on and the lights go on. But we have a pretty run. You know, today, trash, day, trash got picked up. Please, you know, get knocked down. So that's right and it's all. He's the manager.
Speaker 2:Well, let's start off with kind of an overall question before you can do our rear questions, kind of what you know. What you're just saying, ross, is. So we're kind of middle of the storms right now. In fact, we have another storm coming in this next weekend, on Sunday. How's the city holding up during these times? Have you heard any problems or anything going on with storms that you know people should know about? Or you know something happens? You know who should they contact? Should they use the 311 app? What's up?
Speaker 3:Well, it's funny. Before you answered that, I saw that you replied to somebody on Twitter. You had a conversation with the head of water and power. I mean, you're into social media and today you have to be. We have found that 10 years ago. Why did we switch from print media? We were doing together to digital. And what's that?
Speaker 4:It is. So, yeah, I mean I'll just say the state of the city is very strong, even during these storms. There's a lot of precautions that we're taking. You know, in general you can expect the hiking trails to be closed, but you know, and Eric Baumgartner, our emergency management services director, I mean every single storm he is providing the council with regular updates throughout the day. He's actually patrolling the community to make sure that there's no signs of trouble. We have crews working around the clock to continue to provide services. So I would say we're doing a really darn good job of weathering the storms together.
Speaker 4:There was an issue yesterday, over the weekend right, there was a temporary power outage. We had about a little over 1100 water and power customers that were without power, but crews worked to get power back online almost immediately. And to your point, ross, I should say almost immediately. It was a couple hours, so there was inconvenience, but we weren't talking days and days of blackouts. And to your point, ross, joe Lillio, our interim general manager, who's like on week two of his job, I mean, I had residents calling me, texting me, asking me what was going on. I picked up the phone and Joe answered and within five minutes in one case we already had the power back on for that. Resident Joe has really stepped up and is doing a phenomenal job.
Speaker 3:Well, caller ID. When it says Nick Schultz, he says, oh, maybe they're going to hire me. I better take this off.
Speaker 4:If only I had the hiring power. No, we have a really exceptional staff, and so all city employees.
Speaker 3:You know I go to the breakfast. I'm around quite a few of the city employees. They care about this city. They don't a lot of them and we'll joke about it sometimes. They'll come in for a paycheck. They'll work their job, leave nine to five. But you know I talked to so many people that you know when you work for somebody you love your job. That's true. And these guys and gals in the middle of the rain are climbing up a power pole to fix somebody's. You know, lights it just.
Speaker 4:I couldn't agree more, and I know we have some questions from the viewers, so we'll get to it. But I just want to add one more thing. I mean I think we're really lucky in Burbank. I mean we are a full service city, everything from our own police, fire, we have a hospital here in the city, our own water and power department, and the employees that we have attracted and we've retained, I mean they are the very best of the best. There's a reason that Southern California Edison consistently tries to poach our linemen, our folks at water and power, because they are really the best in the industry. And I think what you're going to continue to see from this council is we're committed to doing what it takes to retain those employees, because that quality is not easy to find, and that is why Burbank is such a special place.
Speaker 2:And I know that we've raised our rates a little bit last year in this coming year, but I think we're still below most other cities as far as rates go to.
Speaker 4:We are, and I mean I would just say we're mindful of the the increase, the annual increases, on those in our community, especially those with fixed incomes. But you're right, even with those increases we're still very competitive in relation to Pasadena and Glendale and Los Angeles. So we're going to try to maintain that balance, keep competitive rates as much as possible and build that infrastructure. So, as you always like to say, ross, you know when you hit the light switch lights will turn on and if there is an outage, you know it'll be fixed that day.
Speaker 3:Well, you know it's. It's funny you say that because they, the studios. Good example. Oh yeah, why do the studios want to, production companies want to open up here in Burbank? You dial a three digit number if they have to and you're guaranteed to see, guaranteed to see a police officer within three minutes. You dial 911, you're not put on hold, that's right. You're going to see a fire truck or paramedics and that's why do a lot of people like to come do business here.
Speaker 4:Yep, Yep, and when? To your point, Ross and I can say this from you know, over the course of the last year spending some time outside of Burbank too, we take it for granted. I mean, we call, we call 911 and someone picks up and they respond super quickly. You know, you live in like the Anay Sherman Oaks area. You don't always get someone picking up the phone after six o'clock at the substation.
Speaker 3:And I will say I'm Craig and I are both very happy that you guys signed a new contract with the police department. Thank you, the fire department was waiting for a long time and they got what they wanted.
Speaker 4:That's right.
Speaker 3:The fire department. You've done a lot of things to retain. And now this you know if you want to come to work here, we're going to give you a bonus. We're going to give you days, extra days off.
Speaker 2:People don't realize we're not losing experience People anymore either, which is very good, yep. So let's start with our first question. It's a little long of a question and it's been talked about before, but it seems like a lot of people, until they actually see it with their eyes, they just don't pay attention. So this is from John and he wants to know why did Burbank just eliminate 50% of the road space on all of between third and country club road?
Speaker 2:I think it's country club drive actually making the making the road one lane and forcing traffic to drive right next to the park cars now puts drivers in danger who are parallel parking, getting out of their cars on all of. Plus, there is now giant unused road space in, I should say, on all of. I'm just, I just copy and pasted a little letter. Plus there's now giant unused road space on all of. And yet more congestion and traffic. Why would we ever increase traffic on a road in LA County? And then he goes on to say if the issue is racing, arrest the racers and don't punish the average citizen, including new high school drivers. We're not worried about safety. You know and I guess we're under people are not worried about safety while driving. So that's his question and why don't you talk about what's going on on all of between? Yeah, it's between Glen Oak's and sunset, right?
Speaker 4:Hey, dodger, I'll get off the camera here. You are so cute. Yeah, you want to sit. Stay, hang around for this answer.
Speaker 2:Dodger Dodger cam here set up for him too. It's once in a while, oh I love that.
Speaker 3:Well, you guys, you know I brought a backup. I brought this up, yeah, November, when they, when Ken, put out a public works that it was going to be done.
Speaker 4:That's right and so I think you know. So, john, if you're listening, or when you listen, let me give you a little bit of history on what's happened and then obviously we can go into a deeper conversation from there. So this is not a recent decision of the city council. This is actually a long term project that was contemplated in the complete our streets pro plan that was adopted by council before I joined. So this has been in development for a long time. We are hearing concerns of the community and we're certainly actively taking feedback to talk about adjustments to that project. But, in a nutshell, the concept of the project is and this is nothing that's new we have for years known about racing and exhibitions of speed on the hillside At least that's that's what our traffic team and everyone tells me and so obviously we're looking at ways that we can combat that now.
Speaker 4:Enforcement is one of the many tools that we have, but you can't have a cop on every corner. You can't hand out a speeding ticket to every person who is speeding, nor would you necessarily want that. And education you know we've talked about in the last couple of years grassroots organization. Together we can, partnering with Burbank PD to educate our high school students about the dangers of speeding. That that's great to do, but roadway design is also a really critical component. The data shows that if you can slow down traffic, you know, hopefully people exercise better judgment. They're able to respond to changes in the roadway because they're paying more attention to it, and I think that's really where the project was born from. It's very much a pilot, if you will, in looking at how can we redesign our roads to be safer. But, as I said, you know we're gathering feedback and we're looking at whether this is the right configuration.
Speaker 2:It's not a done deal. You're going to study it after a year or something, say is this working or not working? Well, you know it's funny.
Speaker 3:Every time the lieutenant from traffic gets up there from a former he says it's a three years. You know, like you said, enforcement, education and engineering. Yeah, engineering you can't do overnight. It takes a while to plan. They just can't go out there with a paintbrush and do it when people were complaining. So that is one. Enforcement is another. This now gives them. You know they keep the motors will work it if there's a problem. And I think everybody is counting the number of accidents. You know on all of and I will say I drove it the other day because I wanted to see. I lived on all of for 10 years, so I know how the traffic gets on a between four and seven o'clock it's a race track. Yeah, it won't be anymore. Exactly People that live there. You can walk your dog up the sidewalk, yep, and feel safe that when you get to a cross street you're not going to get mowed down for many years.
Speaker 2:One stop sign. That was the Kenneth, that was it. Only one stop sign on all of.
Speaker 3:And I didn't notice one of them Totally different. The first one I've ever seen in the whole city is a stop sign that has red lights around it.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:I saw that and boy, you see that yeah that's new. I've never seen that in the whole city.
Speaker 2:So, so, john, give it a year and they're going to look at it and you know I'm sure they want your opinion, you know they want to hear from you. So give it a year and see what you still think you know. But what we're talking about all of, let's talk about restriping on San Fernando. Yeah, okay, and that was approved, I think about six, eight months ago by the council. So once you get a trial period, yes, you know, first they thought, well, we should be closed down. And we're talking about San Fernando, between Angelino and Magnolia, and they're saying, should we close the street completely? We used to have the Golden Mall, which never worked, but the quality of stores back then also wasn't what it is now. So the one option was closing completely, or the other option was to go one single lane in one direction. So they're about ready to start that.
Speaker 3:So let me just interject. As I have said many times, people always complain. Why did you ever tell me that this was coming? We ran articles on it. Public Works, our PIO office, has put out numerous things. They say it's coming, it's coming, it's coming. In two weeks, Yep, around March 1st, we're going to see light signals changing direction, changing slanted parking spaces, moving, go ahead and it's coming, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:So the thing that the public needs to know is that, beginning the night of March 3rd and continuing through March 6th, we're going to be doing some work on San Fernando. It's now going to be a northbound one direction lane from Angelino towards Magnolia, so if you were driving towards the mall, that's the direction you'd be going. We're not eliminating any parking spaces. So, to the extent that there were concerns from the business community, we're keeping the same number of spaces intact. But avoiding that two-way directional traffic is actually going to reduce opportunities for pinpoint accidents, collisions, interactions with motorists. I mean it creates a slower, safer street because we have one direction of traffic. But to your point, craig, it's a one-year pilot. We're very much going to be gathering feedback and input from the business community, from folks that live there, shop there, and then we're going to see what makes sense in the long run.
Speaker 4:Maybe it's reverting it back to two lanes of traffic, maybe it's keeping the one directional permanent, maybe we'll be talking about whether or not there's an appetite for a permanent closure. But what we know is that with our existing roadway design we have a. You know, we're overall a very safe community. We, relatively speaking, have a lower rate of collisions and accidents than almost any of our neighbors. However, there's always room for improvement and, as the council talked about last January when we were talking about our Vision Zero initiative, our goal is to achieve functional zero. We don't want to see any collisions and fatalities on the road. And going back to the heart of John's question, it's a balance. You have to balance the convenience of the motorist who wants to go where they want to get where they're going relatively quickly, but we also have to balance the needs and the concerns of pedestrians and bicyclists and it's community. It's working together and finding that right balance.
Speaker 2:You weren't in Burbank during the days of the Golden Mall like we were. The city did not maintain the property at all. All the fountains broke, there was weeds, there was trash everywhere and there's a homeless business. Start moving out. It was a disaster. But now pieces like the Third Street Promenade, which is a closed street, have been very successful. So maybe we're just ahead of our time back then and maybe it might be something for our future. But I'm willing to take the old out of my mind and look at you know, because it's amazing. When I drive up, let's say, magnolia, and I stop at San Fernando, every time that there's pedestrian crossing I see 20, 30, 40 people cross that street on every signal. There's a lot of people walking up there every single day.
Speaker 3:I'm going to bring that up. I remember I'm old when First Street was one-way traffic before the mall went in. Many years ago it was one-way traffic and they put it to two-way traffic. But with the new developments on First Street, the two new buildings the second one's getting moving along pretty rapidly there's a lot of people that are going to be walking and I don't think people realize your cars.
Speaker 3:Now, if you're not listening to, you know map, turn here, turn there, or you know you're listening to music. You have all these things that are interrupting and taking your mind. People need to slow down. That's the complete streets main idea.
Speaker 4:And again, it's hard to say these fatalities in other cities, burbank, we've had our share, yeah, we have, and this is what we're trying to eliminate Exactly because, let's say, I don't have the exact data offhand, but let's say that hypothetically we have a 20 incidents a year, compared to our nearest neighbor at 30. You could look at it and say, well, we're 10 less than the other guys, so that's good, but shouldn't the goal be zero?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're 20 more than we should. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Exactly, we want to achieve that functional zero, and that's you know, and a lot of this started, I will say, with your prior counsel, sharon Springer, who was a walker. Oh yeah, long answer. She was a good example that I remember her saying. I've walked with her and she just hated it was unsafe and so downtown, with it being moved around and changed.
Speaker 3:I think you know, and, like you said, it's the only trial. I know there's a lot of businesses along San Fernando who the hell thought of this dumb idea. Folks, relax, you know I always I say to some people what was your biggest problem six months ago? You know, in three weeks are they gonna remember that there was two way traffic going down San Fernando. But we'll see For me who drives around quite a bit you're gonna have to get used to it.
Speaker 4:We will, and the last thing I'll say on this is that you know we have to recognize that we inherit, in the 21st century, a city that was very much built around the automobile. We're now trying to update our infrastructure so that it's a city that is equally accessible Ross right For those who are walking and biking, and so that does take change and it takes time, but I think that at the end of the day, we got a great folks on our staff as part of our traffic engineering team. We're doing the outreach to our community and I think we'll get it right If people just give us the feedback and give us the time to experiment and adjust and incorporate that.
Speaker 2:They're trying new things.
Speaker 3:That's right. You know a lot of people don't? People down here in the valley of those flatlanders, as they call them, don't get uptown. They probably don't know that there's ballards, ballards now on front street in front of the new yeah, apartments up there, condos for bike lane that you can come off the sidewalk and bikes are protected. A lot of people you know. You see it in other cities. I don't think they've gone up there to see Some of the things are moving along, you know.
Speaker 2:So what we have to work on is the basically all of and Magnolia Overpasses is most unsafe.
Speaker 3:Not only unsafe.
Speaker 2:And that sidewalk has a railing only three feet high, so you might go right over the railing.
Speaker 3:Well, there's no money in the to do that right now.
Speaker 2:I was scared to ride my Schwinn Stingray back in the 60s and 70s. Over that I was scared. I used to walk over it. Yeah, I used to walk.
Speaker 4:You're one brave soul to do that Exactly.
Speaker 3:You get up top there on a windy day. Oh, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Well, we'll be on to Cynthia. Now we have kind of a hot button topic and you probably can't talk a lot about this because it's kind of before the council right now and I think you're ready to do a get a second step on it soon. But Cynthia wants to know, after going to a landlord tenant commission meeting and being told there was nothing they could officially be done for me, and after watching the city council being last week, what can Burbank do to protect the renters before we are forced to move away?
Speaker 4:That's a phenomenal question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a tough one Because and in all honesty, you're talking about water and power going up 9%, right, or whatever it was and if you're going to raise a rent I mean landlords you pay that water and power usually I mean. So that's why rents sometimes is their cost is going up, taxes in the county go up property, so that's their side. But on a renter's side, on a fixed income boy, all of a sudden, oh yeah, and Burbank has no rent control, yeah, they have to rely on the state. So what do you tell? What's the answer to this one? Yeah, well.
Speaker 2:Here's the solution here, mayor.
Speaker 4:I'll give you one council member's perspective. I mean, cynthia, first of all, I would just say thank you for reaching out and I'm sorry that you found the landlord tenant commission meeting to not be very helpful. I can tell you that we are looking at the future configuration of the commission and whether it's really operating as efficiently as it could right now, and I think there's plenty of reason to suggest that maybe it would be better complemented, or even replaced, if you will, with. One thing that Joe McDougal actually mentioned at the last council meeting was his concept of some sort of like a housing enforcement position or section with the city attorney's office. So stay tuned on that. But look, I mean I've talked about it before.
Speaker 4:I think the affordability crisis is the single biggest problem facing Burbank and to your point, craig, I mean it's all the way around. Everybody's dealing with higher tax rates. They're paying more at the pump, cost of groceries are higher, utility rates are higher, and sure, a lot of those costs are borne by our housing providers. On the other hand, our renters too. I mean rent can go up. Under Assembly Bill 1482, the state rent control law for qualifying properties, it can go up by 10% in theory this year. It's about what? 8%. When you factor in CPI plus the 5%, my wages aren't going up 8%, so it's a problem. But I think that the way through this together is this is not the time to point fingers. Look, we need housing providers, we need especially mom and pop housing providers in the city and tenants to come together and define consensus and I think we are, and I know that this has been an issue we've debated a long time on the dais and we're gonna-.
Speaker 2:There's no easy solution here. There is no easy solution.
Speaker 4:No, but I am seeing consensus around a couple of things. Again, just speaking for myself, I think what I'm seeing the consensus surround is that when somebody is facing an eviction, we wanna make sure that they land on their feet. We don't wanna see them all into an unhoused situation and not speaking for everyone but I've certainly heard a lot of not complete consensus but some agreement on the idea that one month's rent is not enough in many instances for relocation assistance. I mean when you have to have put first and last month down as a deposit and you have moving expenses and they're done that Exactly. So last year, late last year, we passed our tenant protection ordinance, which I think is just the first iteration of this and you fund it.
Speaker 2:how much did you fund that for?
Speaker 4:Oh, that was actually our-.
Speaker 2:It was up for no fault, no false evictions or something I know you funded a program to help we did, and has that program been used up already?
Speaker 4:Not all of it, no, and I believe we're still accepting applications.
Speaker 2:Sorry to get you off track there, but I thought this is what you were talking about.
Speaker 4:Got it. So there's a couple of things we have done and then I'll talk about where we are going. So last year we made city funds available to help with that relocation for those in a certain qualifying period. So if you were a tenant and you were facing eviction because your landlord wanted to do a substantial remodel, you could come and supplement the one month's rent that you get from the housing provider with up to two additional months rent through city funding. Then after that we ended the program because we changed our code. We actually do have a local eviction protection ordinance, the Tenant Protection Act. Now it only deviates from state law in one regard right now, and that is it says when you're facing eviction because of a substantial remodel or renovation, the property owner does need to pay you those three months of rent. So that was a change that we did last year.
Speaker 4:There is that second step report coming and I think the questions that, if I can summarize it correctly, I think the things that the council wants to study are as follows Should we look at an adjustment to the rent cap different from what state law provides, the five plus five for a total maximum 10% that I talked about? The second line of inquiry would be should we have expanded relocation assistance for other causes for eviction? Or some jurisdictions have just outright said we're gonna deviate from state law and these three reasons are not grounds to evict somebody under our code. So those are questions we have to look at. We also have to look at how we better provide legal assistance and guidance and just other in general resources to both our housing providers and our tenants, who right now are very much struggling to really find out what their options are and what to do, and the landlord tenant commission hasn't really been able to give them the guidance that they need.
Speaker 2:They're really good people. They really try. I think they're frustrated too with the fact they really can't do anything to help them 100%, I mean.
Speaker 4:I think they certainly mean well, and so what I would say, cynthia, is that I know that it's saying give us a little bit more time to find the right answer is never the answer that I want to share or that you probably wanna hear, but we as a council very much wanna get the right solution for our community and I know I'm gonna jump ahead a little bit, but I think when we were talking offline, one of the things you guys were gonna ask and we can talk more about later but what if I could accomplish one thing in 2024, what would it be? To find a solution to this problem, a lasting solution to how we balance that interest of appropriately regulating the rental market, providing for tenants but also working with our housing providers in a way that doesn't price them out of operation in Burbank. If we could tackle this issue over the coming eight, nine months in my tenure as mayor and come to a good solution, I would call that a job well done.
Speaker 2:I'd call it a huge, a huge step. That's the goal. I mean, everybody here is either a renter or they're a property owner. It's one or the other. So one of the things people who are being evicted because they're gonna do upgrades to the property and all these things I think there's something in place saying they can't do that until they've filed and they've got the permits and all the things through the city to show the work they're doing. Well, we're gonna paint the building and then they never paint the building, they don't do any permits or anything else. I think they should prove they have all the permits, everything else, before they're allowed to.
Speaker 4:And I'm glad you brought that up, craig because that is not required by state law and that is now a requirement under the Burbank tenant protection.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's a great protection. Yeah, so I remember you guys talking about it. I couldn't remember you guys passing about that or not, but I think that's an important thing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I think we could do a better job of getting that information out there, because I think property owners, housing providers are concerned about what could be coming, and I think that we need to do a better job of listening to their perspective and inviting them to the table to brainstorm. At the same time, though, I think that tenants can often feel like they're not being provided for, and we need to do a better job of saying it's not that we have done nothing. We actually have done some really good things to address the problem, but the work is also not yet done, because I still think there's just a lot of uncovered ground in those conversations and, look, you're not gonna get everyone happy. I mean, I understand that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a property owner side, but I've known Ross for so long and I've watched what Ross has gone through as a tenant and that's what really I started looking at the other side of the coin.
Speaker 3:I lived in a place that Landlord kicked out myself, evicted me. I lost, you know. I went to court to try to fight it. I paid a Burbank attorney, you know a retainer, and he goes to court and he says I won't go in there. You have to go in there. The lawyer wasn't even there. I lost a security deposit. I lost a cleaning fee, a dog deposit, several thousand dollars. The guy that lived above me in there 28 years and all of a sudden it was you guys are both out of here Cause I want to flip the place and charge triple.
Speaker 3:You know one of the things you said and I listened people need to realize our city attorney can't make decisions and work for the people. They work for you. That's correct, yeah, and a lot of people don't, you know, sometimes realize he wants to give the an authentic mission a little more teeth, but there's a lot more to it than just going. You know you're, you're good and so forth. I did hear that. And the other one. I got a pattern on the back. Miss Leland, yeah, yeah, She'd been with the city in many years. She knows the housing laws better than I think, and if there's anybody that will give you her card and listen to you. She's one in that, the firm that really so I had. I went to the Landlord commission and one commissioner did call me and try to help me, and so that's why I was a little frustrated, and so I'm. I've had the experience Well and.
Speaker 4:And so to your point, ross, you know, craig, when you were pitching the question we talked about what are those points of agreement? I do think there's a couple of things. First of all, to your point, ross, I hear the same thing from both sides Landlords and tenants don't really feel like they have a good, trusted, reliable source to go to when they need help or assistance. So we should be tackling that. How do we give assistance to both sides? More information, more, more walking through the process, cause there's nothing scarier.
Speaker 4:Right Then, like when you're risking losing your housing, or what if you have someone who's really damaging the property and you don't know how to get them out? Like they need answers and the city attorney's office is really not the right place because his job, joe McDougall's job, is to advise the council legally. So we need to find a better, lasting solution that actually supports the community. And the other thing I'll briefly say is again finding those areas of common ground. I think that if you polled most of Burbank, regardless of their feeling on Measure RC, which is a relic of the past, or rent control more generally, most people would agree that out of town LLCs and corporations scooping up Burbank property and flipping it and evicting the tenants is probably not a good thing. So how do we guard against that? I think there is a lot of common ground here that we can work with.
Speaker 3:Well, it's nice that we have a lot of mom and pops that back when Lockheed was going heavy and they bought a couple of houses, all those duplexes on Hollywood Way, those are owned by former Lockheed employees that bought one, bought a second one as their nest egg and their landlords. And you wanna keep that, because those little mom and pops are the ones that don't up your rent high, high, you know, and then make it so you can stay here.
Speaker 2:Well, stay tuned. Second step committee council. More decisions to be made.
Speaker 4:Oh, and actually sorry, greg. One last thing. So, cynthia, if you're still listening I know that was a long answer here's the timeline that we've talked about. So, in terms of the landlord tenant commission, what we might wanna supplement or replace it with the time to do that's gonna be budget season, that's May, and so that second step report where we're talking about what does the future of you know rental regulations and tenant protections look like in Burbank? That's gonna be slated to come back in April. So this is not something. Oh, we'll visit it in eight, nine months. We're gonna be talking about next steps relatively soon. So if you have thoughts on what you think we should be doing, if you have identified deficiencies in the system, if you will, now is the time to be reaching out to me and all the members of council share it Like. We wanna hear from you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fiscal year starts July 1st, not January 1st, so you guys are in a different year when it comes to you know what you guys, you know proportion and where it goes and approve.
Speaker 4:That's right?
Speaker 2:Well, let's move on to a totally different area here, larry C. Okay, how is Burbank going to meet the additional need for car charging stations? Booster always build up and they are not easy to find. And I gotta tell you this is a question I've had too. It's like, yeah, just recently, you know, even with prop I mean SB9 and 35 projects, and that these buildings filled with, you know, 50, 60 units and within five to 10 years everybody has to have an electric car. How are they gonna charge all those cars? Actually, that one's not even gonna park, but I wouldn't get into that. But, but I mean, charging cars is gonna become a more and more, you know, and I don't know if the infrastructure is set up for that, to do that you know it's not yet.
Speaker 3:Well, you know that's a good question. I wanna clip onto that. Have we thought our police department's in the same boat? Those cars that they drive are gonna have to be different in charge. There is no charging up the police station, I don't believe, for either employees or police cars currently. Are we thinking 2035? Are we thinking 2030? Are we thinking?
Speaker 2:2028? See, that's why I don't like the 2035 plan, because back when they adopted, there's no such thing as electric cars and all that stuff. I always think the plan should be a 10-year plan, never a 25-year plan, because-.
Speaker 4:It's ambitious.
Speaker 2:Things change very fast in our society now. Yeah, so what I do, I will answer him.
Speaker 3:if you have an electrical vehicle, you can go on, and everybody has a cell phone, because that's how you activate the chargers. But they. There's a map of Burbank and Burbank has put that out. That's how you can find it. But when they're all full, then what do you do? I thought they also show where they're available. Okay, because that's all part of that.
Speaker 2:I know Tesla's built a bunch of the town center.
Speaker 3:Right, tesla's done it there at their place on San Fernando. Yeah, but we now have that new one across from. You know where the library is, but if we take and destroy that block, we're gonna have to find a new one for that.
Speaker 2:I'm sure we'll figure that one out.
Speaker 3:But I just you know like he's right Not to interrupt your question, but that's kind of what I mean.
Speaker 2:We're gonna have an issue there down the line, I think.
Speaker 4:Well, we very much do, and I can tell you that when Don Roth Lundell was with us, mr Allredi, I mean when we would go back on. In fact, next week, by the way, I'll be joining the council remotely because I'll be in DC with Joe Lillio and our water and power team advocating for money for these kinds of things. It was something that Don and I always bonded over. Look, I want to electrify the entire city fleet to the extent that we can. We're always gonna have a need for emergency vehicles and backup. You know gas combustion engine options, but in general, right, we want to electrify everything. We have the governor's mandate that's going to end the sale of gas combustion vehicles here and, well, you know, pretty soon coming quick. So the answer to your question, craig, no, we don't have the infrastructure built out yet, but the follow-up answer is yes, it is something that we're thinking about. Over the coming decade, you're gonna see water and power really build out its electric vehicle charging infrastructure, including, to your point, ross. We're gonna answer those questions about how do we electrify our police fleet, our fire fleet. All of this is gonna take an incredible amount of money and resources, and so if folks are ever wondering why is Nick or whoever follows after me like why are we always back in Sacramento and DC lobbying? Because we need money to do this?
Speaker 4:And even at that scale, we're still gonna have to look at those private partnerships right. We're gonna have to look at the Teslas and the Tesla alternatives out there, the more union-friendly alternatives too, to figure out where can we partner. We have other downtown parking lots, for example. Can we go in on a project together? I know Tesla approached the council about this, maybe like a year ago. Maybe they add a certain number of charging units and they subsidize our creation of additional public units available. So I'm not gonna tell you that we have the entire map to build out all 20,000 charging stations or whatever it's gonna be yet, but it is something that we're actively working on and talking about rates going back to that. All of that comes at a cost, because we have to be able to generate more power. We have to be able to supply that power. Electrification is expensive, and so add that on top of our climate mandates of getting off of oil and gas. That's where those pressure points come in.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you something with the Friest. We all call it Friest Project. We're not sure the official name is. Everybody knows about the Friest Project, but we put things in place as a city. That says that these developers have to start planning out for things like electric charging, state and these new huge developments, because that's gonna be. I mean, what's built is built, but what has been built yet? I think we need to think about how we fix that.
Speaker 4:That is a million dollar question, craig, and the answer is yes. So later this year we're gonna be talking about the Golden State-specific plan, which would include where the Friest is. We'll be talking about the Media District-specific plan, which actually includes where I live. So I can't talk about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's not where I live, though, because I'm media adjacent here For two blocks. It doesn't exist where we are, and I don't understand why.
Speaker 4:Who knows where they right?
Speaker 2:We're always kidding about that, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they draw the lines where they do. But no to your point. When we're talking about these specific plans and we're creating development standards and we're offering concessions for certain community give-backs, the point is over the course of the coming year, that is the time to be looking at how are we gonna require and or incentivize developers to help us build that infrastructure that we very much need? And, to be fair, if the Tzallaria project we're built today right, or some equivalent to it, and you're gonna have people shopping at the grocery store, they're gonna want electric vehicle charging station too. So there is mutual benefit by working together. But the development of these specific plans is really gonna chart the course for how we require and or incentivize it. So those meetings are gonna be long. They might see boring, if you will, to the outside observer. They are incredibly important to charting the community's growth.
Speaker 2:Infrastructure is always boring to people, but it's the most necessary thing and for planning all that we're gonna do Exactly.
Speaker 3:Well, okay, coming up the 27th you're gonna be talking about an SB35 project and I don't know how much you can talk about because it's on the future agenda of where, next to Tzallaria Whole Foods, that little was called a triangle Craig and I remember it as a shell station.
Speaker 2:Many, many years ago.
Speaker 3:And then after that, a pumpkin patch. Yes, and when my son was about three, ended up on the front page of newspaper holding a pumpkin.
Speaker 2:Now we call it the Bob Hope property.
Speaker 3:Right now, the Bob Hope property, but that is a good one. Now that one he changed from office building that was prior. I remember when that was supposed to be a 19 story building, went down to six and now it's an SB35 project. But he does worth, does a lot of projects and has a ton of property in town. I would hate to see the city. Well, we'll give you credit on building here like they did. No offense portos.
Speaker 3:You know fries, they gave them a ton of money, not cash, but you don't have to pay In centers, in centers, you know, and that's what I'm just wondering are we gonna, because that's a, you're gonna have a ton of cars in that new project, but again the studios around here, the new ranch, and now I know that's? I've looked at a lot of that and here, heard what's going in there. They're thinking green and what is it called? The platinum buildings, and he's building that lot. So it's very efficient.
Speaker 2:Lead buildings or something Right right.
Speaker 3:And the thing is he gonna have enough Chargers in that parking structure that he's putting For the people that are going to be working there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's Absolutely, I mean. And so to your point, I mean you know. So back to the question from Larry, I mean what I would say is it's a combination of all the above. We are looking at publicly building enough EV infrastructure to provide because not everyone has a Tesla, is going to go use the Tesla charger, and we're also going to be working with our developers. Like I said, we're going to require it to the extent that we can and we're going to incentivize, you know, if they want, you know, an exception to the code, right, like there's always opportunity for that. How do we incentivize it?
Speaker 4:Well, one of the community give backs backs could be building EV infrastructure. I mean, there's obviously a package of things that we probably want to extract for them and we're going to be limited to your point, ross, under SB 35, you know we don't necessarily have the leverage that we once did, but the extent that we still do it's in those development standards, it's in those planning documents. So that becomes really really critical to not just think about the here and the now, but what Burbank is going to need 20 years from now. And, by the way, this is beyond the scope of the question. Same goes with police, fire and paramedics. We got to be thinking about how we grow all those service providers because we hear the number of calls going out every day we need another paramedic van.
Speaker 2:We really do, because we're going to all the time into Burbank now. In fact, even fire stations I think we probably need. There's one fire station for this entire media district down here and Exactly, you know, I mean they do a great job. I've never, never, criticized whatsoever, but you know there's only so many to go around, that's right.
Speaker 3:And personnel and burnout and everything else that goes with it. Yep, Well, you know.
Speaker 2:The next question I'm going to let Craig Okay, this is a hot topic Okay this is all me, you know, because I last month. I have a drum roll in this. Well actually we do.
Speaker 3:And this is all going Okay.
Speaker 2:So last month I wrote a very strong opinion piece about Tin Horn Flats and the city. I was all for what the city did and you were telling people some context. The city did not shut down Tin Horn Flats. The city did not Put the rules. It was LA County health laws that the city was just enforcing because they were. They were not, they were not abiding by that the health law. And the city said you know, by the health laws, or we're going to you know, we're not asking you doing special, we're saying but abide by the law. So the whole thing went through. They finally closed down. Owner got arrested three times owner son owner son.
Speaker 2:That's true, the owner's never come back to the United States. And as time went on, we had, you know, we had special council meetings, we a lot went. We had a lot of police and fire responses out there. I had to do freedom of information to actually get the costs and it came around $300,000 that the city spent on the entire Tin Horn Flats I call fiasco. So we go to court and I see, I see we get a press release from the city saying the burning wins the Tin Horn Flats case. I'm going when is it? No, that's not what happened.
Speaker 2:What it was is that all the city sued for was that they couldn't do business in Burbank. And judges, well, they're not doing business in Burbank, so your case mute, there's no, there's no case here. And they sued because they did our First Amendment right to have the you know, to do what we did. And just no, it's not every year. So they lost that. So it's. The city said well, we want our, our expenses. And once again I had to do a freedom of information act to find out that we only asking for around $17,000 in damages. It turns out we were only asking for the damages of that specific set of court things. We're just writing off $300,000.
Speaker 2:And so my question and I you know, here we are and I'm so lucky I have you and it's not, and it's not and it's not you. You do not make these decisions. I don't know if this is it, but I do say the city council why was it decided not to go after them for the $300,000, even if they could get in bankruptcy and not pay the penny but to have the president saying you know they were wrong and they should have had, you know they should have paid? Because I think Ross will tell, will tell you that we did that one time many years ago and went after our property and we foreclosed on it as a city because of the same type of event. But we just basically let them completely off the hook. When they took like $68,000 and in PPP money and $95,000 and go fund me month I mean they're mainly money hand over foot on this thing they're out of business. I get all that. You know nobody wins, but the taxpayers all lost on this.
Speaker 3:Now, before you answer, I got to. I know we're very fortunate you're an attorney. You have learned how to answer this question. I know that. But you're also a city council member and I know your city attorney has probably told you what you can say. But there's negotiation ways and so forth. In this case is now Right and I've seen there's no transparency.
Speaker 2:You never announced to the public that you didn't sue for this, that you never said you I shouldn't say the council never said we're not suing for this, we're not going to let them off the hook. Not a word. And even after that, not a word. So my thing, you know, I always hear the word transparency, transparency, but I don't think anybody. I say I don't get freedom of information to get any information, so kind of what went on with this? Why are we not holding them accountable, even even if it's just on paper?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so you know what I would. Let me kind of start from the from the top there, craig. How do we define success in the whole Tin Horn flat flats fiasco? I hear I hear you about. It costs a lot of money to shut them down and I'll come back to that, but I still would call it a success because let me back up further You're right, nobody wins. Nobody wanted it to come to this point. This was the intentional, repeated conduct of someone who thought that they were above the law and simply didn't have to obey the public health orders that everybody didn't want to but did obey. Ultimately, we're a law abiding society.
Speaker 2:A lot of businesses by doing that, but they did it.
Speaker 4:They did it, everybody sucked it up, and they we are a law abiding community and one person decided to not be. So how do we define success in that case? I still would say it was successful because, at the end of the day not that we wanted it to ever get to that point, but we had someone who was thumbing their nose at authority, who was saying no when public health guidance was telling us what we all needed to do to stay safe in the height of a pandemic, and, yes, at a time when they were jeopardizing public health and the health of all their employees and patrons. We went in there and unfortunately but ultimately we had to we shut them down, and so, in that way, I do think it was a success to show that government can still be effective for those who think that they are above the law.
Speaker 2:I think everybody's with you on that. I think everybody agreed. I said there's a group from outside of Burbank who really came in protested. But I think we all agree with you on that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But we, you know, why didn't we? You know, yeah, reparations on that.
Speaker 4:So you know, I can tell you from my. So there's two parts to the answer. The first is that, at the end of the day, the council hires its city attorney and we hire him or her or them because we trust their judgment. And so, at the end of the day, when an experienced litigator, when experienced city attorney comes in and says this is what I think is the right course for the city, and here's why, to a degree, once the council has sort of talked about it, we have to ultimately take their recommendation or not, right? We either trust our employee or not and the reasons that they're giving. And obviously, as you were mentioning, ross, there's a lot that I can't share because it's in closed sessions. So, but I'm trying to give you a little bit.
Speaker 2:I understand that.
Speaker 4:Yeah. But what I would say, though, is, when you look at the two numbers the $300,000 spent by the city and the only $17,000 in damages that we claimed Part of the reason you're going to see the discrepancy and part of what would be litigated if we had said you know, we want all 300. You're going to have the court balancing these interests of how much of it is truly damages that need to be paid to you versus the operating costs of running a city. I mean, anytime you have a non-compliant business, you assume the risk, if you will like. You're a city, right, you have to assume that enforcement is part of the job, and so you might get some of the money back, but you're going to get into this contentious, protracted battle of, well, how much of it was really unnecessary and how much of it was really just part of being a city and enforcing your own code. That can be very murky. It can be very expensive.
Speaker 2:That's the first thing that I've ever heard this makes sense. That's the first thing I've heard that made sense. I get that. Yeah, I agree with that, and that could have been shared.
Speaker 4:And to the heart of your question, craig. I do think, though, what are the learning lessons from Tin Horn Flats? There's many. I do think that you've hit something on the nose, and that is that sometimes being right isn't enough. How we communicate that information is really critical, and what I can tell you I've learned from this whole process is that giving people simple answers to their questions, telling them what you can and when you can't, explain why you can't share that information, it goes a long way to building trust, and so I apologize that you both found it into a lot of your viewers, too, found it to be such a frustrating process to get those answers, and my hope is is that this will be an exception and not the rule, that what you'll continue to see from the council, from the city manager's office, from our fabulous PIO, our folks that want to give that information out, and when we can't and it's done for strategic reasons that we still give you as much information as we can.
Speaker 2:I don't blame the city attorney whatsoever, because his job is not the council, but to protect the taxpayer too. I mean, that's one of his. He's protecting all of us. Well, you know, I want to interject here.
Speaker 3:I know Joe quite well and he just didn't decide overnight this hour settling this case. He has a slew of good assistant city attorneys that look at case law and they weigh it and that's why when you look at that justice scale, what is it? It's you weigh in it and I guarantee he did his homework, His dude. You know he did. You know, find out, because I remember Amy on a couple of cases that people wouldn't understand why she would answer or go with a decision and even listening to Joe every week, that little brain there is just spinning and to protect it's kind of large brain. Well, it is there we go and he's lost his hair right like I have.
Speaker 3:You know, thinking a lot, but you know it's kind of like police officers. Yeah, you get a ticket. It's not to punish you, it's to educate you. You get a ticket because you've done something wrong. You took your driver's test 30 years ago and you made a right turn on red. Okay, that's a law that you broke. They give you a ticket. Yes, there is some financial slap on the hand to remind you not to do it again, but it's in. Most people think well, cops always give tickets. They're a job is to save lives and that's why and it's the same thing with the city attorney he has to weigh it, and that's what I was told. You know on this one, who was a hard one, I know, Craig, when I called him that day.
Speaker 2:It's just I was frustrated because I couldn't get answers and that was my big frustrations. Why are we not, you know? Why are we just? You know, this is a huge thing and I was sleeping under the rug, kind of thing, and so that's the bothered me, but I I that's why I love the show, yeah and I was like, oh, come on and really explain that and I had never thought of that. You know, perspective, Well, that's very important and you know what? I do accept that.
Speaker 4:Well, I appreciate that, craig, and you know. One other thing I'll just add to it too is, aside from the murkiness and how long it you know it would take to litigate it, part of the thing. But let me give you an example that's not ten horned flats but still very applicable, that I think all of your viewers could probably understand. Let's say somebody sues the city. Let's say it's a frivolous thing, right, like, like we know we're going to win, they're still sunken hard costs. Like, we still have to go to court. It would cost us I'm just going to throw out random numbers, right. But let's say we, we Joe comes to us and say it would cost at least $35,000 to defend this thing and prove we were right.
Speaker 4:The constant balance we have to strike is how much taxpayer money do we want to spend, even though we know we're right, versus we could deal this case away for $10,000 and no, they probably don't deserve it, but we will actually spend more to prove that we're right. I mean, we do that every time, but it's such a nuanced balance and the reason I bring that up is that, as you all you know, watching, listening probably know, I think I'm a pretty smart guy. I mean, I trust my judgment, my instinct. There are very few people whose judgment I really put even ahead of my own at times. Joe McDougal is one of those people. He is so smart, he's so prepared, he's so experienced. I still, you know, guess, I second guess on my question. That's my job. I see common respect between you also.
Speaker 2:Oh, I see a lot of common respect.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, no, I would say if there's one staff member I'm probably closest with professionally, given our backgrounds, I mean Joe and I, we talk, we workshop everything. I mean we spend hours like meeting and talking on the phone, we work these things through. I think I'm a better council member for it and I like to think that he gets a little value out of it too.
Speaker 3:Well, I think, on the Tin Horn case.
Speaker 2:Tin Horn, that's case I'm going to let it go after night two, by the way. I'll let it go now.
Speaker 3:Well, you know. Well, that's what I and I was just going to say. Honestly, I think the decision, you know, the city learned. They learned a lot. It was embarrassment to our city and I think that's what most people were upset about. But they don't understand the nitty gritty Now that it's behind us.
Speaker 2:But now it's been explained. I think I just think we should have explained it better. To start. You know, say here's what happened, here's why we did it Absolutely. And I'm going, I will say this, I'm going to ask this You've got another case coming up. We will not talk about it tonight, but when it comes to district elections and we're I know we're kind of fighting that right now and I know you have a lot of closed session stuff on that and please be transparent, as that's going on, and really let us know what's going on, because I think, once again, a lot of people are supporting the council in the fact we're fighting that.
Speaker 4:So and I will say one thing on that, greg, because I think the public should hear it. I'm certainly not an expert, but I've studied this very well. Plaintiff hasn't met their showing. They have not proven to me that district council elections would be better, and so this is a fight worth making for our community. And unless and until the time comes where we feel that the calculus has changed and we need to go a different direction, that's fine. We'll cross that bridge when we get there, but right now they took us to court. They lost, they didn't make the showing that they have to make now. They could come back, that's fair. But the offer has been open from the beginning the plaintiff. We've invited him to come to council to be part of this process.
Speaker 4:I've invited him to write into us, I've invited to interview him and it makes you wonder which person or persons in our community and we probably know who they are who's really behind the lawsuit? That's probably a whole other article you could write right there.
Speaker 2:I agree 100%. I just don't. I know San Francisco is going through that right now too, so they're going to fight it all. So I heard. But yeah, I don't think one person should not be able to change the city's entire charter and their elections and everything else, and that's kind of what's right there.
Speaker 4:I will say one other thing. I read the complaint. That was probably the most poorly written complaint.
Speaker 2:I have a copy of my computer. I mean wow, it wasn't even factual as far as how Burbank works. It's like it was a form letter yeah.
Speaker 3:You know well probably was right, like they sent us 10 cities or something you know you know, and that's it, that form letter that other cities get right like we did, and who's going to take a bite at us?
Speaker 4:Well, and one other thing, guys. I know we have a few more questions, but you've often heard me say in other contexts, like SB 35, right, this is not a fight that the city can win. If I don't think this is a fight the city can win, now we're down the road. I'll be candid with all of you, and that does become the point where we have to talk about mitigating our losses. I can tell the public right now, based on what I know, this is a fight we can win and that's why we're going to fight it.
Speaker 3:So I'm Wow, and I'm behind you. I think you guys learned On other SB 35 project we lost how much 250,000 in the Pickwick project. You know and I think you know a council, totally different council. Yeah, you know, and I think people need to realize that.
Speaker 2:Well, that's not a lot of thought. He was one of five votes, well, that's true.
Speaker 4:And that's fair. And I'll tell you, former Mayor Jess Talamante's always had a great saying that stuck with me to this day. He always said, and still says, it's okay to be wrong, don't be wrong twice If you're wrong, and you learn from your lesson you'll repeat it Agreed that that's a sign of good leadership.
Speaker 2:Process that to me all the time.
Speaker 4:My wife does too. I'm right there with them.
Speaker 2:We were moving along. We touched on this real fast, you talked real fast. But one of the questions I had was you know what is the key project you'd like to see to come to the accomplished in the next 10 months? You have left as the mayor. So you talked about we talked about rent control. So that's the that's probably the one issue on your on your slate that you would love to come up with, some kind of a permanent, a lasting solution. Yeah, it's gonna benefit everybody.
Speaker 4:I would say so because and I'll just because I partially answered it, I'll be quick. Yes, people bring up the fact that RC was defeated at the ballot box and we're not talking about RC. Rc is dead, it's in the past. But the issue of affordability is finding that right balance between renters, who I mean.
Speaker 4:Look, whether you like the solutions are proposing or not, what they're experiencing is true. People are being priced out of Burbank and displaced. And then you also have the experience on the other side of housing providers who have increasing costs and hardship that's making it harder to operate. Finding a permanent, lasting solution that's not going to please everyone, I get it, but that can work for Burbank and appropriately balance all those interests. So that combination of talking about rental regulations and tenant protections and these resources for both sides to the equation If we can put in place a structure and a framework in the next 10 months, that could really chart the course for the next 25 years of landlord-tenant relations in Burbank. If I achieve nothing else, but we can solve that problem, I would call this year a huge success.
Speaker 2:Not a sex, a sexy topic, but something that's hugely.
Speaker 4:And it impacts almost every single person.
Speaker 2:Either you're an owner or your renter. You know there's no either or. So yeah, in fact some are both, even you know so that's true. Ross, I think you had a question here. You want to kind of delving it, don't you Talking about? Our we talked about last night our weekly podcast.
Speaker 3:We did. You know I involved in Magnolia Park merchants. We put on Holiday in the Park.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:That's us $90,000 to put on and $25,000 and $30,000 of that was street closures and protection. And after the last Rose Parade with some lady tried to drive into the parade and I'm told that whatever we do here in Burbank is gonna cost us more this next year. Burbank on Parade used to be done and it costs a lot of money to put on Burbank on Parade. A lot of functions are getting and I previously I thought it was a city attorney that you know let's give them so many roadblocks, they'll just say we don't wanna do it anymore. But Burbank's a different community. You've learned that real well. We're a real tight community. Holiday in the Park 30,000 people came out and loved it.
Speaker 3:Huge success. Huge and talking to Patrick Prescott that's a big thing for Magnolia Park. It's very successful. We're gonna do it again next year. You know it's probably it's gonna grow, it's gonna change a little, but why is it? You know, you look how other cities do things.
Speaker 2:Why can't we Lots of parades out there? Yeah, you know we'll parade In the Royal Day parade in Cyphervia.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have events where you look at a wood barricade that closes the street and now Burbank has to put up eight barricades that cost $3,000. You know, and it's unfortunate, but for safety I will say our event is very safe. Oh yeah, you know, whatever our police department we go by, we are assigned a police officer and they do a real good job, but we also make sure somebody can't drive into our you know event.
Speaker 3:So I think, you're coming up to mid-year appropriations. We've had to use to go out and they make these laws. We used to have water barricades. Well, most people don't understand. The water that goes in them has to be vacuumed out at the end of the night. You do, it has to be done, vacuumed at night. We have to pay overtime.
Speaker 3:That water can't just be put down in the sewer anymore. It has to be recycled and reused somewhere. But now you can't even use those water barricades because most of them have been skid around the ground and they leak and you can't have that water leaking into the sewer. So now you have to use these meridian metal barricades that are great so you can't drive through them. But you would think that you know, and I know the city bought quite a few of them and hopefully so we can do other things. I know they would like to move Burbank on parade and uptown and put some different things in, but the city is, you know, we have the flat land and it's just a perfect event, like Holiday in the Park, to participate. Thank you, and maybe the city could you know in mid-year appropriations, because they look for the Rose Float.
Speaker 2:I mean I think it's 190,000. That actually gets, you know. We look at the rents of the buildings and all the things that go on. You know they don't give them 190,000, but it's worth, you know, and you know with support and everything else. So I think what Russ can say is why can't we do work on supporting main events that are gonna help 23,000 people, events in the city, not small events. And we're talking like a parade, we're talking Magnolia Park coming up this November, things like that. But I think all this stuff is going away and every time somebody wants to bring it up it says, oh man, they're putting all this stuff on us and we're not getting any help or anything else. And I don't think these groups will try. They all try to raise money and to get sponsors and everything else, but it's like 100% incumbent on them.
Speaker 4:Well, you know. So thank you both. I think you're both spot on, and and Ross to your point. I think that is absolutely the kind of thing that we should be talking about at the mid-year spot. So I know you're very connected with these community groups. If there's a proposal that you guys could get to me in the next 60 days, I mean I'd love to look at it and see because we should, we should.
Speaker 4:It may be talking about how we can use one time money to build a sense of community, because right now I see Burbank very divided and a lot of that's still the remnants of the pandemic. I mean, we were all for what? Two years, you know, in our houses, on our phones. We lost a sense of that community together in this, and I think that we need things like Burbank on parade. We definitely need Magnolia in the park, right. One thing that I even wanted that you're gonna hear me talk about in the budget cycle. I'll see if I get support for it. Little things movie in the park couple times a year at Johnny Carson Park or elsewhere in the city. They're little things and yet they get everybody out there in the head. You know, dead of summer, you got some food carts. It's just a chance to get together and, you know, have some community fun.
Speaker 2:We've got one of the greatest venues in the valley, in the Starlight Bowl that just sits there empty all the time and could just really use some love and some events up there and bring the community to events up. I mean, we have things, we just don't use them. And we don't, it's all gone away.
Speaker 3:Well, I will. I mentioned it last night. There is a couple of stakeholders that I'm meeting with this week. Okay, to talk about Burbank on parade, but to bring it back probably won't happen for a year or two because it takes that long to one pay for it but also to put it together. So it's in the works. I answered some people on Facebook today that would love to see it back and I understand that it takes a lot. I got a pat on the back.
Speaker 3:Joanne Miller, who was the chairman before. He did a great job. I think she's done with it. I think she's. You know she was in it for years. You know we have new kids. We have a council member that marched in parades, you know. You know Nikki played an instrument at John Burroughs High School In the parade and she loved the parade and I understand that and that's why. But you know what I? I don't want to get emotional, but I love seeing that community. You know the kids. You look at Johnny sitting on the curb waving yeah, that's what Burbank is. I totally agree with you.
Speaker 2:You don't want to get emotional, huh, because I know it means a lot. Yeah, I know it means a lot to him Really, because he had a son marched in parades and all that you know, and he always worked on the parade. He works on everything he can in the city, so I know he gets very. You know he's about Burbank. I call him Mr Burbank.
Speaker 4:So Well, and I appreciate both of you, but Ross, I mean you like. You know what I? What I appreciated about it is that Burbank isn't just a place people work and it's not just a place we lay our head down at night. It's those kind of community activities that build memories. You know, it's like. You know I remember when I was a kid I'd go to a parade with my family or with my mom. Those are vivid memories. I hang onto building more opportunities for memories like that in our community. So bringing back Burbank on parade, that would be phenomenal. And I keep going back to my other idea of, like the free movies in the park. It's little things like that.
Speaker 2:Yes, I would love that. I know that you me, Craig, you're for running some movies. Every summer. It was just packed, it was packed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, those are some things you know. Like I said, I am meeting this week and it might take a while, but you know what you got to start somewhere. Yeah, you do. And after the pandemic, which really was tough on everybody, I found Holiday in the Park. People just.
Speaker 2:They were so happy to come out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they were, you know and we have.
Speaker 2:Even I went to it.
Speaker 3:That's right, you know, that's true. Craig went to it. But my Burbank had a booth there, you know, and it's real community and what I find about that is it takes 20 years off people. You know, thank goodness to our friends at Road Kings. You know they bring their cars out and people love that. Yeah, they do. And years ago they had Beep-Op in the park. I don't know if you remember it. They closed Magnolia down.
Speaker 3:They put a big grandstand and had, you know, a band playing going wild and the businesses again. They attracted 40, 50,000 people. It was from day to night. Burbank we are so fortunate Weather-wise that's what they call chamber commerce days. I think the chambers should be involved. You know, let them run the thing instead of you know a group that and, like I said, we have a lot of ideas. Jamie and I have been talking Lifelong Burbank resident.
Speaker 2:So we just like to see the city work with the groups and the red tape kind of gets solved. And if you have a liaison who just only works with the group in all through all departments and said, here, let's streamline this, and that's probably what is, would be the biggest help to them, you know.
Speaker 3:One of the things I put a call in today to marry him, zoane, he's our economic development manager and Magnolia Park, or wherever we put, she thinks of. You know it's a. Magnolia Park is a oh, I forget what they call it a district. But there's also, you know, downtown. They put on a great art show A couple of times a year. They do the wine walk, you know, and that's why I want to see stuff. In a couple of years we're going to have a new airport not new, whatever, it's not new. But it's going to be. You term it a lot.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to say it's new.
Speaker 3:I think people are going to be in awe. I do too, you know, and we're having a drive down. I worked at Warner Brothers Ranch, you know to see the progress over there. What Jeff Worth is doing blows me away.
Speaker 2:He's moving at light speed. Yeah, okay, we're, we're, we're, we're not close to. I want to touch on a couple of things, though, that you're, the council is, and you have worked on this recently. One let's talk about human trafficking. Sure, I noticed something that you know professionally, for you, you've been involved with, and now, through the city of Burbank, you've also come up with a you know a very good, you know resolution. So why don't you talk about you know, why it's important to you and what's on now here in Burbank about human trafficking?
Speaker 4:Yeah. So the brief explanation is that, look, this is not necessarily a surprise. Southern California, burbank included, is a hotbed for human trafficking. State law requires that certain business establishments, for example, like massage parlors right, they have to post a notice that says if you were someone that you suspect is the victim of human trafficking, here's the number you can get help. It's a number you can call. It's a number you can text. The state law also requires that it has to be made available in at least English and Spanish, and then possibly other languages as well, depending on the demographics of your, of your city.
Speaker 3:Real quickly can you interject in their? When you say human trafficking, I think most people get some tunnel vision. Oh, sure On media.
Speaker 2:I'm very naive with it. I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 3:And that's, I think a lot of people are Okay. Yeah, Like you just said, a massage parlor, yeah, that's a good example where they get, you know, traffic. They don't pay these people what they should be paid. They're paying them pennies on what California law says they should be paid.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they're slave labor, yeah, so so. So to back up a little bit, there's labor trafficking and then there's sex trafficking. Those are, those are the two most common forms of human trafficking. So if you're talking about labor trafficking, again, this is just one example. But you might have a situation of someone who is brought to the country on the promise of working on a work visa and instead they're working under the table somewhere. I mean awful conditions, right, you know, 20 hours a week, getting paid nothing, you know pennies on the dollar, all under the table. It's a form of indentured servitude, absolutely, and it very much exists, and you might see them working in almost any context, certainly in someone's home, but even in a business establishment, in the sex trafficking context, you know, you will see people moved or coerced across state and international lines, even sometime. So I mean, the point I'm trying to make is it can be anywhere. You could see it at a bus station, a rail station, the airport, hotels. I mean if you're trafficking someone or you're doing a list of business, you're probably gonna run a hotel or a motel room for that, and so all of these places not only can the activity happen but the people that work at a motel, for example, can be part of the solution, part of that frontline defense.
Speaker 4:So what this ordinance does is it actually expands the list of businesses that are required to post this ordinance. That's the first thing that it does. Second, it contemplates partnership with the Zonta Club of the Greater Burbank Area and the Chamber of Commerce to educate our business community on the requirement to post the notice. It also requires that these business establishments offer a minimum number of hours of training every year on how to identify signs of human trafficking. And then, lastly, I mean, there is a financial enforcement component.
Speaker 4:We hope it never comes to this, but if a business is repeatedly refusing to comply with the law, not requiring the training, not posting the notice under state law, before this ordinance there was no way to enforce it. The question was never answered of well, what is the penalty, financially or otherwise? Who actually enforces it? So this ordinance creates a structure where now the city of Burbank can enforce and collect that money from having to go after someone and enforce this code as is. It's a small change and it went under the radar in a lot of ways, but I think it could do a lot of good for people that might be trafficked in this community and we talk about public safety all the time. There's something that we can do. We all know Gloria Solis. Nobody's more up for the job than Gloria.
Speaker 2:Well, the important we talk about, because I think a lot of people are like they are naive to it and they don't understand. Oh, that doesn't have it here in Burbank, yes, it does. I think we've heard the police calls before at certain hotels in the city too.
Speaker 3:They had Xanta, had a young lady speak at their last and she said when they got off the freeway, off the five freeway, they drove by some hotels and she said she remembers those hotels and it brought tears to person driving them. Thinking it happens in Burbank folks and here's somebody that has been saved and is now a guest speaker but it happens here in Burbank and I've talked to numerous vice officers that have told me they can walk into a couple hotels in Burbank at any time. They can go on their computer, they can go and open up a newspaper. We have an airport, we have a freeway that goes through the town and those hotels that are right off the freeways, some of them, you know, last week there was a picture that appeared I think it was on Facebook or Twitter of a homeless police car next to Jack in the box, A little hotel there that we all know that has been.
Speaker 2:Easy now. We don't want to get ourselves into this trouble.
Speaker 3:We know what you're referring to.
Speaker 2:We had an officer involved shooting out there. Oh yeah, it's not a good place.
Speaker 3:There have been numerous arrests out there and there was somebody shot at the picture the other day and they made some joke that the officers were at Jack in the box. No, they get called to that establishment quite a bit. I know our police officers are down so you don't have as many vice officers working it. In other cities you have officers. You know quite a few. We just can't afford to have vice officers stay in all these hotels and doing that.
Speaker 4:So other ways to catch traffic you expand the net of people that are trained and looking for the first signs of human trafficking, and I want to really compliment it's not just Gloria and Zonta, but the business community, the Chamber too. They've embraced this partnership. When the idea was floated with them, you know, maybe a year ago Gloria and I sat down with Jamie Keizer the only response we got from them was an absolute willingness to do everything that they can to tackle that issue. I think it's one of those really. I mean, less than two months into my term as mayor, starting off 2024, this council accomplished something that we've talked about for years and it might seem like a small victory, but it could do countless good for so many people that we might never know their name, they might not be Burbank residents, but maybe we spare them, maybe we save them from a little hardship that is very much happening in our community.
Speaker 2:I was a teacher and a coach you know 40 years, you know it's been 40 years as a high school coach and we had reporting requirements for child abuse and stuff. If we had any idea it might happen, we had to report by law. And that's a great, that's a great law. And I think this will also be in that same vein, where more now we'll get reported. Hopefully and that's how we're going to stop it is by war eyeballs.
Speaker 4:That's right, 100%, absolutely.
Speaker 2:OK, we got like five minutes left here. There's one more thing that the council just kind of I think it did have done a great job on. We have our sustainable Burbank Commission, which everybody knows I'm a huge fan of, which I think is they don't get enough respect, you know, and they agree they keep getting their meetings sent to different places and and at the same time I won't get into that, but I, that commission, is always on things and they you pass this data ordinance, for Burbank is one of the first communities in California to pass this. So what's your talk? A little about what you guys? Yeah, you. Finally, you know, if I passed second reading, I think the last meeting is the ordinance is now.
Speaker 3:It'll be effective 31 days from that second reading, so it's well, did you notice on Facebook yesterday, even though it was a holiday? Yeah, our recycle center, but that little notice out there, that said it was passed, you know, just letting people know that.
Speaker 2:Yes, we're going to talk about a little what it means to people and what you're going to see, and I got to tell you it's a lot, a lot of moving parts it is, and so it's a little bit confusing of what's a four, what's a five, what's you know? What's you know? What kind of plastic is this? What is? A lot of things that it was like a lot of education, but it will take time, but I think in the long run is is good for the future of our planet.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. So I'll explain the ordinance and I just have a tiny bit of commentary on the end, and we'll do this all in five minutes or less. Ok, so? So the ordinance that passed. It'll be effective technically, I believe, later this month, early next month. I forget when the 31st day is, but here's the deadlines. So, starting July one, beginning of the fiscal year, right? So July one it will no longer the sale of polystyrene, so styrofoam products will now be prohibited in the city of Burbank. So we're finally doing the styrofoam ban that really kicked off this whole conversation.
Speaker 2:That's everybody markets everybody right.
Speaker 4:I believe so, yeah, it's, it's styrofoam, no, no polystyrene, right, and I mean that conversation started with the prior council back in 20.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, and that's that stuff that old styrofoam got right hacking material popcorn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, back in the nuts.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, that stuff Right.
Speaker 2:Back in the McDonald's. You should use those styrofoam containers for their big Macs.
Speaker 4:Yeah that's right. So no more of that starting July one. And then the other thing is the city. We're not requiring this of private business under this ordinance, but the city will no longer purchase single use plastic water bottle starting July one. So we are trying to reduce our own waste. And then, beginning January of 2026, if I'm not mistaken it was kicked out a little bit yeah, because of the rest of 24 and 25. So January one, 2026, that's when the rest of this kicks into effect. So at that point, every business, every restaurant, right, there's no exemption. There was a lot of discussion about whether there should be corporate or fast food, doesn't matter who you are.
Speaker 2:Doesn't matter Food trucks.
Speaker 4:Exactly. You will no longer be able to sell or use a non compostable or non recyclable single use item. What that really means is there's one or two kinds of plastics that are currently recyclable. Forgive me, I forget exactly which ones. I think it was type one and type five. I might be mistaken on that, but essentially, if it's not one of those recyclable softer plastics if you will, then you basically cannot use it, so it would be a be a prohibited item. Usually, if you look at the bottom of the tray or whatever you have, there's a little number inside the recycling triangle That'll tell you the kind of plastic it is. The point is, if you have a question about it and you're listening to this reach out to the recycle center and they can tell you what kind, what number of plastics are recyclable, which ones are not.
Speaker 3:So Watching City Council the other night. Now I understand why our city manager had a plastic water bottle meaning Parkless or whatever he on his desk. He has to use them all up, whatever the city has until July and his time is running out. Yeah, he better start drinking a lot, because I notice everybody else.
Speaker 2:Every takes a lot of restroom breaks during the meetings. We'll know why now. Justin, I'm not throwing the Drinking all the water Drinking all the water you should watch where he puts his water bottle.
Speaker 3:Yep, I'm very observant to that.
Speaker 4:So the other thing I would just say about the ordinance is it'll apply for takeout, it'll apply for on-site dining. So really, what it's geared towards is, if you're dining at a restaurant in Burbank and you're in your dining there, we're hoping to see the restaurants put it on reusable dishware right Like the kind you'd have at home. If you have to do it and take out, we're hoping to see compostable containers or those recyclable plastics. So that's really where it's going towards. The last thing I'll say, guys, because I promised us just that 30 seconds of commentary.
Speaker 2:Oh, hold on, oh okay, I just want to get me to keep with this Sure, Sure. So I mean, does that mean we're going to start to see the paper straws again? Because those paper straws, I think it's compostable products. Yeah. I think are they developed, trying to develop new possible products that will stand up, because we went through that paper straw thing for a while that lasted like five minutes and and then they fall apart and forget your shake then after that or whatever you know so beginning in 2026, right, right, so beginning then.
Speaker 4:If it's not recyclable or compostable, then yes. So paper straws are a current item on the market that people could get. I don't know, maybe there is or will be a recyclable plastic straw that could be developed and if there is, if it's made with that recyclable kind of money and it's going to develop it. Sure, in that case, then they would be able to use it because it's recyclable.
Speaker 2:I'm sure somebody's going to want to make a lot of money somehow and come up with something.
Speaker 3:Okay, I got it. We were thinking of something for advertising promotions. Yeah, we're going to come up they make metal straws now with little holders yeah, little foreholders and spoon. We're putting our name on those and we're going to start giving away.
Speaker 4:There we go.
Speaker 3:I love the merchandising Okay.
Speaker 2:So we've, I'll let you get on your thing. So I always call it. You know what's on the mayor's mind, so I give you the and you can talk about whatever it is that you know is on your mind right now and get the message out.
Speaker 3:How's the kids? They're doing good. They're doing good.
Speaker 4:They're keeping me Should be the first thing on your mind, always the first, second and third thing there you go so you can see dad and my wife too.
Speaker 4:No, the only thing I would say, because I know we're at about time, is look in full disclosure. I was sort of the lone voice on that one, I think you all remember I I'm very concerned about the presence of a small plastic particle matter in our drinking water, in our soil. I felt that we should have gone even further and done an outright ban. Now the reason I say that is because under this ordinance or the one I would have adopted, there's always an hardship waiver process. You know, business can always say we can't go away from plastic because there's no product on the market we need it. I would have rather done that because I think that even recyclable plastics we're learning more every day about the presence of microplastics in everything.
Speaker 4:But with that said, the reason I bring it up is because I didn't get what maybe Mayor Nick Schultz wanted. But I was really proud of the council because I think that we listen to the business community, we listen to our environmental advocates, we listen to each other and we found that kind of golden compromise we've all talked about before. I don't love it, but I can totally live with that solution. It's fair. And so, going back to the issue at the top of the hour as we talk about rank control and other things. That's why I have confidence in this council because of how we've operated. We balance every consideration and we try to find something that is fair and reasonable and doable for.
Speaker 3:Burbank. Well, you know, when you say that I know Betty Porter real well and we talk all the time people don't realize when she buys, you know, silverware or whatever, she's buying a pallet. They serve 10,000 people a day. That's a lot of recyclables that come and go. If she has to put a dishwasher in to be washing, they got to have time to do that, that's right. I talked to Patty at Tequila's and a lot of people don't realize when you got a big you know. If she orders from China, which they do, or other places, and they don't get the right thing, well are they going to be in trouble for it? How do you ship a pallet back of plastic lids that Burbank won't approve? So I'm glad you're working with them and I know it took a while. I got the feeling that you guys wanted to shove it down the restaurant's throats and we have Polly Rand, piquito Moss, you know Morrison's, tequila's. There are several that addressed you, carrie from Romance in the Bean, and I'm glad you guys listened because they are.
Speaker 2:Well, this is a commission said that's not what we, you know. They first came to them months ago. That's not what we wanted, and they counseled oh let's, let's send it back and let's get it done, right.
Speaker 3:You guys did do that and I appreciate that.
Speaker 4:And, to be fair, I don't know that the business community got everything they wanted. I don't think the commission did.
Speaker 2:Have you heard any pushback from the fast food industry like the McDonald's and the Kings, and all that when they find out that they have to have silverware in their restaurants?
Speaker 4:No, I'm trying to remember who said it, but Big Cheeseburger hasn't come calling me yet, so no, but I mean, look, at the end of the day, we're always open to the feedback. I think I feel very confident with the solution that we reach.
Speaker 2:I'm working on a story on it right now, trying to get the whole thing figured out and timelines, and it's hard to describe what a number five plastic is compared to number two.
Speaker 3:It's hard to describe, but you probably can tell them, recycle center can't identify black plastics. There you go.
Speaker 2:Even something, because the conveyor belts black.
Speaker 4:That's right. And did you guys like the whole show and tell thing? I had us? Yeah, yes, see, I thought that was fun. I'm a tactile learner.
Speaker 3:Well, you know you said a couple of things tonight we talked about quite a few things, Did the lines up on all of above Glen Oaks? It's a test in the trial. This plastic band again, you know it was voted on. What's the best way for people to get a hold of you or a fellow council? I happen to know it. I know you give your phone number out. You're on every social media that is out there.
Speaker 2:I can't give you your number out all the time. I can't. It must blow up at times.
Speaker 4:It blows up all the time, like when the power goes out. But I got to tell you I only get one or two FVUs a week. That's actually a great success rate People. People don't abuse it much.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I read on social media and how people want to attack. You know they think you guys. Well, they don't like.
Speaker 2:Let them know how to get a hold of you, but what do you want him to? How do you put him people?
Speaker 4:So so I would say Email if you're looking. So any of the ways I'm about to describe are great, but if you're looking for a meeting to get on my calendar, emailing me is the best, because Sandy George will make sure it gets on my calendar. That's our executive assistant. We got here, you got your night, that's right. She will make sure she's. She'll even text me and be like Mayor, don't forget. So. Like if you're looking for a meeting, that's the best way. If it's a quick question, if it's something urgent, using that phone number is great. If you're not a phone user, you don't feel comfortable calling the mayor Direct message. Twitter, instagram, facebook, all. I check them all. I don't check them all all the time, so it might be a few hours before I get to it, but I can absolutely use that as well.
Speaker 3:I will say that you and I have text at some strange hours. If something's happening in the city and you do get back to me, I'm very happy about that. I thank you very much Again. This show, you know. Ask the mayor. We had questions. Come in, I'll tell you. This is what the people want.
Speaker 2:You know we always go a little long on this, but the information is so good, you know it's just so, it's all factual and you know, and and sometimes it's not an easy conversation and you're always moving to have it with us and I'll tell you right now. I know you're running for assembly and we're a week's away from the election and for you to take the time to come in here and do this means a lot to us. You know I say this is one of my favorite podcasts to do, but you know your time is also, and I realize that we appreciate you coming in. In fact, I know Ross is out covering any season, all the events in Burbank too. So you know I mean that's important.
Speaker 4:Well, I will just say this guys, thank you for having me on the show. I will look forward to being back next month, and I meant what I said when I took office and I ran the letter in the paper yeah, I'm running for assembly, but I'm the mayor of Burbank and I'm very proud of that job and I'm not going to half-ass it. I'm not going to not do the things that are expected of me. I'll be here because, frankly, I love it too. I love answering the questions, getting the information out, and that's what Burbank deserves, don't you?
Speaker 3:find. Craig and I have lived here over 60 years. Burbank's a different community.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3:I don't know if it's a water. We have a unique city and you know to be mayor of it. You know you get to see a lot, and aren't you proud?
Speaker 2:I mean, people don't have to ask me, but being mayor, yeah, the mayor of Burbank has many opportunities that other cities don't have.
Speaker 4:It does, and if folks are still viewing this and they'll indulge me for like one more minute, it's bittersweet because I love being mayor and yet it really does make me sad. Look one way or the other, you know, whatever my future holds, you know, mayor is a one-year term. I won't be mayor this time next year and that makes me sad because I really am having fun with it.
Speaker 2:I enjoy it, I like serving people and I remember the council, when they asked for different things about the district, elected said one of the things that we come back with is what about getting a full-time mayor? So you never know what down the line. But let's not go across that bridge yet. But you look at neighboring cities.
Speaker 3:I mean Glendale has their issues going on that are very, you know, controversial and so forth. Right now, yeah, look at LA, they have how many buildings that you know downtown, next to crypto center, that have gotten destroyed. You know, I know you can drive down Burbank. You could probably count on one hand any potholes that you might, because it's been raining all day. Yeah, you know, again the lights are on. You were able to pick up and talk to the general manager on a holiday and get an answer better than we get. But some of the things you know. But again, and I know, I always like to applaud our PIO staff, public information office. We have a great PIO staff that puts, put stuff out. I know they work with you very closely.
Speaker 2:The best we've ever worked with.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I will agree and I have worked with. I started counting. I go back a lot of years. I remember when they created that position. Mary Jane Strickland was the first PIO of the city, but I know they're they're trying to ramp up, even putting more stuff out, and you know people. Why do people move here?
Speaker 4:For all the reasons we talked about can't beat these city services. We're second to none.
Speaker 2:There you go. Ok, well for Ross Benson and our Burbank's mayor, nick Schultz. We appreciate you coming in. This is Craig Sherwood for another edition of Ask the Mayor, and we will see you back again in March. Thanks a lot for listening.
Speaker 1:My Burbank talks would like to thank all of my Burbank's advertisers for their continued support Burbank Water and Power, Usamano Real Estate Group, Umi Credit Union, Burbank Chamber of Commerce, Game Credit Union, Providence, St Joseph Medical Center, Community, Chevrolet, Media City Credit Union, UCLA Health, Aquila's Burbank Logix Credit Union, Hill Street Cafe, Hurtain Escobar Wealth Management and the UPS Store on Third Street.