Join the heart of Burbank as we engage with the city's very own Mayor Nick Schultz, navigating through the veins of local politics and striking community initiatives. Mayor Schultz opens up about his primary election journey and offers a peek at the development projects reshaping our skyline, including the Magnolia elevators. We delve into the city's pulse – from the orchestration of public services and policing to the impacts of traffic modifications on Olive Avenue and San Fernando Road – all through the lens of city governance.
Ever wondered how decisions about Burbank's BRT and plans for a dignified approach to homelessness unfold? Our conversation turns to the strategies that aim to enhance Burbank's transit systems, revealing the city council's careful dance with Metro board members. Then, the spotlight shifts to the landmark homeless shelter project, unraveling the behind-the-scenes efforts to provide more than just a roof over their heads, but also respect and societal benefits. We also break down the critical need for transparent communication channels between the public and local boards, ensuring that your voice is heard loud and clear.
As we gear toward future megahits like the 2028 Olympics and the 2026 World Cup, we envision Burbank's metamorphosis into a hub of tourist fascination. We'll call on you, our community, to play a role in this transformation, with opportunities like the Sustainable Burbank Commission and engaging in the city's park master plan. Above all, this episode epitomizes the spirit of civic participation as we relay the importance of every Burbank resident's involvement in shaping the city's destiny. So, buckle up for a ride through the heart of Burbank, where your role in the city's future is paramount, and every voice has the power to echo through the streets.
Join the heart of Burbank as we engage with the city's very own Mayor Nick Schultz, navigating through the veins of local politics and striking community initiatives. Mayor Schultz opens up about his primary election journey and offers a peek at the development projects reshaping our skyline, including the Magnolia elevators. We delve into the city's pulse – from the orchestration of public services and policing to the impacts of traffic modifications on Olive Avenue and San Fernando Road – all through the lens of city governance.
Ever wondered how decisions about Burbank's BRT and plans for a dignified approach to homelessness unfold? Our conversation turns to the strategies that aim to enhance Burbank's transit systems, revealing the city council's careful dance with Metro board members. Then, the spotlight shifts to the landmark homeless shelter project, unraveling the behind-the-scenes efforts to provide more than just a roof over their heads, but also respect and societal benefits. We also break down the critical need for transparent communication channels between the public and local boards, ensuring that your voice is heard loud and clear.
As we gear toward future megahits like the 2028 Olympics and the 2026 World Cup, we envision Burbank's metamorphosis into a hub of tourist fascination. We'll call on you, our community, to play a role in this transformation, with opportunities like the Sustainable Burbank Commission and engaging in the city's park master plan. Above all, this episode epitomizes the spirit of civic participation as we relay the importance of every Burbank resident's involvement in shaping the city's destiny. So, buckle up for a ride through the heart of Burbank, where your role in the city's future is paramount, and every voice has the power to echo through the streets.
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 Schubert here with you once again, along with, of course, my co-host Ross Benson.
Speaker 3:Hello good morning, no, good afternoon, good evening.
Speaker 2:I'm here, good day.
Speaker 3:Good day, there you go, good day.
Speaker 2:There you are. We'll be from England and of course we have with us in our Ask the Mayor show not only the mayor, but our we'll get into that later Our mayor, nick Schultz.
Speaker 4:Glad to be back. You guys. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2:It's been too long. Well, let me get into right now. I just about said let's get into it. So congratulations on the election, on the primary, making it through to the general thank you so much it becomes a two-horse race and I think you're up for it. Any experiences during the uh of the primary that that you found were interesting or didn't expect, or or anything you want to share? Yeah?
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know. First of all I just want to say I'm so honored and humbled and grateful for the really strong showing of support across the district. You know I've said it before, it's really bittersweet because I so enjoy being on the council and being mayor, but I'm also really excited about the potential I have to go up to Sacramento and fight for our community and communities like ours across the district. But to your question, craig, I would just say the greatest thing is on the campaign trail. When I talked about why I'm running and my experience, I got to tell the story about Burbank really well here and it was so well received by Los Angeles voters and Glendale voters and even Burbank voters who didn't know all the amenities and services and programs that we offer. It was incredible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it really.
Speaker 2:I agree, I have a re. Actually I requested. I haven't gotten results yet. I was trying to get a read results of all the voting in Burbank by, you know, by, by, by precinct trying to get results of all the voting in Burbank by, you know, by, oh, by precinct. I don't know if they still do that. They still do precincts. We don't have, you know, we don't do our election.
Speaker 3:Oh, but each election.
Speaker 2:It's all by mail now, and everything.
Speaker 3:Each election location has that so they can tell they also, I think canvas. And that's how they come up with that. They also, I think canvas. And that's how they come up with that, because when I was a poll worker they had people coming and checking the register. But now that it's electronic and all I guarantee they're keeping numbers.
Speaker 4:I think the precinct by precinct information will be available soon. I know we're crunching the numbers internally to do that.
Speaker 1:Cheeseburger, cheeseburger Cheese, but that does sound pretty good.
Speaker 2:Your paper hits the wrong button. I didn't do that on purpose.
Speaker 4:Like all, before we get to all the more important issues, I'll just say this we won Burbank and we won it by a pretty healthy margin and I'm grateful to Burbank voters for the vote of confidence, the trust he put in me, and the best way I can say thank you is to continue really being laser focused as mayor and trying to get a lot of good things done this year.
Speaker 2:Well, track records are important. He's your track record.
Speaker 3:Well, I think one of the big things that we discussed is explaining to the Burbank people why you're running for that seat. Is to keep Burbank at the table? If not, we have no representation in assembly. Is to keep Burbank at the table? If not, we have no representation in assembly.
Speaker 2:And with that, when it comes to asking for money, it's an empty seat. Now we've lost our state senator, so that's going to be a you know.
Speaker 4:At least we got him a few more months right.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, oh yeah, Thank goodness that helps.
Speaker 3:Well, last week Friday, we had Ashley cover what $2 million in Burbank housing for that project. We have him for a couple more months. I guarantee he will be thinking of Burbank that whole time.
Speaker 4:Yes, he will, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Does that $2 million go toward the new thing on Front Street or is that all for the housing corporation only? I think it's all for BHC. If I read that correctly, we talked about it last night, briefly, I think, and I wasn't sure. Okay, let's get a couple questions here. We're going to start off with a question from Laura.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:And she asked whatever happened to Latera developers at 777 Front Street project funding two new Magnolia elevators. Front Street project funding two new Magnolia elevators. It was a deal struck and fought for by Sharon Springer in 2019 to approve the project and, of course, she references an LA Times story that says it's going to have, you know, the two elevators on Magnolia. Now we know about the Magnolia elevator, which has nothing to do with that, but so she's asking about what's going on with the Magnolia elevators.
Speaker 4:So, laura, thank you very much for the question. Coincidentally, I had a chance to check in with city manager Justin Hess about this earlier today, and so my understanding is that the developer is going to be submitting the designs to plan check, and so we should have a better understanding of what it's going to look like and how soon. We could have it online by the end of this month. So it's a great question. It's very timely, and by this time next month, when I'm back on the mayor show, we might actually be able to talk about what they're proposing the price tag, the timeline so, laura, thank you for reaching out and asking that question.
Speaker 3:Now I'm curious. That project's moving along quickly. I drive past it every day. It's only halfway built. I mean people look at it and it's wrapped right now what they call wrapped so they can drywall and do that. That project's got a ways to go before it does so. The elevator definitely won't take the amount of time you know for them to build it as much as they have done.
Speaker 4:Right. So what I would add to that, Ross, is by no means am I saying it's going to be online in six months, but I do think as soon as this month we're at least going to get a concept, a design of what they're hoping to do, Again, what the rough price tag might be, how soon we could hope to have it online.
Speaker 3:Sooner the better, in my view might be how soon we could hope to have it online. Uh, sooner the better, in my view. Yeah, and I don't know if people like maybe laura, because she was on this question uh, they're building a two as a backup, because if one goes down, you can't get from, and that was one of sharon's big things is, when one goes down, you have a backup. But also, I would think that that project will have that elevator operating before they fix the olive elevator.
Speaker 2:Olives will start in May.
Speaker 3:It's actually supposed to start in May.
Speaker 2:It'll be done by next year. It's going to start May and then be done by April of 2025. I actually did a story on that. I had a video.
Speaker 4:Yes, you did. Yes, you did. Well, let's revisit this next month, but it is very much still happening, and you're right, mayor Springer fought hard for that and I'm glad to see that we're still making it happen.
Speaker 2:It would be nice, though, when the plans come in, as you can ask the developer can you maybe start the elevators earlier, because there will be no elevator on all of them for 11 months, so it'd be nice to do that first, maybe, so they'd have that, who knows? I mean that's. You can't tell a developer what to do once.
Speaker 4:No, but it'd be great to have those elevators online and operational and accessible to the public as soon as possible.
Speaker 2:Okay, real good, laura, we'll stay on that for you as possible. Okay, real good, laura, we'll stay on that for you. We got a actually it came through Twitter today from John. He sent a photo of the traffic this morning on Olive Avenue and he says he said this experiment will last a year. He said that you said the experiment will last a year. How will residents of Olive Avenue be able to submit their feedback for the experiment? And the picture he shows is traffic back to probably halfway towards 6th Street, all backed up in one lane. And first I'll just answer the question. I'm going to give you a follow-up.
Speaker 4:Sure, absolutely. And so, first thing, john, thank you for asking the question and I want to clarify because I may not have been clear the last time I was on. So there's a lot of things happening on the hillside Um the. When I was talking about the one year pilot, what I was referencing was San Fernando and converting that to one directional. One directional traffic um the restriping on on sort of the, you know, the very East end, like going up the hill of olive. Um that has a more indefinite timeline. I think staff is actually coming back sooner because of all the feedback and concerns that we've had. So I'm hopeful that we're not going to wait a year to rectify that. So my understanding is he wanted to know what's the best way to get feedback on this. I would say twofold. You could certainly submit it directly to city staff, but I think the easiest way is just email citycouncil at burbankcagov. When you send an email there, it goes to all five council members. Bob Kramer gets it.
Speaker 2:Yes, he does.
Speaker 4:It gets forwarded to all the executive team, the city manager, so that's the easiest, most direct way to get feedback to the people that need to hear it.
Speaker 2:And will you, when you get those letters, those emails, will you then forward them yourself to David Kriski or whoever?
Speaker 4:Very, yeah, very common.
Speaker 2:Make sure he gets it. You know, gets the feedback early.
Speaker 4:Yeah, a project like this is going to get immediately looped into Patrick Prescott with community development and David Kriski also with community development, and I'll just say say I appreciate the emails. I know, you know it's not possible for us to respond to every single email that comes in, I suppose, but it all gets read and it all gets referred to staff and there are many times people raise good questions, good concerns, but then start an internal discussion with council and staff not the council as a whole but individual council members asking why is it this way? What can we do to remediate?
Speaker 2:it. I know you're lucky to have both David Prescott and David Kriske Kriske is the guru of transportation, you know and they're very well informed and very knowledgeable and always responsive.
Speaker 3:You know it's funny, mary. You said the council gets a lot of mail. One day I was talking to some people downtown and in excess of 2,000 to 3,000 pieces of email a day and you say you can't respond to them. I understand, there is a lot of email, that's the same. You guys look at it but you can't respond to each. You know we're a city of 110,000. You can't respond personally to every single one and so it gets a little. But you guys are paying attention.
Speaker 4:And what I would add, Ross, is that you know if anyone's listening here and saying, well, why don't they respond to everyone, Let me be clear I would love to. It would be a full-time job and in many assembly offices, Senate offices, even like Mayor Karen Bass's office, that is, someone's job is to go through the email and do that, and that also takes time meeting with department heads, and so it is a balance. But I assure you, if you send an email in to city council at Burbank cagov, it gets read and somebody acts on it.
Speaker 3:Well, it's kind of like you know. You just said it's a balancing project, because it comes out of somebody's pocket to pay that person to do that and we're down on police officers, we're down on other city employees that are just so it all has to be weighed equally and people don't understand that. I want my point brought up and thought of right today, and there's a lot of other stuff that other people have the same.
Speaker 2:I want to fall blue on all of it. Have you driven all of since they've done this? I'm sure you have.
Speaker 4:I have, on one occasion for sure, and maybe twice, but one once for sure I went up and drove it too.
Speaker 2:In fact I did a little video on it myself. You know I just love those videos lately. You know that's good, it's a show me time, but anyhow I agree with the whole concept one lane, because of it doesn't need to be two lanes, one lane. But where they did put that lane is is it is extremely close to park cars and there is a. You know, people get open their car door, boom, that's a car that's going to hit them. Or.
Speaker 2:And that I was surprised with was they said. I said, well, what about a bicycle lane? They said, well, orange grove is designated as a bicycle lane street, but Orange Grove has nowhere near the size of Olive. I think they would change that and put a bicycle lane on Olive and one lane still for traffic. It was confusing to me why that would be the, why it'd be Orange Grove and not Olive. And then, to kind of John's point here, I'm looking at the picture he sent and the traffic's really backed up in one lane all the way down to glen oaks. Now I would think maybe between fifth and glen oaks and that one little half block, why not make that two lanes so cars can then you know, because the signal at glen oaks isn't a very long signal so honestly, I think I can answer that.
Speaker 3:Okay, I've been listening to our traffic lieutenant and listened to traffic engineers. They take that all into engineering, that movement of moving cars from two lanes to one. That causes a lot of accidents.
Speaker 2:This is one lane to two. I'm talking about.
Speaker 3:I know, and the reason they didn't do that is that changing the lanes causes a traffic accident. So the engineers look at the percentages and the reasons they do it. Um, I happen to use to live at Olive and Kenneth and a roommate of mine, craig Durling, who we were roommates would sit on our balcony and watch the people run the stop sign at Kenneth because they were, you know, again, looking at this picture, john sent, I have been up there, I sat up there one day in traffic and I'll agree, but it only is two minutes, three minutes out of your time to stop and move, you know, and it's doing what its intention was was slow traffic down up on that hill.
Speaker 4:And you're right, ross, that is what the council all those years ago, before I even got on, that was the policy choice they made. But to John, who I can tell is feeling the frustration, what I would say is this is great feedback. So you know, I now see it, john, if you're listening to this, if you haven't already, you know, in fact, just send another email, even if you sent one before to council, so we can see this. And you know, this is very much a project that is in development. It can change. Look, can we satisfy everybody? No, because people might want different things, but we're going to hear all the input, we're going to listen to the experts, to your point, ross, and then we're going to try to make the very best adjustments that we can that balance all of those interests. But at the end of the day, safety is paramount.
Speaker 3:Well, and kind of like San Fernando Road, there's a lot of people are going. What were they thinking? Sure, sure, craig and I remember the days when that wasn't a road, that was, you know, the Golden Mall. Yeah, yeah, you know. And when we left the Golden Mall years, many years ago, and then put lanes back in and changed direction, and brought all the businesses back too, you know. So it takes some balancing.
Speaker 2:Every abandoned Burbank we went to the mall, but then it was all mom-and-pop businesses. Yeah, it wasn't the large places like we have now, but they all were driven out of business.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:Back in the day, yeah. We're moving on because we have a Down the rabbit hole.
Speaker 3:That's another show.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is so a couple of things let's get some updates on. So we had the city school board joint meeting.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 2:I got to tell you what. I just don't think a whole lot was accomplished there, except a lot of. You know. Everybody had to take their two minutes on the microphone and now you're talking about 20 or 10 people up there, two minutes each. So one little item would get 20 minutes worth of comments because everybody had to say they just couldn't say I agree and be done with it. They had to say I agree, but I agree because of okay, we understand Elected officials and microphones are friends, it's a dangerous combo.
Speaker 2:Right and you know, don't take that personally, it's just, it's kind of a fact of life. But I don't think much was accomplished in that meeting whatsoever. It was just more, you know, important issues. But the one thing that did come up was SROs school resource officers. Ross and I have both talked about it. When we went to school in Burbank, every school had their own SRO. We knew him or her or you know the person. We felt comfortable around them. I was very disappointed to hear the Chief Perkinson say that you know he thinks they're bad and people won't come to school if they're there, which I just can't agree upon. With the school shootings down everything else, I would, as a parent, love to know we had an officer on that campus all the time.
Speaker 3:you know who's going to at least be able to try to neutralize the situation if possible you know I hate to interrupt, but we have a technical difficulty and if people are wondering why the mayor okay, he just came back on. We uh, apparently, mayor, okay, he just came back on we uh, apparently several people in this neighborhood are using bandwidth because we lost two cameras. Oh no, but I'm glad to say, while I interrupted you and you're trying, to thought they came back well there we go so if there's five minutes when people look and say why wasn't the mayor on camera?
Speaker 2:it's all I can say is you know charter communications and they have an exclusive contract in Burbank.
Speaker 3:Well, we were back on there and go ahead, and Steve Ferguson and the importance of SROs.
Speaker 2:you know, like Craig said, yeah, and I just think that you know if we need to fund more officers for reasons like that, I think those are important reasons, you know. And yeah, there's all kinds of things we do in our budgets and everything else you know. And yeah, there's all kinds of things we do, our budgets and everything else you know. But if we need to fund more police officers, an extra five officers with that in mind, and those five officers in the three, four school non-school months, I'm sure can be used for other things too. You know, or I just well I have a question there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, and I understand the narrative a couple years ago changed a lot of anti-police. That involves parents, as we said. As you said and Steve Ferguson said it, some parents don't want to send their kid to a school that has a police officer at it. But I think if you look at the positives, all the way back in the dare of the day, the dare days of LAPD and the chief has said this and I think it was one of the officers that made the presentation it really made a relationship you got in the long run, you got police officers. The kids back in elementary school got a good reputation with an SRO.
Speaker 3:I think you could ask I asked my son, you asked Craig and I. We still know our SRO officers and the relationship we had. You get a kinship and a nice ship and those are positive things versus the negative. Of the negative. You know condensation, that there's a police officer. As you heard, officer Roberts does phenomenal work. She's great and it's very hard to get an officer that is good as her, and we've had some great SROs Darren Rodriguez, I can go through the list. It takes a special officer and it's hard to put. It's just the thinking of us older people how that worked out so well, having an SRO, I mean.
Speaker 2:She's so tied up now with so many different reports and everything else that she really has no time to mingle, to interact and things like which is the most important thing with that? So we've talked enough? No, no, go ahead and give us your. It's your form now.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so no, look, I I'm glad you guys asked about it. Um, I would say there were two things accomplished. Not that I disagree with you. Yes, there was a lot of uh. You know everyone was talking for at least two minutes and sharing their thoughts, but I do think there were true, uh, really critical accomplishments. The first sounds corny, but it's true. This was only the second time we had well, sorry, it was like the third time in my tenure, but we hadn't met last year under Mayor Anthony and President Ferguson, not through any ill intent of their own, but just we won't get into that.
Speaker 4:Right, life got busy. So the fact that we met is really critical because historically, as you both know, there's been some tension between the council and the school board we talked about that.
Speaker 3:It was uh, trees on keystone once and the the topics that made them not communicate. It just blows you away, you know that that's right, and I so.
Speaker 4:I think you know I don't want to be too Pollyanna about it, but the fact that we met, that we had a discussion, I think, moving forward to your point, Craig, we should try to be a bit more action oriented and more like like what we're moving towards in the future, but I think for, you know, the first meeting, at least in two years, it was a good meeting to have. The other thing that's more to your point, though, is we did have a really good substantive discussion about SROs, and if anything came out of that discussion, I think if there's anything we all agree on, it's that our one SRO that we do have is phenomenal, and yet so much of her time is rightfully focused on investigating those suspected child abuse reports, or SCAR, which I know some people hate that acronym. Maybe we should call it something else, but the point is there's so much work to do there that you know. Obviously there is this open-ended question of how can we get more resources to the school district, you know, and look, I think Dr Weisberg said it really well in the meeting in response to board member Ferguson when she said look, we all have our lived experience, Some have a very positive experience with SROs.
Speaker 4:Some people don't, and we have to be mindful and accepting and respectful of all those perspectives. But I think what she said that was really powerful is as policymakers we can't just rely on our experience, good or bad, we have to think about everybody. So the way I look at it is it kind of shifts back to the district now. As city partners we want to provide for our kids, the safety of our children, our teachers, our staff members. It really does now turn on the district to help us what they feel that they need and then we can look at how we can help.
Speaker 2:I heard today that they've actually have notified the schools and the middle schools I'm not sure about the high schools that they're going to eliminate a vice principal and a counselor from each school. It's part of a budget cut. So there's, you know, the one thing I want to commend you.
Speaker 3:I gotta commend you. In a room at a dais with 10 politicians you ran that meeting pretty well, I do agree, I do agree. You know we weren't watching for six, seven hours and every politician does like to speak and you at the beginning, you know you kind of gave the rules, you know, and not everybody has to answer what the previous person, the previous person, the previous person, and you got that meeting going. So kudos to you, mayor, for getting that meeting rolling. And some of us do pay attention.
Speaker 4:Oh, thank you, and to be fair, you know, I know we were going long so I didn't comment on that agenda item Not that I didn't have thoughts.
Speaker 2:But look, we can talk, but we also have to get back to business and get things done.
Speaker 3:Everybody can talk, but it's what you say that's important and what you do in response to it, and I think you said it, you set an example and I think your vice mayor probably saw that and hopefully when she's in that chair or whoever's in that chair, does that move things up, Because sitting at a school board city council meeting can be lots of fun.
Speaker 2:Well, let's change gears here, and I don't want to throw you under the bus on this one no. I'll get it. Let's talk about the BRT.
Speaker 3:Yes, this is where the wheels on the bus go round and round.
Speaker 2:I think somewhere we actually did have a bus sound effect, somewhere we had.
Speaker 2:There we go Not much of a bus sound effect, but Well you know, you can hear the door open there you go so very much in agree and favor of what you guys did in reinforcing the letter you had previously written. I can't see going to a single lane on Olive. The backup set would be huge to save two minutes for a bus. Nobody can prove they're even riding the bus right now. If you look at Burbank buses, I mean they're just not being used much and I did see that in some places that they are going single lanes on some of the streets. If you look at their plans they do have a couple areas.
Speaker 4:For the total route.
Speaker 2:The total route, especially in, I think, above First Street, going up to Glen Oaks. So I mean, I'm okay with what, but anyhow, let's get you know where do we stand right now. I like the fact we're going to have two people go and talk to them directly instead of our staff. Talk to their staff and you know.
Speaker 3:You know. Well, that was a very good point First time. And your fellow council member said we know Artie, we know you know supervisor, but have we ever got in the same room and discussed what we need in our city? Oh, there's an idea Communication. Yeah, so that was. Uh, you guys did get that across and I'm glad even now. That's the first time in all my 50 years of watching that they literally pick straws out of I think it was straws out of a coffee cup. Yeah, that's great. So so we're, we're.
Speaker 2:I think we come back a little later in of a coffee cup. Yeah, that was great. So I think we come back a little later in the year on that. So has a meeting been scheduled yet with them? Where do we stand right now?
Speaker 3:This is government.
Speaker 4:I have no doubt. So just to recap for those, I'm sure a lot of people did watch, but if you didn't. So we adopted the cooperation agreement still needs to go to Metro. We can unpack all that, but it now falls to council members Zezette Mullins and Tamela Takahashi, as the council's appointed representatives, to have those meetings with Ari Najarian out of Glendale and Catherine Barger and all the other Metro board of supes. Sorry, Metro Board members, I don't know. I'm not on the subcommittee so I don't know the exact status.
Speaker 4:But to your point, I would certainly expect that we're going to get a report back within a matter of a month or two. Certainly, the concerns haven't gone away. Metro's desire to move the project forward hasn't gone away. So this is going to continue to be a conversation hasn't gone away. So this is going to continue to be a conversation. But what I would just say to both of you is that you know, in a lot of ways we accomplished a lot, and in other ways it might not feel like we did, because there's still a lot of uncertainty. But the two big takeaways for me is that we signaled to Metro that we're willing to work towards the right project for our community and we adopted a cooperation agreement that contemplated cost sharing. That that confirmed our belief that Metro needs to come to Burbank and get approval for any construction permits. There's a lot of great stuff baked into that cooperation.
Speaker 2:Let me know real fast Metro. Could they actually come in here and force something like that on us on our streets?
Speaker 4:So so that's a great question. So one of the things, craig, that I so since that meeting, you know, for the most part there was a little bit of confusion. People digested it. Some people have been really upset and have said why would you guys adopt the cooperation agreement? There's a lot of reasons, but I think the single best thing for Burbank baked in that agreement goes to the fact that it's unsettled law. Metro has and could take the position that they don't need our permits, that even if we deny it, that they could proceed with construction on the right of way. So what would happen if we deny the permits?
Speaker 2:Would that be like eminent domain, say we're probably that metro's eminent domain, a lane or something. See, we're probably that metric domain, a lane or something.
Speaker 4:Not quite eminent domain, but yeah, it'd be sort of under the theory that, you know, a road is a public right of way, the city does not have sole ownership of it.
Speaker 4:We're able to do the construction we need.
Speaker 4:Of course we have to compensate the city for any loss or expenses incurred. But but here's what would happen if we go down that road we could deny the permit, metro could try to. You know they could sue, saying that you know they get to construct anyway, and this lands in court and whether we're right or wrong, it's probably tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars litigating it. So what this agreement says, you know, if adopted by Metro, is that, look, in the spirit of cooperation, we're going to talk about all the options, we're going to try to find common ground, but we're all agreeing that, at the end of the day, you want to do construction on Burbank roads, you need Burbank permits, and that, to me, is so valuable because it saves the city and Metro. It saves everyone hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential litigation and costs. And to your point, craig, it is not completely impossible that, should you go to court, a judge could say they get to build it on your streets, even if you don't want to allow them to do so.
Speaker 3:Well, you know I want to bring up a good point. You guys negotiated there. You know the five council and quite a few of the staffers from metro were filling the first several rows of city council. You basically came down and you know when this all started people need to remember they were going to take a long take away that curb lane and everybody complained and that got changed and now basically what you told them and they agreed is this is our point, we're going to work together, or you guys are working to litigate, which could take a lot longer than putting the bus lane in. So let's work together and it's progressing, you know. Uh, progress is slow, not always perfect, right, sometimes. Two steps forward, steps forward, three steps back, but at least we're stepping forward.
Speaker 4:Exactly. And and the other thing is I think you said it, ross you know, the moment before I made my comment in that meeting, the moment that sort of dawned on me was what we were doing with having our staff talk to their staff. It's the proverbial my people will call your people. It's. It's a lot, call your people. It's a lot of hot air from people talking but not a lot getting done. This is going to be more effective because I know Zezette and Tamela. They may have differences of opinion on this issue, but they both care deeply about what's best for Burbank and I think that they will go to the mat, talk with Metro and if there's common ground to be found and maybe there's not, but if there is, I am I'm confident they can find it and bring it back to us.
Speaker 3:Well, you guys did a good move on the decision. You know, and, like I said, it's coming Folks, it might not work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, you know, I believe we need to have things. I do believe we need to have it, but proof, prove it first. Proof, prove it first. Prove the proof concept. Let's run buses there for six months. If you show me 75, 80% filled buses every single time, then maybe we should be doing something like that. But until they can prove that that is going to be a viable route that people are going to use that often, I just can't see the disrupting the city.
Speaker 4:And I know we have other topics, guys, but I will just say the. The other critical takeaway from that agenda item, at least in my view, is that we did not move off from our comment letter in 2022. We still have all the same concerns. I guess if there's any difference, it's that, rather than saying you know, go away, or you know whatever, Now we're saying, OK, look, these are concerns. We need to be like adults, role models for the region and community. Adults sit down across the table. They talk about their concerns flow or dedicated lane or anything in between that we should be doing everything we can to protect traffic overflow into those residential streets running adjacent to the line. Totally, I think there's a lot. I think there's fruitful common ground to be had.
Speaker 2:You're not enemies. You're just trying to work out an agreement that works for everybody.
Speaker 3:Yes, well, you know it was funny. Prior to that meeting there was a big protest in front of City Hall. I'm not going to say big For Burbank, it was you know there were 10 people out there.
Speaker 3:No, there were 50 to 100 people out there. It's Burbank, but again, as you walked away, I think everybody walked away not only shaking hands nicely, but we're going to play in the same sandbox and I think that's what you know, metro heard, and that's what you walked away with, and I think that's what those protesters wanted, you know. So, in the long run, progress moves on and we'll see. Yeah, the bus, the bark system or brt, down the road to be continued, to be continued so let's move on to a very, very recent thing from our last meeting.
Speaker 2:Um, we've pretty much, uh, we declared a housing emergency in burbank and uh, um, our homeless I'm saying a homeless emergency in burbank and um, we have now acquired the former hollywood piano store on front street and we're going to have a parking lot on the corner of Verdugo and Front for RVs at nighttime to park, but not during the day. They have to move every day. But we're also going to convert that building into a shelter and one of the things that you know, I'm actually working on a story right now on Measure H and how basically Burbank's been screwed out of that. And thank God it's only a 10-year tax and we're seven years into it. We have three years left and then I'm scared they're going to just vote to continue it. That's how they always like to do things. Oh, it's just a half cent Keep going Right.
Speaker 4:It's got to come back to the voters, that's right.
Speaker 2:But we were talking about putting that building together and somebody brought the point well, are we going to have restrooms inside for the people and everything else? And they're saying, well, boy, that's a lot more cost than everything else to do that, you know, we just don't know. And I'm thinking to myself you want people to use this, but then you have to send them out to a, you know to a what do you call it? Port-a-potty.
Speaker 2:Yeah port-a-potty out in the parking lot to do their business. Is that something that's really, you know? Are we really giving them dignity and all those things if we're not giving them a shower and a bathroom in their unit and really treating them like you know, getting them on their way, Because I think we're dropping the ball? If we don't do that, you know, the shelter becomes just a.
Speaker 4:You're moving the problem indoors, right.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 4:Where. So so you know, what I would say is I, I, when I look back at my one year as as mayor, I I will look to this moment as maybe a handful of moments that I'm very proud of. The council, I think it's a, it's a landmark decision, a policy change for the city of Burbank, um, and look, I think there's a lot to like about it for everyone involved. So you know, we are looking at that site, we're looking at a small contingent of um, uh of, of tiny homes, but you know, more home, less less shed. I think was was a.
Speaker 3:You just brought up a good point, because it's yeah, exactly, it's less tough, shed Right More. Now I think it's going to be called studio something, studio village, whatever.
Speaker 4:But the idea is let's get these people a small but a livable space that they can be proud of. That gives them a little bit of dignity, some pride, that gives them their own sense of identity.
Speaker 2:Start on their way back.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and the other thing I'll say, too, is it's yes, it's the compassionate thing to do. It's also the smart thing to do. You have someone who listens and follows my Burbank pretty regularly. I'm not going to say their name, but I've talked to to this individual. Um, you know, and and they're one of many people that have complained about folks that are sleeping in their cars outside, in front of their homes or across from parks the problem is under Martin versus Boise.
Speaker 4:We can't do anything really Right, Like, where are we going to tell them to go with this? We now have a safe overnight parking. We will have a safe overnight parking location where we can say look ma'am, look sir, you can't stay sleeping here in front of this family's home, but we have a place for you right over here where you can be safe, where you can use the restroom, where there are supportive wraparound services that you can have access to. It's compassionate, it's the right thing to do and it also enables code enforcement, law enforcement, everyone to better provide for the other residents that call Burbank home. I think it's a win-win.
Speaker 3:You know it is and I will say at that meeting our vice mayor, her experience, her training, what she does as a social worker. I didn't know a ton about Nikki prior to her sitting on Burbank City Council, but she is coming out as a shining star with her experience as a social worker. She has been in the trenches. We're talking somebody that has experience in other cities and bringing that experience to Burbank. And, like she said, I don't want two bedrooms in an eight-by-eight box. We've got to be different here in Burbank and boy she's smart beyond her years.
Speaker 3:She really is yeah, she did a great job.
Speaker 4:I, I, I, I totally agree, I, I am. I was reminded in that moment why Burbank voters chose her as as one of the three Um, and I agree with you. I think it was one of her seminal moments as a vice mayor, as a council member and, look, I think in the years ahead that's going to be one of her many, you know value added to the council. Homelessness is not going away. It's going to continue to be a huge issue. I don't think that there's anyone better equipped to speak on that issue or to lead on that issue than Nikki.
Speaker 2:Well they are we going to be able to petition. Maybe we get some of those measure H funds for that in the next three years. And I will say this also I'm sure you saw the reports that came out the state audit that we have no accounting of billions of dollars used for homeless services. We don't know where the money went, we don't know how it was spent, we don't know what it did, and that's scary alone in the fact that we keep putting more and more money towards this. Where is the money going and what's the result? So in Measure H I think they said in the meeting we've put in close to $56 million already and received back $2.5 million. Burbank citizens, through our half-cent sales tax, have contributed $56 million to this fund and we've already received back about $2.5 million in any kind of services. So is this something that we can now petition them and say we're trying to build this thing here? Here it is, the plans are done, we're ready to go?
Speaker 4:Here's the longer answer. So by adopting the shelter crisis resolution, what we're able to do is fast track this project without having to go through some of the more administrative, burdensome hurdles for public input on the design, the implementation of the project. But in terms of funding, we're initially going to go to the Burbank, glendale, pasadena Housing Trust, which was formed by legislation that Senator Portantino created. They have their own funding allocation, their own pot of money. We're going and asking just shy of $3.5 million from them and I think we have a very good chance of getting it, and that's going to be our seed money to make this project happen.
Speaker 4:Now to your point, craig, one of the reasons that we often look, I don't think that Burbank's gotten its fair share of Measure H money. I agree with you. I'm not what I'm about to share is not what I agree with. I'm just saying this is what we often hear. Well, burbank doesn't have a shelter, you don't have a lot of the expenses and the upkeep that other communities do. So to your point, craig, well, now we do. Now we have a really seminal landmark project for our community.
Speaker 2:I think it's time to go back to the table and say we'd love some more Measure H money because there's going to be recurring ongoing costs to provide for it. Okay, very good. You know what? Before we go on, we've got to take a little break now at our show. This is your first time we're taking a break, so we're going to take a little break and we'll be back in just one second.
Speaker 5:Enjoying the show right now. I think you may want to do your own podcast. Fiber Ray Tompkins is renting out our podcast studio on an hourly rate. You can do audio podcasts, or both audio and video.
Speaker 2:So I'll just use a way to get him out of the studio for a second. That's why we don't go live on this. I'll get that edited out. It'll be a commercial way to stop and start again. No, no, we're not doing live. I wouldn't do that to you. That's not fair to you, that's not you know.
Speaker 4:I think we've done pretty good, that's not fair to you.
Speaker 2:That's not you know. Now back to our show. I think we've done pretty good?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so do I. I know you want to ask about redistricting, so let's do it.
Speaker 2:Commercial's just ended, so okay, we're good, it's just running now. But what we're talking about is going on mics being recorded, but just so you know I would never oh totally. It's always off the record. It is all off the record. No worries.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I'd say we could talk about redistricting. I want to bring up the thing about the boards and commission things first, because that's actually a personal thing for me. Can you remind me which one of the emails not being received prior to meetings, which one?
Speaker 2:are you referring to? I was going to give you the whole story. I sent a well real quickly on the weekend. I wanted to talk about the radio, the frequencies, you know, the encryption Right and the police encryption. Finally, six months after it happened, took it up and I said I said my thing. I said number one, I go, this is a policy decision. You were never told about it in advance. You were never told about it in advance. You were never consulted about any policy in the department I go. And then I gave them a whole bunch of different things and I said they're going to tell you this, this and this, but it's only half of the truth, it's not the entire truth. And here's the entire truth. Got it? I gave them this entire. I sent a copy to the council.
Speaker 4:I saw that yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I called Kim. I I saw that, yeah, and so I I I called Kim on. I said, kim, I can't find a way to get this to the police commission. He goes oh yeah, you have to. You have to email their, their liaison and send it to her. Yeah, so all of a sudden, wait a second. So now I'm sending it to you.
Speaker 2:Know, the Fox is at the end of the topic. They said oh, by the way, we had an email come in that we distributed to you. They go yeah, but we never. We had. You, said you, because of me we don't have time to read it. They couldn't comment, they didn't. So everything they were told once again wasn't exact and they didn't. So there, and they didn't. So there's no way to get the information in advance. And I'm looking at all the other communities. I said there's no way to send any of these people things in advance If you wait till the meeting and then you hand them all this stuff, like you get a package on Fridays, right, well, they don't get anything until they walk in the door for the meeting. So I'm going to bring it.
Speaker 4:You know it's not.
Speaker 2:You know I'm'm going to bring it. You know it's not I. You know I'm not going to harp on on the subject of what it was, but it's just a fact that I think we have that there needs to be a city system, like there is a council email, that these boards and commissioners can get emails, you know, before the meeting, so they have time to.
Speaker 4:You know, I think that's an idea I was going to say. If we have time we can always do a look ahead for council and I'm happy to talk, if you think it would be of interest, about Tuesday night's discussion rent regulations. I won't get much into depth on it, I can just say it's going to be the big thing on Tuesday night.
Speaker 2:Let's look ahead what's going to happen during? Big thing on Tuesday night. I'll just say let's look ahead. You know what's going to happen during April to May for Council.
Speaker 4:And then we have your guys' favorite topic budget season. I know.
Speaker 2:By the way, in the last show I apologized to our city treasurer because I thought her reports were awesome. She's great, she is really good, and I thought it would be boring as hell.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean you think it would be, and it wasn't whatsoever, and it was done very well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's brilliant. Okay, let me see what we've got on time. Here we're at.
Speaker 4:We've got another 15 minutes.
Speaker 3:And I could if it's 20, it's not the end of the world, you know you might think of when you do your State of the City.
Speaker 2:a little tiny oscar or something for crystal palmer, as a joke, you know, because it's the first time.
Speaker 3:The the financial report was m equality?
Speaker 2:yes, it really was yeah, she's good. Yes, a good personality too. Okay, you good I'm good.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much. Wow, okay, pounds lighter. You know, probably not green anymore.
Speaker 2:Okay, here we go Five, four, three, two, one and we're back. So hopefully, if you need to run our studio, we'd love to have you. You missed a call Moving on. So I I had an experience where one of the boards and commissions was going to meet and I went to send them and I wanted to send them an email. I can send the council if I ever wanted to. You know, and I know it goes to all the five council members and, of course, bob Cranor, anyhow.
Speaker 2:So I went to send the email and there was nowhere to send the email. So I got ahold of our great city clerk. I said where can I send this? So they get this before the meeting and she says well, there's a liaison on the sheet. You've got to send it to that person. Well, I sent it to that person on a Monday, the meeting was on a Wednesday and it turned out that that person never once they got it, they just sat on it for two days and printed it out and handed it to the members as they walked into the meeting. So my points I made were never brought up during the discussion of the agenda item and they just said, oh, we don't have time to read that.
Speaker 2:So what can be done if you know it would be sustainable? You know the police commission, the planning I think the planning commission actually has a thing, but there are, you know, park and rec a lot of commissions and boards that you have no way to communicate with in advance. What do you think we could do? Is that a flaw in the system? Is there anything?
Speaker 4:we should look into. Did you have something you want to add, Ross?
Speaker 3:first, I kind of agree Again, government shutting out the public, and it should be the opposite. We have watched and learned over the years. You know, people get involved and then they get burnt out or bummed out because they don't. Their important items don't get brought up. And here's a good example little tiny Burbank. Maybe we should do it. I understand, we understand. Maybe we should do it a little differently, you know.
Speaker 4:No, I totally agree. So I would say this is a great, a great point you brought up, craig. What I will do from today is I'll go back to Justin Hess, and what I have in my mind is just like if you emailed city council at Burbank cagov, it goes to all five council members, even if you don't have our individual addresses, it just gets forwarded to everybody. Maybe there's a way to do that for all of our boards and commissions. I think that that's something that would be suited for Kevin Gray, with our IT department, to do. What I would say, though, is in the meantime, and unless and until that happens, I don't know if that's something Justin would sign off on or if we'd need approval from the whole council.
Speaker 4:In the meantime, if you know you want to talk about an item related to the police commission, my recommendation is I would always go to the department head or their assistant, so in your case, you know you did the right thing by going to Sherry Nakamura, the assistant for Chief Albanese. If you had a park and rec issue, I would go directly to Marissa Garcia. Now, really, what they should be doing is, yes, giving it, you know, printed out to everyone at the start of the meeting. Hopefully they're pointing out and saying, hey, you have a public comment there that you should read. Maybe that's better training that our staff and the council can provide to our boards and commissions as well, because we get a lot of e-comments.
Speaker 4:That was a system that Zezette Mullins created. It's sent to us at three o'clock or four o'clock depending on when closed session starts. It's up there on the dais. Sometimes if you see me going through the paper, I'm looking at it, I'm reading the comments. Maybe we can do a better job of clarifying to boards and commissions that people can give their comment in writing and you should treat it just as you would someone coming and standing.
Speaker 2:I think it's the fact that they need to get it in advance. They need to have that outlet to make sure it still goes to one person and the one person can send it. You know, maybe send all 20 at one time or something, so they're not going at their Sure. I just say I found a bug in the system. Yeah, and I'm going to throw it at you and say you know whatever you think, but there is a communication problem there with boards and commissions, I think.
Speaker 3:But I think you just made a great point that e-file or e-comment would be for boards and commissions. It's a great that's a good idea If if uh says that brought that up for council maybe we apply it to boards and committees.
Speaker 4:You know I'll talk with Kimberly Clark and see if that's something that could and I.
Speaker 3:There might be, and I don't know, uh, again, our city attorney will get involved. There might be some Brown act precautions that they have to implement. But we got to look at today's technology. Everybody you know is on their cell phone, right, and you're looking at that a lot more than when you didn't have a cell phone and you'd go and talk to one of your boards or commissioners and they'd bring it up. Well, now, when it's on somebody's mind, if you, if we had e-commerce or not e-commerce, but e-ment, it would maybe open up that. You know communications.
Speaker 4:And I think to both your point. It can be all of the above, right? You could expand e-comment. You could also maybe create an easy-to-use single email address. It's all about improving access to boards, commissions and council. I agree with you both.
Speaker 3:Well, we have moving. Moving on the next topic, I know, uh, you know we're going to lighten it up now, like, uh, I think uh, some uh presidents used to say let's lighten the conversation. We got a couple of weird questions for you. Okay. I saw it on Facebook today. I won't say names, but she somebody directed it. Ask Ross Benson. I'm turning it over and I'm asking the mayor. Oh, okay, why is the fountain at City Hall not working?
Speaker 4:You know, I don't know offhand, but I'll look into it. I want to say we might have a part on back order, but I don't want to miss it, you don't know everything in the city going on every moment, every electronical and every.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 4:I don't know everything, but let me get an answer back for you and then you guys can share it on next week's podcast.
Speaker 2:That'd be great. Yeah, you know, I will say one thing about that is that I think Burbank, over the years, has had a terrible. We talked about the golden mall earlier. They built fountains in the golden mall and all sorts of things, yeah, and after seven or eight years they all stopped working. There was a lack of repair, a lack of, and that's, I think, what led to the downfall, the whole downfall of it. So I think if you're going to build the darn fountain, then you got to make sure it keeps working. You know, I mean that's.
Speaker 3:Well, I do know that they had one time people complained because of water and then I think they were using recycled water. Yes, you know, and it says right up there somewhere on it yeah, and there's different reasons. You know it could be a part that fountain.
Speaker 2:The fountain is old. It's not. It's not. They didn't put it in 20 years ago.
Speaker 3:Well, I was out there for that protest and I was looking at the fountain. Yeah, that fountain is old and it needs a lot of maintenance. It does, it does. And then you know again. Another question for you, cause I know you have a deep schedule today and your calendar that, sandy. George sent us that lady.
Speaker 2:The amazing Sandy George.
Speaker 3:Wow, this weekend you're going to be running from one minute to the next.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so, um, if anybody wonders what the council does in these off weeks, so if anybody wonders what the council does in these off weeks, so right now. So it's Tuesday evening, we're not in council. Council Member Mullins and Council Member Takahashi are already in Sacramento, and then the vice mayor and I fly up together in the morning. We're all going to Sacramento for the League of California Cities. It's their annual summit, leadership summit and lobby day. That's a mouthful. What that means is we go up once a year to Sacramento and we all I'll speak for myself and I know the vice mayor's with me on a couple of meetings.
Speaker 4:We're meeting with Senator Menjivar, senator Portantino, assemblymember Friedman. We're talking about the things that we're doing well in Burbank and we're making important asks. We're identifying infrastructure needs, whether it's a new bridge to really, that we need a chloramine boosting project or a direct potable reuse project, that we need funding for water and power. We have our list of asks and we're going up there and if you're listening and thinking well, you know that's kind of. I mean, we're in a state budget deficit, we're not going to get anything. Here's the thing. Everyone else is still going. We need to be in the room making the asks so that when there is money and funding there Burbank, you walk in the door and they know what we're about, they know what help we need and hopefully that means dollars come back to Burbank sooner.
Speaker 3:Well, I think, in making sure our politicians and League of City and everything up in Sacramento as the governor was in town when they did the new buildings over at NBC, look around Burbank. We're building, 60 new stages currently being done. We have a new airport A new terminal. New terminal. Those are things. Burbank is on the move. We have the Fries Project, the Front Street Project, the First Street Project. We are building not only jobs but we need to figure out how to get that money. A couple years down, the road Totally.
Speaker 4:And just one other thing, ross. Here's what I love about Burbank, and I love our council. One of our, uh, neighboring cities, I won't say who is just sending their mayor. Nothing wrong with that, that's great. We're sending four of our five council members. We each have a small travel budget, all uh all, but one of my colleagues who just couldn't make it due to scheduling we're all going to be up there.
Speaker 4:We're having these meetings with with legislators, their staff members. We're telling the Burbank story. We're asking for what we need. That is what really smart, well-managed cities do, because, I'll put it this way, those same cities that you were, if you were to compare ourselves to a lot of them, have budget deficits. We don't, because we get help and resources. We also manage our money really well, and so the reason I share this to with you guys and your, your listeners, that's what you get from this city council and from our staff. We're really committed to the mission. So, yeah, next three days, I'm going to be running, as my colleagues will all be running, from meeting to meeting in Sacramento. Um, it sounds glamorous, it's not, cause you're usually just like leaving one meeting barely in time to make the next meeting, but it's really important.
Speaker 3:Now I have one last thing I want to throw in here and uh, craig and I talked about it. You know progress moves. You know, so quickly you might not be a Burbank city council member we have the Olympics coming up in 2028. Erin Bass, uh, yesterday in her state of the city we're going to look be Karen Bass yesterday in her State of the City. We're going to be looking at billions and billions of dollars coming into Los Angeles, burbank, the region in 2020. Are we moving forward? Do we have a committee yet for Olympics 2028? Because I bet we're going to have people in every bed in every hotel. Then this city should be shining in 2028. It'll take years to get that all progress. You doing anything?
Speaker 4:You, you, you, I, I. So I love that question you guys. So I I'm going to give you both a little preview of what I'll be asking for at the end of the next meeting. Look, we have been in discussions with all of our regional partners on transit and tourism, but I'm going to be asking to put together a mayor's task force of business leaders, nonprofit leaders, our travel and leisure leaders and city personnel to make sure that we have a comprehensive approach to the Olympics. I think we are going to be ready. We have several new tells that are opening. We got a great number of restaurants and retail that are going to be ready to receive all those visitors.
Speaker 4:I just want to formalize what's already being done through the mayor's office and say, over the next few years, all my colleagues, whoever is mayor, it should be a part of something we're talking about throughout our tenure. What are we doing to be ready? And I would say, not just the Olympics. We have the World Cup coming to LA too in 2026. We want people to come stay in Burbank hotels, shop at Burbank restaurants, and so it's opening all those. It's also making sure our infrastructure, our transportation, everything's in place so people come. They have a great experience. Then they come back.
Speaker 3:Oh, very, very good point. I've just you know I'm looking forward. The groundswell is the Olympic torch got lit yesterday. Yeah, before you know it, we're going to be having Olympic trials in our backyard. It's coming here, you know so.
Speaker 2:And the World Cup too. That's when we passed, you know, the Rose Bowl, I'm sure, and at the SoFi Stadium and all. And we just opened a new hotel, the Cambria, and we have another one by the Marriott, another 350-room plant. Other hotels come, you know, offhand. How much do we get our bed tax, our head on, the pillow tax we have? Do you know how much that is offhand? I don't put you on the spot.
Speaker 4:I don't know off the top of my head, but I know that we have a pretty competitive tax rate compared to our neighbors, which all of that is good because, look, you want to have it low enough that it draws people to stay in Burbank as opposed to elsewhere.
Speaker 2:It draws hotels to build in Burbank.
Speaker 4:That's right, but obviously you want to have enough to obviously collect and do good use with it. And back to your question, ross, I would say we already have Visit Burbank and the Chamber, a lot of folks working on it. My thought is let's centralize it in the mayor's office. Just make sure we're all on the same page, talking regularly, because this could be an economic boon, especially coinciding with the replacement airport terminal opening all these new hotels. The next 10 years could be incredibly great for Burbank's economy and even if I'm in a different role, I'm still going to be making sure we bring all those dollars back so that this goes off without a hitch. And the other thing I'll say is, if it's good for Burbank, I guarantee you there's going to be positive spillover. That'll be good for Glendale, for Pasadena, for LA. It's good for everybody.
Speaker 3:Well, you make a good point and I sit on the Magnolia Park Merchants Board and I keep telling them we're going to get 16 new stages. Not every employee but a lot of them are going to shop in Magnolia Park once that gets done, that's in two years. They hope to get that studio done In four years. We're going to have how many people here from around the world that are coming to the media capital of the world, literally Burbank? We are known and people know that. They know you know we've got to emphasize and make money and and make our city just shine. Couldn't agree more.
Speaker 2:And, by the way you notice, he said replacement terminal, not new terminal. He's been trained well, hasn't he? It is a replacement terminal.
Speaker 4:That's right. Not no extra out of gates or anything but boy, that those designs are beautiful. That is going to be. I just keep thinking about that. With the new hotels, all the great new restaurants popping up, if we plan the next four to six years, right including after the olympics, all of it, this gosh this could be a really great opportunity once in a lifetime, really opportunity for Burbank and the region.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, yesterday I watched a show. I kind of am a Kelly Clarkson fan and she had former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on. Those are the positive things that we need to look forward to. There are so many negative things going on in the daily. You know our war and our homelessness and our crime and everything. Let's start thinking of all the positives. And the Olympics are, if you know, in the World Cup. Those are big positive things that we, this, our fine city, can shine and be proud of.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. When they run that B-roll and they're showing the Los Angeles region, you want shots of Burbank and our beautiful downtown and all of Burbank our businesses, our hotels, our airport. You want all of that just on display for the world to see, because the world's watching. It's one of the most watched sporting events in the world. Every four years, when it happens, we want to make sure people say hey, burbank.
Speaker 2:And the World Cup too. That's the same thing.
Speaker 4:Huge, huge viewership, and we want them to say now, Burbank, that's a place I'd like to visit.
Speaker 2:Well, before we let you go, coming up in the next couple weeks, before we get you back to the May show, any on the council going on that you want to, any big events coming up or anything that you want to make sure the public is aware of? Yeah, you got one. Could somebody cut went to the? Was it a call in or was it a at the podium where? So he said why you don't tell me what's going on, you don't send me the agenda? Which number one? The agenda is always posted on the city website in advance. Uh, we have shows like the one we do on monday nights when we talk about the coming agenda. The information is always there and available. You know you got to take your head out of the sand sometimes and look around and find things. But what do you have coming up on the agenda or anything that in the next month that you want to kind of warn? Kind of warn the public. That's on the front.
Speaker 4:So if I can have, you know, two or three minutes, guys, I'll talk. Okay, so, okay. So, a little bit about the agenda, then some community events, and I came with a list tonight to help. So, on the agenda, our next meeting is next Tuesday. I think the date's the 23rd, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, what if anything is additional needed work to be done in the city of Burbank? It's a conversation piece. You know, nothing's going to be decided, no ordinance is going to be adopted, but if you have an opinion on it, if you have a thought, a concern, that is the time Show up, send your e-comment in. We want to hear from you. You don't think we need anything done. Okay, if you want to see changes made, now's your time to speak up.
Speaker 4:After that, I know other people find it very dense and boring, but May is one of my favorite times. It's budget season. I think we'll have three consecutive you guys. Three consecutive meetings in May are all going to be devoted to our budget, what we're funding. I am proud to say, though, that for this year and for the next I, I think four projected years we have recurring surplus, so we're in excellent financial health. That's it on the on the city council side, and then I'll just quickly say on community event, and then you guys can wrap it up. Just a couple of random things. If you're looking to serve the Burbank community, sustainable Burbank commission, there's a vacancy, there's now an opening on that commission.
Speaker 2:By the way, I remember Ross. What's my favorite commission?
Speaker 3:That is.
Speaker 2:I love that commission because you know what they do, do things they do and they do make recommendations to the council.
Speaker 4:All the time.
Speaker 2:All the time and they communicate To me. That's a very valuable you know. They take their very seriously, so I love our sustainable commission.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. So here's the thing there's one vacancy. The key deadline is you have to apply by May 10th. So if you want to get involved, go online, fill out the application by May 10th at 6 pm at the McCambridge Recreation Center. So if you care about our open spaces, our park infrastructure here in Burbank, we have a master plan that's planning for the community's needs for the next however many years. This is your time to get involved.
Speaker 3:My granddaughter swims daily there, one of the parks. People came up to me and said they had one of those meetings at Verdugo Park. It was attended by quite a few people. But then he said you know, the people on the hill don't realize, come to that meeting. We can do what we did at Verdugo Olympic Pool up at McCambridge, but they need to have your voice and May 8th is a great time to put your input in. It's going to be at McCambridge Park. May 8th is a great time to put your input in. It's going to be at McCambridge park. People on the Hill, as we call it, I'm sure, because it would be great to have the duplicate of Verdugo park up at McCambridge and now's the time to get it into the on the master plan. So money could be asked for. You know, we just got millions of dollars to redo the pool that's there, but I mean yeah, so May 8th is a good thank you and I got two more things, guys, and then it's back to you, um, going back to April for a second.
Speaker 4:So if you're looking to celebrate earth day in Burbank it's not often well-known but we actually do have an earth day celebration and tree planting. It's up at Stowe Canyon nature center, um, uh, april 20th, 10 am to noon. So if you're looking to celebrate Earth Day, that's the place to be. And then, lastly, drug Take Back Day, which is administered by the police department If you have expired prescription drugs and you want to safely dispose of them. It's going to be at Police and Fire Headquarters there in the parking lot April 27th, 10 am to 2 pm. So make sure you're there if you've got some stuff to turn in.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:It's all anonymous too. They don't have to.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, no, they don't ask questions. You turn it in and nobody asks questions.
Speaker 2:It's a good, safe way to do it.
Speaker 3:Well, I had a friend pass away and had all his meds, and family members have to take care of all that. Here's a good time to do. Uh, you know somebody that passed away and they have all their old meds. Put them in a trash bag. Take them there, they get taken care of. You don't have to worry about putting them. Don't put them in the toilet, don't flush them down the drain, all that stuff. There's ways to take care of it now. So those were some great. Uh, we're busy here.
Speaker 4:We got a lot, a lot going on and I want to thank you guys so much for letting me come back, join on and, uh, over the summer months, we're going to do that right on the bus.
Speaker 2:You brought that. When you, when you said that in a meeting he actually got on the phone, dialed my number faster than I could dial his number because we were going, what did he just say? But you know what? We love it, let's do it. And we're going to make it happen. We just got to logistically make it happen too. We got time the bus people were working with us. They sent some diagrams of buses.
Speaker 3:Karen Pan is just.
Speaker 2:she's an angel I think I have a route worked out where we get on it at one place and within an hour and a half we can make a loop twice or something.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they're excited about it too, because they want to showcase the system. So okay, We'll shine a light on it.
Speaker 2:Well, you're going to have me to deal with also.
Speaker 3:Great show. I mean thanks for you know making the time. I'm glad council was dark tonight because we covered a lot of stuff yeah we did. When people say you know, we put this out here, my Burbank talks, ask the mayor. Those are things people say they can't get answers. Here's another avenue where you could hear something from the mayor's mouth. Not at the dais, you know, you came quite well prepared. I mean, people wrote us and you had answers. So good job, greg. What do?
Speaker 2:you say I think it's a great show and we'll be back in May with another one.
Speaker 4:Yes, we will.
Speaker 2:For Burbank Mayor Nick Schultz and Ross Benson. This is Craig Schuett saying. Thank you very much for listening and we will talk to you next time.
Speaker 1:My Burbank Talks would like to thank all of my Burbank's advertisers for their continued support Burbank Water and Power, cusimano Real Estate Group, ume Credit Union, burbank Chamber of Commerce, gain Credit Union, providence, st Joseph Medical Center, community, chevrolet, media City Credit Union, ucla Health, tequila's, burbank Logix Credit Union, hill Street Cafe, pertain, escobar Wealth Management and the UPS Store on Third Street.