myBurbank Talks
Ask the Mayor with Nick Schultz, June 2024
What happens when local controversies collide with broader issues? Find out in this thought-provoking episode of My Burbank Talks, where hosts Craig Sherwood and Ross Benson sit down with Mayor Nick Schultz. They tackle the recent uproar over a video allegedly showing Burbank police dropping off a homeless individual in North Hollywood. Hear Mayor Schultz's candid views on LA City Council President Paul Krekorian's approach and learn why patience is key while investigations are ongoing. The Mayor also extends a call for regional cooperation to address homelessness effectively.
Ever wondered if city councils should wade into international issues? We explore the complex balance Burbank City Council must strike between local responsibilities and global concerns, such as the conflict between Israel and Gaza. Mayor Schultz shares his perspective on the council's past actions, including their stance on Ukraine and their decision to rescind friendship city status with Hadrut. This segment also delves into the challenges local leaders face in voicing their community's concerns while keeping a keen eye on city-specific priorities like housing and quality of life.
Experience the unique duties of a mayor as Mayor Schultz recounts the surreal moments of greeting First Lady Dr. Jill Biden during her visit to Burbank. From navigating motorcades to engaging with national figures, get an inside look at the unexpected rewards of mayoral duties. The episode wraps up with discussions on rent stabilization, the impact of digital platforms on local restaurants, and the upcoming power and water rate increases in Burbank. Don't miss this jam-packed episode full of insights, anecdotes, and critical community updates.
What happens when local controversies collide with broader issues? Find out in this thought-provoking episode of My Burbank Talks, where hosts Craig Sherwood and Ross Benson sit down with Mayor Nick Schultz. They tackle the recent uproar over a video allegedly showing Burbank police dropping off a homeless individual in North Hollywood. Hear Mayor Schultz's candid views on LA City Council President Paul Krekorian's approach and learn why patience is key while investigations are ongoing. The Mayor also extends a call for regional cooperation to address homelessness effectively.
Ever wondered if city councils should wade into international issues? We explore the complex balance Burbank City Council must strike between local responsibilities and global concerns, such as the conflict between Israel and Gaza. Mayor Schultz shares his perspective on the council's past actions, including their stance on Ukraine and their decision to rescind friendship city status with Hadrut. This segment also delves into the challenges local leaders face in voicing their community's concerns while keeping a keen eye on city-specific priorities like housing and quality of life.
Experience the unique duties of a mayor as Mayor Schultz recounts the surreal moments of greeting First Lady Dr. Jill Biden during her visit to Burbank. From navigating motorcades to engaging with national figures, get an inside look at the unexpected rewards of mayoral duties. The episode wraps up with discussions on rent stabilization, the impact of digital platforms on local restaurants, and the upcoming power and water rate increases in Burbank. Don't miss this jam-packed episode full of insights, anecdotes, and critical community updates.
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 Schuert here with you once again, along with Ross Benson.
Speaker 3:I'm in a different seat, so where do I aim to? Hi, there you go.
Speaker 2:And Ross. It's that time of the month again where it's our favorite show. It's Ask the Mayor, and we have Mayor Nick Schultz from the city of Burbank here to answer some questions and see what's going on in our fair city here.
Speaker 4:Thanks for having me. Guys Always glad to be back here.
Speaker 2:Okay, we're going to go here, there we are Okay. So we're going to go here, there we are okay. So we're in june, it's kind of summertime now and there's, there's, you know, things are a little, a little quieter than usual, but doesn't mean that there still aren't issues, there still aren't things going on and everything else is that why he's not wearing a tie? But he is wearing this fancy, but he's got the nice city of burbank polo on polos that the departments have changed to.
Speaker 3:It's the casual look, you know. You go up just an inch and you'll be able to see it's really good looking. I guess you guys have to pay for those, but they literally out of your pocket, but they're nice. It's a little nicer than wearing a tie today.
Speaker 4:It's a whole lot better than wearing a whole suit and tie Absolutely wearing a tie today.
Speaker 2:It's a whole lot better than wearing a whole suit and dye, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So let's start off with some things.
Speaker 2:Let's start off with a little issue, a little issue that Burbank got stuck in nationally, and a couple weeks ago the LA City Council President, paul Kekorian who, by the way, was a Burbank school board member at one time and representative in the assembly representing Burbank at one time came up with a video of a homeless individual being dropped off in North Hollywood by Burbank police and didn't bother with a phone call to our police chief, our city manager or yourself, the mayor, but he found every news media's phone number, called them up and said please come look at my video, look what Burbank's doing to our city.
Speaker 2:The video does not look good to a point, but it's out of context. So I'm going to let you kind of say where things are at. So I'm going to let you kind of Say where things are at. I'm sure you're disappointed In the fact that Nobody calls you in advance. Looking at this a little bit or something, I'd say if he called you and a week later you had nothing, yeah, you put it on the media then, well, we were together that afternoon.
Speaker 3:You, craig and I had Bundt cakes, nothing but cakes. And you said I'm still waiting. Yeah uh, bundt cakes, nothing but cakes.
Speaker 2:And you said I'm still waiting. Yeah, yeah, well, I'll let you get in there and let you get your thoughts on it.
Speaker 4:Sure, well, um, you know, regrettably, it's June 18th and I'm still waiting for that call. Uh, however, the the councilman's office did reach out via email. Uh, and you know, look, email is productive, but I always think if you get folks in a room or on a call, you can hammer out a lot of the issues. But look, we are, despite maybe the misgivings that I have about the way in which the councilman brought the issue to light rather than picking up the phone. As you all know, my number is out there. It's not that hard to find. I think we publish it under when we do this show, and I get calls, by the way. So it was a little disappointing that he didn't feel that he could reach out to me. With all of that said, look, as you said, craig, you know what we saw in the video, albeit at first blush. It was very concerning, and so Burbank Police Department takes the concern very seriously. We are doing a thorough and comprehensive investigation and look, at the end of the day, when that investigation is complete, if there was any misconduct or wrongdoing by the involved city employees, then there will be an appropriate level of consequences. But what I will conclude with is this there were a lot of folks coming to me asking more of a statement, either a full-throated defense of the officer or condemning the officers involved.
Speaker 4:Look, at the end of the day, we are talking about professionals that work every single day in the city of Burbank. They are public employees. They took an oath to wear the badge. I think we owe them a little bit of restraint in allowing the process to play out. We don't yet have all of the facts. We need to have all of the facts so that we can fully met at met out what happened here and was there any misconduct by anyone involved? So in closing, I'll just say this Look, we still don't have yet all of the information. I hope that we will soon and, as I've said now, probably twice. You know, if there's any remediation that needs to be done with regards to our employees, we will certainly pursue that.
Speaker 4:But, with all of that said, we take homelessness seriously in the city of Burbank. We understand that those who are unhoused in our community need connection to housing services. They need connection to wraparound supportive services to deal with the underlying reason that they find themselves in an unhoused situation. We have proven in the last several years especially, that we want to be good regional partners, and so my invitation to Councilman Kikorian and all of our regional partners is if you have a thought on how we can be a better partner, pick up the phone, give us a call. We want to work with you. I think that having press conferences for the sake of press conferences, while maybe good for politician involved, isn't good for actually getting things done and solving the issue and, most importantly in all of this, caring for the gentleman that we saw on that video, who desperately does need connection to housing and services.
Speaker 3:Well, I just want to say you know you made a couple of very good points there. One your day job, you job, your deputy district, uh, deputy attorney, yep, yep, you deal with body worn cameras daily. You look at footage and so forth. Those officers were wearing body wear worn cameras. Everything they said they did is recorded. What's said in the car to the gentleman and his answers are recorded. Yeah, um, so you get.
Speaker 3:You see, when this report is done, there's a lot more to it. Plus, you sat on that dais home la breaking their behind to try to get people into places. Uh, you guys just last meeting, or meeting before the piano store, that you guys are finally moving forward a resource center for homeless people. Yeah, the fire station that Home LA is going to be taking over for homeless people. Burbank's doing a lot. You can drive any street in Burbank and you won't find anywhere near the number of homeless people. And when I say homeless, this gentleman had some other issues. You know that's what the call kind of appears to be, but it just kind of gets me. You guys are doing and again, we've I've heard from the police chief, I've heard from council members. There'll be a thorough investigation, right, like everything else that they do.
Speaker 4:Absolutely, like everything else that they do, Absolutely, and you know.
Speaker 4:The other thing I'll say is that, in the course of the letter that I received from the councilman office and in response to his press conference, I'm not aware of any.
Speaker 4:But to the extent that there's any independent or outside investigation, you know the city will, as we always do, fully cooperate with that. But again, I always try to think about what would I hope if I was involved in any sort of situation. You know, and perhaps this is my legal training showing through I always believe in the presumption of innocence and having all of the facts before we condemn someone publicly. I take that very seriously and I think that that's why, right now, we need to trust the process to play out, to gather all the facts, and then we will respond accordingly. And I hope that folks around the region look, I understand how politicians operate and everybody wants that press conference or that headline that is not always productive and compatible with good governance. And so right now we need the adults at the table in the room looking at what happened and solving it and we need less grandstanding table in the room looking at what happened and solving it and we need less grandstanding.
Speaker 3:And you work for the attorney general's office and he said in his press conference that you know we're going to call the attorney general. It's like, like craig said, grandstanding, I mean let's go down the list.
Speaker 2:My father's staff was going to assist a person and then got him to help and everything else and the help was just they called the paramedics, they brought him back to Burbank and he's back laying on the street in Burbank two days later. They didn't help him. They didn't do it. Like you said, the bigger problem is not the problem that faces Burbank right now, is not this one individual. It's kind of through a spotlight on it, but I did some research. It's kind of a spotlight on it, but I did some research. No-transcript.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds about right and to me, the bigger issue is we're struggling to do the Help Home Again LA at the old Station 13. We're struggling to get the Hollywood Piano Place. We can't come to the money to be able to put restrooms and everything else, and yet all this money is going towards LA and other cities and they're basically wasting it, and we have a need for you know, even if we got 25% of that money, we'd be helping people a lot better. So I think that's where the root problem is is that we got duped on an election measure H situation.
Speaker 4:You know, I am glad in one way that it shed light on an issue and I wish we had had the opportunity and I still am waiting for that call because, should the councilman call, I'd be happy to tell him about. You know, there is a culture shift in Burbank. We're doing a lot of great work, setting a foundation, working towards our first homeless solution center, our first shelter site, if you will, in the city of Burbank in about 24 months time. To your point, ross, we have a tremendous partnership with Home.
Speaker 4:Again, la Burbank is not in the business of pushing those who are facing crisis in our community, those who are unhoused over our border, into another city, and if it happens, then I'll be the first to announce it. So I hope that the councilman will take me up on this renewed offer to have that conversation. I'd love to tell him about what we're working on in Burbank it's been a while since he's been here and to reaffirm to him that we are good faith regional partners and if he ever has a concern and I am glad he brought the concern up, if nothing else, it's good to look into it, to have that transparency and accountability. But we need to do it in a more collaborative, friendly way, because, at the end of the day, homelessness is not a Los Angeles problem, it's not a Burbank problem, it's a state of California. It's really a national problem.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and it's too bad that the news media all decided to put it on. You know it was that day's video of the day and now everybody's forgotten about it. You know there's no follow-up or anything and so we did a follow-up story today on it just to say what was going on. But you know it just made Burbank look bad that one day and national news picked it up and it's unfortunate. So hopefully things get worked out.
Speaker 3:Well, I think your follow-up. If people take a look at myburbankcom, there is your follow-up and you will see where. Two days later, the gentleman was returned to Burbank. He was taken care of again. The officers asked him what he wanted. They got him what he wanted. They've taken care of him. How he keeps coming back to Burbank. Well, he said it. La paramedics took and dropped him off back at a local hospital and that was at Parkside and Bob Hope, which is not A block away. You know the real hospital. Take him into your ER. We've talked to St Joe's and so forth. So let's move on because you have an exciting week.
Speaker 2:So the next question now I need to preface it saying I am fully against wars and all those things. But with that said, I'm a little, I'm personally a little. I feel our time is, I don't want to say wasted, but our time is being used by people with an agenda, wanting the Burbank City Council to take up the war with Israel and Gaza and Palestine and all that, and Hamas. And I think the people are well-meaning I'm not saying they're not, but this is not city business, it's not the Burbank City Council. I don't think Israel's waiting to say well, when the city of Burbank weighs in, then we'll make our decision. I just think, yes, we're probably one of a million voices out there, but we have a lot of our time being taken up in oral communications and, as such, by people wanting the city council to do something. And, yes, it's symbolic only. So. My problem is why are we kind of? You know rules are, you must only talk about city business. Is this really city business?
Speaker 4:You know that's. It's a great question, craig, and here's why I like to think of it as a continuum, a spectrum, if you will. So what's city business? I mean, certainly we would say the maintenance of our road, the provision of city services like police and fire, that's certainly city business. When I think about issues like this, I think back to some of the other issues we've tackled in my time on the council. We rescinded our friendship city status with the city of Hadrut once the Azerbaijan took possession of the city. We have reaffirmed our commitment to the recognition of the independence of the Republic of Artsakh and at first blush you're right Even when there was standing in solidarity with Ukraine after the Russian invasion.
Speaker 4:A lot of folks rightfully say well, what does it have to do? In Burbank, it's a complicated issue, because we have folks of Palestinian and Jewish descent that live in this community, that are impacted by this ongoing warfare and death in the region, and so the question then becomes what's the appropriate level of involvement from the city? So look, at the end of the day, anyone can come before the dais, they can come before the council, they can ask the council to take action, and we're not going to limit that because, in Burbank, as you both know, we have always prided ourselves on our accessibility and our belief in that first amendment right. What I will say, though, is, as much as people are asking for a city council resolution and I guess we'll be talking about that on Tuesday night, or I guess now it's a letter that Councilman Anthony would like us to consider sending to the Biden administration I always think, look, at the end of the day, the hand the United States involvement in the Gaza region is really decided by the executive branch, the Biden Harris administration, as well as the Congress, and so I think the most valuable thing that we can do as local leaders I have Adam Schiff cell phone number.
Speaker 4:I've communicated with the congressman. I know our state Senator. I, um, I know our other state Senator. I think that we can congressmen. I know our state senator, I know our other state senator. I think that we can and should, and I think that most of my I don't know for a fact, but I believe my colleagues are expressing the concerns of the Burbank community in our conversations with our federal representatives, and really, at the end of the day, they're the ones who have the ability to decide what gets funded, what armaments are shipped, what relations we have with foreign powers. I think that's the best way that we can advocate whatever you know, whatever side of the issue. You're on here, and that's hard because people don't always see that advocacy, but you both know, I'm in DC several times a year. I'm in Sacramento several times a year. We advocate for Burbank. I think that that's maybe the least often noticed and yet the most effective channel that we have to really voice the perspective on Burbank, of issues like this.
Speaker 3:Anything, ross? No, I agree it's a hard one because people are real passionate when they get up to speak. I know, like Craig and I, we listen to council. We're not there. But when you go to phone calls and there are sometimes a dozen that this is all they want to talk about. It doesn't matter what else is happening in the city. This is what they're concentrating on, and sometimes it's a little frustrating. Hopefully, if a letter does get written, if that's the final decision, maybe some of these people will, you know, understand. We've done our part. There's no more that we can do.
Speaker 4:Well, you know.
Speaker 4:The other thing I would add is that I know there's always frustration and concern with how long it's taken this and other agenda items to come back, but the thing that folks forget is that you know, when we set our goals which now we're doing on it we tried it this time on a two-year cycle, so we set it last January when the new council was seated.
Speaker 4:Look, at the end of the day, the council agrees, we sit down and agree and say these are going to be the priorities. Not that we won't touch these other very important issues, but issues of housing and homelessness, maintaining public services, quality of life, the environment these are the things that we have all agreed to as being the top priority items. So, yes, you can come before the council and ask for a resolution or a letter, but we have to balance and fold that into all of the other work product that we've already agreed to prioritizing, and so that's why I know it can be frustrating. But look, if you think the council should have a different set of priorities, you will have your opportunity in January with a new council seated, and I encourage everyone listening to show up and tell the council what you think we should work on.
Speaker 3:Well, you just said your goals and other council members have always reminded me you guys don't have a crystal ball. No, there's no crystal ball that you are handed when you become a council member. We have some other issues. State of California saying you will build how many residential houses in your city in a certain amount of time, that weighs because they can penalize us that will affect us for years to come. That's right. You have just everything. Did we ever think that we would have a pandemic that shut down locally? Everything Our studios are still suffering. So there's a lot of things you can't see in that crystal ball and people, I think, have trouble seeing that sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, when you do get the letter, you can give it to one of your new best friends. That's our next little subject. Sherry, one of the fun things you get to do as mayor is when dignitaries and the nice thing about having our own airport right here is that when dignitaries do fly into town and the First Lady of the United States, or FLOTUS as she's known, as you usually are able to go to the airport and meet her and greet her on behalf of the city of Burbank, her on behalf of the city of Burbank. And I understand that not only did you get to greet her on Saturday, but you got to jump in the motorcade and you also went to the big event.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel with two ex-presidents, or an ex-president and a current president? Yeah, so tell us about your experience.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so. So yes, that's right. The mayor of Burbank is typically invited to greet any dignitaries that are visiting our city. So, president, first lady, vice president, since taking taking on the role in December, I think this was my fourth time meeting Dr Biden and she's really terrific. So, yeah, they. They land at Burbank Airport, they pull in on the north end of the airport, near Millionaire, that private entry area. So this normally they fly in the blue and whites, and then Ross was telling me I think she's on a military plane this time.
Speaker 3:I was texting you, kind of watching, and I knew the ballpark when she was arriving. But that experience that you've gotten now four times I think you you've beaten all the other mayors in our city on meeting, but it also goes to show us how many times they're coming to California. I mean, you know quite a bit.
Speaker 2:We are the ATM. Here we are. We are the ATM here.
Speaker 3:Didn't they walk away with $30 million?
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, about $30 million. What was it like being in the motorcade? How was that experience? That must have been fascinating.
Speaker 4:So here's the backstory and then I'll get into the details. So I had already been invited by the Biden-Harris campaign to attend the event as a dignitary for the city of Burbank, as the highest ranking Democratic elected official. So I was planning to go. And then Thursday afternoon Sandy George, our executive assistant, is out and I see the email come in from the White House. I've corresponded with this person a few times and they said well, first lady is arriving in Burbank, would you be willing to greet her? So of course I say yes, and then I explain the predicament of okay. So she's landing at about 515. And I think she was actually late, ross, it was much closer to 5.30. Then the doors close at 6, and so you know I was— Are you?
Speaker 3:looking at your watch going. We'll never make it.
Speaker 2:We're never going to make it. I'm sure it'll be an exception for her, though I'm sure that's going to happen.
Speaker 4:It's true. So I'm in touch with my contact in the Secret Service and they said well, in this instance we can have you not in the vehicle she's driving in, but we can have you hop in one of the staff bands with all the press and the other staff members who got off the plane. So they put me in this white van and I go wait at the back. And it was the most surreal experience ever because there I am going down the five, they're pulling traffic off to the side. I'm like three cars back behind the first lady. We go all the way downtown to la live, we pull into the peacock theater and the secret service I mean they were incredibly, uh gracious in their handling of me. They got me right to my seat, like, moved me in, uh past the security line super quickly, like it was uh, it's it, you know.
Speaker 4:It takes me back to the first time I met Dr Biden at the airport. I couldn't think of anything to say. So I was like how was the trip? And she probably said this line like a million times. But she turns to the plane, a blue and white on that experience, and she's like well, this is the best way to travel. I can now see exactly what she's meaning. I mean, it's um. Reminds me of one other joke. Uh, president Biden said Saturday night and he was like you know it's funny, once I took office as president there's no traffic on the road. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2:But presidents are not allowed to drive either.
Speaker 3:Yes, Well, I'm just so, I'm just curious. Yeah, I, you know, I monitor CHP and and they, I've watched their detail work, bhp, and they, I've watched their detail work. It's just amazing how precise. And, like you said, you looked at your watch. I texted my son, I said what time showtime, you know, and the president walked in at a certain time and he said Jill's not here yet, you know, and they move. I mean, when you want to get across town, this is the way to go. Don't expect that you know your whole, uh, mayorship. No, no, no, but I'll tell you. And there was a Dodger game at the same time, but it didn't matter. The first, the first lady, needs to get somewhere and her staff and with you in it. Yeah, but I now, mike, I texted you, you didn't answer me. Did that van take you back to Burbank or did you Uber back to Burbank?
Speaker 4:No, I Ubered back to Burbank, I lifted actually, but yes, I did that. The other fun thing I'll say is great event you know really well attended. You know President Obama had great remarks, president Biden did too. But the fun part was there was a small reception afterwards and I had a chance to run into our good friend, councilman Paul Kerkorian.
Speaker 4:And so I went up to him and I said hey, it's me, the mayor of Burbank. I've been waiting for your call, so you know. I think he has my number now and hopefully we'll connect this week.
Speaker 2:So Saturday night was fun. And what did his stutter sound like?
Speaker 4:You know, I will just say I don't think he was expecting to run into me there, but he was very polite, very professional and I look forward to a good time.
Speaker 2:And did you say I rode in the motorcade with the first lady? How'd you get here?
Speaker 4:No, I probably should have done that. No, no no.
Speaker 3:But it's pretty. You know these details. I mean, you were in with the president, with former president, you were with Jimmy Kimmel. That was probably a laugh and a half in itself. Yeah, and I guess Black with him, jack Black, jack Black got to perform George Clooney, Julia.
Speaker 4:Roberts Did.
Speaker 2:Jimmy Kimmel have his guy with him as a security guard?
Speaker 4:No, I don't think he was there.
Speaker 2:Oh, he wasn't there, huh.
Speaker 4:At least I didn't notice him.
Speaker 3:But when you look back at your mayorship, there's a lot you're going to be doing and I would probably think these are probably some of the highlights of your lifetime of being mayor. When you stepped into that position, you have no clue what's going to go on, and you've been in it now for several months. These meeting the first lady, meeting dignitaries at their report are kind of probably right up there, and you know representing our city.
Speaker 4:They are. And you know I will say I've had some good advice from a couple of former mayors and they all say look, when you're a council member even the vice mayor, I mean the work is always there, uh, responding to emails, meeting with constituents.
Speaker 4:But when you take that step to mayor, it is just it's so much more work because now you're representative of the city, you're the face of the city now Exactly, and so, whether it's a crisis that you weren't expecting, on a Friday afternoon and the press is calling you, or the first lady's landing, you're always on and you're always expected to carry yourself with a certain air, a certain professionalism, a dignity that's really deserving of Burbank. People want to look at their mayor and say that's someone that I believe in, they represent my values, they speak for me, or at least they're not embarrassing the city right Like that's. That's the goal.
Speaker 3:So I'm curious you've met her four times, you said at the airport. You say welcome to burbank, the media capital of america, or do?
Speaker 1:you have a world, the world the world.
Speaker 4:You know, the first time I think it was uh, yeah, welcome to burbank, the media capital of the world. Uh, now we're on pretty I mean, you know pretty pretty talkative points. Hey, how you doing, how's the flight, how's the president? Uh, you know pretty pretty talkative points. So, hey, how are you doing, how's the flight, how's the president? Um, you know, and at first, yeah, she had clearly no idea who I was, but now I've met her enough that she's like yeah, I think I kind of know you. You know, I don't know if you know my name, but she definitely knows me by.
Speaker 2:Do they have staff members on the plane saying okay him. You know so, I'm sure, but you said Allie was Allie, your wife was able to go with you. And she is the first lady of Burbank. First lady of Burbank, yes, you know.
Speaker 4:So they got a good kick out of that the first time they met, because I think this was Allie's third time meeting the first lady, so I try to always go with Allie. And then I will say we've been joined a couple of times. We had Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Lindsay Horvath with us when we met the first lady. This time We've had Supervisor Solis, we've had Mayor Karen Bass from the city of LA, so sometimes it's just me, sometimes we're accompanied by other dignitaries, but there's always something very special when the mayor of Burbank can say welcome back to Burbank, dr Biden. Wow.
Speaker 2:I think when somebody, when a plane lands in Burbank and says United States of America, that in itself is a big deal.
Speaker 4:Huge.
Speaker 2:How many airports are there in the United States that never see anything like that, you know? So it's a great perk and we're very happy for you.
Speaker 4:These are memories I'm going to carry for a very long time and it's, you know, I like to think that, if nothing else, I'm leaving, you know, the First Lady, with a very positive impression of our community, and I know my wife does her part to help too.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, and she works at Universal we will say NBC Universal on a show and she's around some big celebrities and some very high profile people. But when you're with photos, you know, and, and Ali's not that tall, but the doctor looks up to her, I bet, and is impressed by every time she she is just, it's great.
Speaker 4:When she had, you know her, her, her, her entourage, not alleys but the flotuses not yet things you know move along real well and they do and I I will say I know we got other topics, but I will say Dr Biden is, she's the real deal, like you know, when you see her, when you hear from her. She's thoughtful, she's intelligent, she's a very kind person, very sweet, and that's exactly what you get in real life. I mean, I was there and she was talking to Karen Bass asking her how the family was. She's just a real person who just happens to be first lady and to get to know her, even in this very small sliver of her life. It's really cool to see that. You know the people that are running our country, that are at the highest levels of our government, are married to the president. They're real human beings, just like you and me.
Speaker 2:They got all the same anxiety. Well, she takes her job as important as you take your job, which is, you know, it's a mutual respect and admiration there, which is fantastic.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, thank you. You know, and that's a nice thing about doing this show. You know, ask the Mayor, because you don't get to share this on the dais. You know. No, in your council comments you'll probably say I'm Beth, I welcome the FLOTUS on Saturday, blah, blah, blah. But in this show we've gone a little deeper and learned some neat stuff that you were in the back of the bus, but I was on the bus.
Speaker 2:You made it on the bus. Well, let's move on. We're going to have to get a little more serious again.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:We got something coming up on the agenda which you're going to start working on now. I just wrote down on my notes rent control, which of course, it's not really rent control, but it's a slippery slope right now in Burbank there's two sides. I really believe both sides have very legitimate arguments and everything else. I've seen it from Ross's point of view. I've seen it from a lot of things, so I know that you guys are about ready to embark on this journey. So what do you have for us on, I guess, rent? What exactly are you calling it?
Speaker 4:It's not rent control. Yeah, so we use the term rent control because it's good, easy shorthand, but I like to think of it as two separate but related components. So let me talk about what's going to be on the agenda for Tuesday night, this upcoming meeting. So we've talked about a rent cap and really what we're talking about is rent stabilization, the concept of should the government regulate the year-to-year growth that a housing provider can charge in rent. So under state law right now, you cannot under any circumstance generally increase the rent by more than 10% year-to-year. Now that adjusts based on inflation. I think this upcoming year, in August, it's going to be 8.9%, if I'm not mistaken, other jurisdictions have said it needs to be much less than that, because 8.9% still outpaces most wage growth.
Speaker 4:We are not talking about a cap per se on Tuesday night, but what we are talking about is what is the appropriate level of outreach that our staff needs to do in the next 90 to 120 days? So how many town hall style meetings are we going to put out a survey? How else are we going to gauge where the community's at in terms of their concerns and their needs for us to act in this area? So that's the first thing, tuesday night. So we've already appropriated the money and it's really staff's opportunity to come back and say this is what we'd like to do in the next three to four months, to make sure that we capture a true cross section of where the community is at on this, and then at the end of that period of time, then the council will hopefully have more information to decide what's the right move here, what is the right play. Do we touch state law, do we not? But of course we got to hear from our community to do that.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, craig says I'm on one side of that. I'll share it with you. I got that $285 rent increase last year and last week I got a $291 for this year. Add those two figures together A lot of money and I tell you, yeah, it is, it's, it's like crazy. You know, um, I I get it. The first year we went through covid and they hadn't raised my rent a couple, but now they're going to the maximum that that is permissible and that our water and power you're getting an increase there yeah yeah I yep, I'm sorry that dozen eggs at the market are getting harder to buy.
Speaker 3:You're right. You know, I've lived in Burbank all my life and it's happening all over, so that's my. When I listen to you guys talk about it, I take a deep breath and a heavy swallow.
Speaker 4:Well, and you know, ross, I know the three of us have talked about it more on the show in the past. Look, at the end of the day, to your point, craig. I do think there's common ground here. We're all struggling to keep up with the rising cost of everything. I think in the long term we have to add more housing, more housing options. If we construct more housing, we alleviate the market pressure. That's the long-term solution.
Speaker 4:I know you both know I could go on and on about it. I won't. But then the question becomes what do we do for all those residents like yourself who, in the short term, still live here? Maybe a new unit in five, 10 years will be great, but you need help right now. And then the question becomes what's the appropriate level of government intervention? You know what's the appropriate. You know level of government intervention intervention. One option the council could pursue is a rent stabilization ordinance. You know, capping rent at some amount less than state state law. But that has questions that we need to answer, true, and including who oversee it? How do you fund it? What are the unintended consequences that we need to potentially guard against? All of that, I'm not going to say it's all going to be answered in the outreach, but I think these are the kinds of things that we want to explore in our outreach.
Speaker 3:And I get you know, craig, craig has brought up a couple of times. You know, as a landlord, you have an air conditioner going down and we're going to have a hundred degree heat this, this, you know, next week Got to replace it.
Speaker 2:A new roof, yeah, all those things.
Speaker 3:How do you do a roof? That's what? $60,000?.
Speaker 2:Oh, about $22,000, $25,000.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, and all those things, we get it with landlords. It's nice that Burbank does have quite a few of those landlords that have bought years ago when they worked at Lockheed and been around, but it's like ouch.
Speaker 4:Well and to your point, Ross, you know we can't look at the other side of this equation as the enemy. At the end of the day, tenants are just trying to survive in a very tough economy. And look, I'm not talking about the big corporations, but the mom and pop housing providers, the people that bought their home, that are trying to rent it out, that want to have a good home to offer the community. We want them to stay in business. We don't want to lose those housing options. So there's got to be a way to balance all of it. And I don't know I wouldn't presume the council has figured out the whole answer yet but I have a feeling that by doing this outreach over the next few months robust outreach, as council member Mullins liked to call it I think we're going to have a better idea of where folks need the help and what we can do.
Speaker 3:And I think you know, you've said it at every meeting, council members and owners have said it. You know let's have a town hall but again you want to do a big outreach. You know, if it's signs on every corner, it's just you got to get to everybody landlords and tenants and work it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think there's any easy. There's no easy answer, but I do think, after listening to council talk about this numerous times, now that they're starting. You guys are starting to come to, not a middle ground, but you're starting to come up with, thinking about some solutions, and I do like the fact that you're talking about maybe getting another city attorney and having its own separate department, and its own separate function Because, let's face it, the Landlord, tenant Commission.
Speaker 2:They're very good and well-meaning people, they really try, but they're worthless, they can't do anything, they have no power, they have nothing and that's got to be frustrating to people who go to them for help. They say, hey, well, we called. And he says forget about it. And they go, is that it? And they go yeah, we're sorry, we can't do anymore.
Speaker 3:Been there, done that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a real tough thing for those people who are looking for help that if we need to have that new department, we need to have that new department then because that's the reality of what we live in today.
Speaker 4:Well, and the other thing I would add. So, going back to the idea of rent control, so we've talked about rent stabilization, We've talked about the city attorney's proposal to have this housing enforcement section that goes after the bad actors. The other thing that I would say is that we also have to talk about eviction protection. So in the month of July the city staff is going to be bringing back an ordinance that we approved last year, the tenant protection ordinance, which was the first of its kind in Burbank's history. What that ordinance said was if you are evicting someone because you want to do a substantial renovation or remodel of the property, you have to give them more than just the one month of rent that's provided by state law. We required three months for first and last month's deposit on a new place and moving expenses. We did not touch any of the other categories that are provided for in state law to evict a tenant.
Speaker 4:So the question we're going to be talking about on Tuesday I think it's July 16th or 17th that third Tuesday of July we're going to be talking about on Tuesday I think it's July 16th or 17th that third Tuesday of July we're going to be looking at, you know, should all of these reasons be permissible to evict a tenant and, if so, what is the appropriate amount of compensation?
Speaker 4:And I've said it before on the dais and I'll say it again you know, if you're evicting someone in the middle of their lease term, the way I look at it is you're breaking a contract and, look, there might be very real reasons, like moving in a sick relative, where you do need to do that. So what's the appropriate level of compensation to make up for the damage to the person who was expecting to be there the next six months or eight months or whatever, and now they need to go find a new place to live? These are the questions we're going to be answering in July. So the issue is very much alive and well and, in my humble opinion, it continues to be one of the very top issues that the city council is grappling with here in the middle of 2024.
Speaker 2:I agree. I think it's something that's going to. I think you guys are on the right track, but I think it's very complex.
Speaker 4:It is no easy, quick answers right.
Speaker 2:No, not at all. Let's move on to. Well, actually, this would say we're recording this on what was today's date, Today's the 18th, right Today? Yep, Today's the 18th, we're recording this, and this morning you actually went over to the Burbank Chamber of Commerce who hosted a digital restaurant, a way of helping restaurants in today's world. I thought it was a very interesting concept.
Speaker 2:I don't know, Did they talk about like the Grubhub and DoorDashes and all that? Yes, so just a quick little story. A lot of times I'll get a sandwich from Jersey Mike's and I wind up paying $19.20 for the sandwich, and I went into the Jersey Mike's and it was like $13. And I'm going wait a second. So not only are you paying a lot more, but then you're also paying their fee and then you're paying a tip. So not only are you paying a lot more, but then you're also paying their fee and then you're paying a tip, and I can see where restaurants are really, you know, struggling to it. So what went on today? I know you went there to help the chamber and get involved with our Burbank restaurant people. So what was that all about today?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so there were a couple of really great things that we took away from this town hall. So this was the first town hall I've had a chance to help MC as mayor and I want to thank, of course, the Chamber of Commerce for hosting it. Our guest speaker was Joe Reinstein from the Digital Restaurant Association. This is actually a national association. They do lobby in California but they represent restaurants of every kind, but the real focus are mom and pop restaurants like the Talleyrand, for example, like King's Deli, folks that are right here in Burbank that are grappling with the issue of, you know, since the pandemic, we're in this new economy where people are using Grubhub, where people are using Grubhub Chow, now Uber Eats, to order food online.
Speaker 4:The issue is that people think they're ordering directly from the restaurant and they're not. They're actually ordering through this third-party platform and, in my humble opinion, from what I've heard so far, there are inadequate protections for our small businesses. So these platforms don't necessarily have to share your customer information with the restaurant. You think that they, that they would, but they don't have to. So what happens at the end of the day? If your order gets messed up or it doesn't get delivered correctly, you're probably going to take to Yelp and you're going to complain about the restaurant when in fact it's the platform's responsibility for your poor experience. And right now the restaurants don't really have a good method to ensure that there is good data sharing of all these folks that are buying their product but they don't get access to the data to market them. And then, of course, there's lack of fee transparency. So you know, we get the bill and we see the total and it will say service charge, but we don't really understand, as consumers, where all that money's going.
Speaker 4:I'll give you one more example. The owner of Chili John's was talking today and was saying that there was a rather large order that they had recently and someone left the restaurant the restaurant a $25 tip and they were, like most people probably know, don't know that that tip goes to the driver. None of it goes to the restaurant. I mean people, of course. Hopefully, you tip your driver, but they're here, they are. They're thinking that this, this tip, is going to actually go to the chef in the kitchen. It doesn't.
Speaker 4:And so one of the things that the Digital Restaurant Association is doing at the state level and at the local level is really trying to push the state and local governments to require more transparency so that you as a consumer, at least know what you're being charged, who's going to get paid what, and so you can make that choice, an educated choice of yeah, I'll order from Chili John's tonight using Uber Eats, or I'll drive down to the Talleyrand to pick up my meal, and that way I make sure that all of my hard-earned money is getting into their pocket, because I really care about Karen. So that's, those are the kinds of things that they're advocating around, and I think that we all walked away with some good ideas of what we can do at the local level, and hopefully some of our local restauranteurs are now better connected and well-versed on the issue.
Speaker 2:This sounds like what's the federal government's doing with. Is it Ticketron, or you know they're not disclosing fees on the tickets and everything else oh, ticketmaster yeah.
Speaker 2:Ticketmaster, yeah, and used to be called Ticketron back in the old days. But they're not disclosing fees and everything else, and they're now. You know the federal government's actually got involved in a lawsuit with them and the fee is outrageous. They don't do anything for that $3, $4, $5 fee. They're just there. If they're physically doing something or somebody had to do something and they had to pay somebody, that's one thing.
Speaker 2:But just the fact that it's a digital transaction and you're paying a $3 or $4 fee per ticket for a digital transaction is and you have no choice. It's either you buy a ticket through them or you don't go to the show Because there's no way to buy it at a local box office. So I think that you know, now that Grubhub is part of Amazon Prime everybody who has Amazon Prime now gets free Grubhub that that locks them in a little more into the system. So I think absolutely I would love to see our small mom-and-pop restaurants how we can help them. The entire premise of food delivery was a great idea at one time, but now they found out how to make money at it.
Speaker 4:That's true, and I'll just say one other thing. One thing that we talked about in today's town hall is the fact that it's not a level playing field. So you know our local restaurant. You know everything from Coral Cafe to Talleyrand. They're doing their best to keep up and, obviously, with the limited bandwidth they have, they'll come to city council. They might call their assembly member or their senator or their senator.
Speaker 4:On the other end of the equation, you have huge platforms like Uber that are dumping literally millions of dollars in races across the state to get candidates that are favorable to them elected. What that means is that at the local level, from the restaurants themselves to local government, we need to be elevating some of these struggles that they're seeing to our state. We need to be doing things at the local level too, like looking at local business licensing requirements to make sure that Uber, for example, plays by our rules. But we also need to be elevating these stories up to the Capitol so people understand that, look, we want to be business friendly in California, and if you have a good business model and you're doing great, that's fantastic. But right now, big business is thriving at the expense of small business, at least in the restaurant context and we do not want to lose some of these iconic staples of our community, and there's got to be a way to ensure, if nothing else, that there's fee transparency and that they have access to their customer data.
Speaker 3:Well, I know some of these restaurants you listed off at coral cafe have their own employees drive delivering yep, which you know I, it's fantastic. Uh, there's a couple pizza places in town that also they have their own employees and I'll tell you I prefer using them because you know the tip you're giving them stays with that driver, it goes, goes, you know, with that employee and if you seek it out, ask when you place your order, if you're calling in, you know. But like I do know, like I said, coral Cafe the guy now knows me by name.
Speaker 4:Well, I think and to your point, ross, just to put a bow on it my best advice to our residents is this Look, trust me, as a working parent, I understand convenience, and it's so darn easy with a grub hub to order the food and have it delivered. But if it's a restaurant you really care about, if it means something to you, if you have the ability, drive on down there and pick it up, not only will all the money get in their pocket, quite frankly, they'll be happy to see you because they do this, because they love their work and they want to see a satisfied customer, right, so you'll make their day by picking it up yourself.
Speaker 3:Restaurant business is very. I've talked to a ton of restauranteurs around town. There's not much money in it. You got to do it for the love, because when you are a restaurant owner you don't go on vacation, because when you're enjoying your trip to italy the phone will ring and something didn't work. My brother reminded me in hawaii. You know you don't go away because either the blender didn't work or the soda tap is plugged and doesn't work. What do I do? So, as a property, as a um restaurateur, you feel for them? Yeah, you do.
Speaker 2:I think my burg needs a little investigative reporting on the entire thing in Burbank and see what numbers we can come up with on the disparities in numbers. I think that'd be a good investigation.
Speaker 4:I agree. I look forward to reading that.
Speaker 3:So I know we're kind of getting toward the end of our show and you said you are going to take a little time off from the dais. I know we don't have a council meeting next week, we're dark and I know you don't golf much, so you're not perfecting. You're here driving. No, I'm a terrible golfer, but your city manager I hear drives a heck of a golf ball he does, yeah, he, he.
Speaker 4:I mean he's I don't know semi-professional.
Speaker 3:One could argue he's, he's pretty good and he gets out there well, I have seen recently postings on social media that he's out with our young professionals and as I talked to uh justin, he says I'm grasping a a lot of what's going on in the community. So you know he's not locked to his desk. I was with Courtney the other night and she's loving her job. Oh yeah, Justin was gone all week.
Speaker 2:Last week Courtney said nothing happened, that's why he left in June and not in March.
Speaker 3:She was kind of disappointed but like she said, she had full. You know, you got some great executive management.
Speaker 4:We really do.
Speaker 3:And the city runs well and although, as we said last night when we did our show, even now the council chamber is dark and yes, it is dark, the lights are off. We do, yeah, we turn them off.
Speaker 2:We hope you. That brings us to actually our last little question. Oh great, which probably ties right into, you know, saving power in the city. Water and power rates are once again going to go up on July 1st. Voted for a couple of years ago to go two years at a time. So anything you want to, I'm sure you're going to get a lot of people coming to council and saying why are you raising the rates again? So you want to kind of just give a little background on that and let people kind of warn people what's going to happen on their next bill.
Speaker 4:Absolutely so. Burbank Water and Power sent a notice out to everyone who's going to be affected by the rate increases, which are all of us, all of our rate payers. Now look, obviously some of us are going to, you know, have more significant impacts than others, depending on your property type. But last year, when we went through our budget cycle to your point, craig, we adopted a two year series of rate increases. We're going to do the same thing next year. I mean, at least that's going to be. The proposal is to adopt additional rate increases. Well, that'll be up to the next council to decide if they're going to approve it, but I can tell you that the reason we adopted these rate increases really fall into two or three buckets. On the one hand, burbank Water and Power, as you both know, is some of the most reliable service, not just in our region but in the state and, I would argue, even in the country. But we do have aging infrastructure power lines, you know, water pipes, I mean all of this stuff. Some of it's approaching a hundred years old. It does need to be replaced. Unfortunately, that's not a cheap fix. You know there are supply chain issues that we're dealing with, and so it costs, you know, substantial capital to make these improvements. But the trade-off is we're trying to ensure the reliability of service. So that you live in Burbank, you flip the switch, you know the power is going to go on. We're not going to have brownouts. You want to turn on your faucet, you know the water is going to be clean drinkable. That's part of the reason for the increase.
Speaker 4:The other side of the equation is that the state has required us to move towards a carbon neutral economy, which means by 2045, phasing off of oil and gas and replacing that with renewable energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal, just to name a few. So the problem with doing that is that those renewable energy sources are hard to come by. They're generally more expensive to produce, and then on top of that, there just aren't nearly as many, and so we're competing with Glendale and Pasadena and Los Angeles to get access to the very finite resources, which many times are out of state, have to be transmitted over long distances. So you know, in the long term we need to generate more locally sourced renewable energy. But in the intermediate term we have to be meeting these goals, because here's the last point I'll make it's not just a goal on paper.
Speaker 4:The state has very serious financial consequences for the cities that don't meet this goal by 2040. We're talking a hundred million plus dollars in penalties to the general fund of the city of Burbank if we can't meet this goal. And so, yes, it is tough. We understand right now that nobody wants to see a rate increase, but it's good for the environment. We have to do it.
Speaker 4:Of course, it's going to have significant improvements to our infrastructure and the one thing we'll continue to do is look at all of our financial assistance programs to really get help to those in our community who need it, because I will just say, look, I'm trying to suck up all those rate increases that you're all dealing with too. I get it, it is not fun. You know our budget's already. As a household of four, I mean it's pretty tight. So, like, I totally understand. But we also understand that households like ours can, you know, afford to absorb that, and there are folks on fixed income in our community who really need the help. And so we want to continue to really strengthen and bolster our financial assistance programs so that nobody is at risk of losing their water, their power, their housing, et cetera.
Speaker 2:That's a new issue coming up, and next year, when they decide again, people need to go to the city council and make their opinions heard about that entire thing because, yeah, it's everything's old, everything's getting a lot older. Well, I think that's it for my questions, and we come to the part of the show which, hopefully, is now your favorite part of the show, and that is what's on the mayor's mind. So you have the, you have the mic, it's all yours, what's on your mind.
Speaker 4:You know, I think what's on my mind is it's hard to fathom, but I'm at roughly the halfway point of my mayorship and it has been a tremendous experience. Talking about memories tonight, I mean I've made so many. This has been the single most positive experience in my life other than being a husband to Allie and dad to Ella and Aiden. I mean this has been privilege of a lifetime. It's sad to think that I won't be on the council this time next year, so so what is on my mind is our upcoming election to fill the vacancy that I'll be leaving on the city council and I'm not going to sit here and tell you who to vote for, but what. I will ask everybody who's interested, or even just questioning. Start checking out the candidates. Some of them are already announcing. I'm sure there'll be more who come up.
Speaker 4:My advice is start developing a list of questions, the things that you care about, and talk to the candidates. I know you both have brought this up many times in you know commentary articles and on your podcast. We're a small community. You can literally reach out to any of the candidates and I guarantee you they'll probably meet you for a cup of coffee. My advice is go to a meet and greet, invite them for a cup of coffee, ask these questions and really get to know who you might be voting for on that November ballot. And right now over the summer it's a really good time to do it because people aren't fully plugged in, tuned into the election in November. So July and August candidates are trying desperately to make contact with voters. So you know, I know that my Burbank always does a wonderful job of asking the candidates and profiling the questions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we always do a question thing every year.
Speaker 4:That's right, and that's probably the single best resource we have. But once you've tuned into the podcast or read the article, reach out to the candidate If you want to know what they're going to do about pine trees on your block. Whatever the issue is, big or small, now's the time to start plugging in, getting engaged, asking these questions and, as a voter in Burbank, I too will be looking at all the great candidates that have come forward so far. Who else is going to jump in? I look forward to learning more about all of them and then making my decision, too, about who I want to take that seat.
Speaker 2:Let me do a shameless plug from my Burbank talks. We do offer any candidate who wants to. We will do a podcast and bring out any candidate who wants to come on and do an episode. You did one it was great, I'm sure you're going to be back again. I'll be back when we offer them again, starting in August. So, um, yeah, I think it's a. I think we need to, we need to ask those questions. You need to find out who you, who these people are in advance. Very important.
Speaker 4:Well and to your point, you have a question that you would want to ask all the candidates and you think others in the community might know. Start sending your questions into Craig and Ross. Send it into my.
Speaker 2:Burbank. I'll be glad to, yeah, I'll be glad to actually ask those questions. You know I want to. I want to touch on the heart. You know, as you know, you come in here.
Speaker 4:it's no fluff, we always we always bring the heat, we get into it you know.
Speaker 2:But I think that's what's important, you know. I mean, it's a very, very honest dialogue, which is all you can ask for. It is Well, ross, what you got.
Speaker 3:I think what a great show. It always, is you guys it always?
Speaker 4:is Love it.
Speaker 2:We're still going to make a goal before we're done with this, to get on our Burbank bus.
Speaker 3:We'll do it.
Speaker 2:We're working on that. It's it's logistically it's a lot more than it is, but uh I will share with you.
Speaker 3:And I I told uh, both our city manager and our assistant city manager, we we talked to the czar yes, we did, david krisky, david David Kriske. David Kriske himself.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, what a great guy. He has agreed to come on a podcast, answer questions like we ask of you, and tell us of some things that are happening in the city. Yep, he's running it by his boss and so forth, and even though a lot of people and I happen to know David for many years, he's a pretty shy guy, but when he gets up and he makes his presentations he knows what he's talking about. Oh, very good.
Speaker 2:And he's.
Speaker 3:He's the king of Burbank bus. You know what? Ross?
Speaker 2:maybe we can do our entire Burbank bus episode and bring David on the bus with us.
Speaker 4:Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2:Do the entire episode about Burbank transportation?
Speaker 3:Great idea. I know he's willing to join us. Good um, because again, like we have shared here, it's a great forum for people to know. We had people come up to us at the road kings podcast and go my burbank's the only way we're finding out what's going on. I will say our pio in our city puts out a ton of stuff, but it's behind the scenes. It's the stuff, like these shows, that people are really enjoying.
Speaker 4:So I totally agree and thank you guys. Just in closing, thank you for the service that you provide to Burbank. You guys are really our only independent media outlet that we have anymore. And just you know, week in and week out, you try to share the information with the community. I'm appreciative of it. I like you know, week in and week out you try to share the information with the community. I'm appreciative of it. I like you know, driving in the car or whatever I'm doing and listening to all the week that was and you guys do a really great job with it.
Speaker 3:Wait a minute. If you said Allie's listening, I better watch that. When I use that four letter word, you better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we do listen to it together, we do get letters, but no, we together, we do get letters, but no, we appreciate that. You know, and you know I I'm always a little worried when I write things or say things oh, who's going to come after me now? But you know what that's to me. I think being honest and being real is more important than trying to put a you know something phony on and uh and we gotta thank you from kevin maldoon, that's great yes we got him on the podcast at the road Kings Car Show.
Speaker 3:He brought up some Burbank stuff, but he's a longtime Burbank resident oh yeah, worked right there at NBC. But we want to hear from our community, not only them sending us emails. But if you have a topic that you want us to dig into and you're not getting an answer, yes, we do have an OBS Budsman who takes care of that for the city. But if you want to know something about Burbank, ask Craig or I, because we would love to look into it.
Speaker 2:You'll probably see Ross around a lot more than you'll see me. Anyhow, that's it for our June episode of Ask the Mayor, for Mayor Nick Schultz and for Ross Benson. This is Craig Sherwood saying. Thank you very much for listening and we will be back with you in July. Thanks again.
Speaker 1:My Burbank Talks would like to thank all of my Burbank's advertisers for their continued support. Burbank Water Power, Cusimano Real Estate Group, UMI Credit Union, Burbank Chamber of Commerce, Gain Credit Union, Providence, St Joseph Medical Center. 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.