myBurbank Talks
myBurbank Talks
Meet the Candidate: Chris Rizzotti, Burbank City Council Candidate
What if local governance could truly reflect the needs and aspirations of its residents? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Chris Rizzotti, a dedicated candidate for Burbank City Council, as he shares his lifelong connection with Burbank and his unwavering commitment to public service. From his humble beginnings raising money for charity at the age of eight to his educational journey at the University of La Verne, Chris’s story is one of passion, community, and relentless pursuit of betterment for his hometown. As the chairman of the Burbank Planning Commission, he brings a wealth of experience and insights to his candidacy, promising to be a voice for meaningful change.
Housing and transportation are the backbone of any thriving community, yet they come with their unique set of challenges. Chris takes us through the complexities of property development, rent control, and the impacts of legislation like SB 35 on local communities. We'll explore the financial strains on smaller landlords, public transportation inefficiencies, and the vital public safety concerns that require more robust support for police and fire departments. Chris makes a compelling argument for tailored approaches and practical solutions to these pressing issues, advocating for policies that are as unique as the communities they aim to serve.
But it’s not just about infrastructure and legislation. This episode also delves into the human side of governance—addressing homelessness, mental health support, and community engagement. Chris shares touching personal stories and discusses local efforts to reduce homelessness, the impact of Measure H, and initiatives to help seniors navigate the digital age. We round out the conversation with a look at the importance of high school sports, extracurricular activities, and the shift towards district-based voting. Listen in as Chris Rizzotti outlines his vision for a Burbank that not only meets the needs of its residents but fosters a vibrant, inclusive community for future generations.
My Burbank Talks presents another episode of Meet the Candidate, the show where we invite anyone appearing on the Burbank ballot in the 2024 election to join us here and give our listeners a chance to learn about their background and the issues important to them. Now let's join our podcast.
Speaker 2:Hello, burbank, craig Sherwood here with you once again in another of our series of Meet the Candidate, and today we have a candidate for city councilman on, chris Rizzotti, who's very involved in the city in many ways, professionally and volunteer-wise. He's the chairman of our planning commission right now, but he's running for city council and so we're here today to talk with him and see what's going on. So, chris, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:Hey, it's great to be here in downtown Burbank.
Speaker 2:Actually we are in the media district adjacent Right. We're not actually in the media district. For some reason they drew the line right around my little house area here.
Speaker 1:Well, if you're not in it, if you're a realtor, you're Tuluka Lake adjacent. Yes, that's true.
Speaker 2:It's time to sell your house for home value? Absolutely, it is. So, as we call all transparency. Chris and I have known each other for a long time. I got to first know Chris when he was a high school student. In fact, I was a coach at Burroughs and he was the right fielder and had a pretty good little bat and had a pretty good arm Thank you and had a lot of fun back then. Good old days. When did you graduate? 85. 85. Are we that old? I think so. Anyhow, let's talk about you. Have you lived in Burbank your entire life? And let's talk about your earlier. Have you lived in Burbank your entire life? Let's talk about your earlier, before high school.
Speaker 1:Sure. So I've lived in Burbank my entire life. My parents moved here in 1966. I grew up on Magnolia and Florence Went to Roosevelt, Luther and John Burroughs High School. I always say I started giving back at a very young age. All right, buddy, I started giving back at a very young age. All right, buddy, I started giving back at a very young age. At eight years old, I stood in front of Neiman Reads Lumber City if you remember where that is Now it's the Do it Center and I collected nearly $1,000 for the Jerry Lewis Telethon.
Speaker 2:I remember, yeah, in fact Labor Day right now, so would have been, uh, about this time, yeah, back in the day, huh, and the funny thing is, did you get on the air?
Speaker 1:did you get on the air anything? So yeah, so, uh, you know, nbc was here in burbank and my dad, after we collected the money, we I kicked, I collected in a pickle jar and we drove over to the studios and we were going to dump it into the bin and when someone said no, no, no, we want to, we want to put you on air. So my dad and I walked out there and we gave the, we gave the money to Jerry Lewis and then, you know, like I said, since then I've served on over 30 boards, commissions and committees. So I think it started then, at a young age.
Speaker 2:I think, a lot of things that define us. If we do have a passion for them, they do start earlier in life and we do them without knowing why we're doing it, but we just have a calling to do it. I think it starts with your parents.
Speaker 1:You know, my dad would give anyone the shirt off his back and that's just the way my father was and I witnessed it. I saw my dad. He didn't have a lot of money and he gave people money. He gave people food, um, and my mom.
Speaker 2:So I I think, I think it's the way you're raised I think it's for that that burbank born and bred process, I mean. I think there's a lot of people that are. It's funny how many people are just lifelong burbank residents and they all have that same set of values. I agree, so okay, so well, we get you into high school and then, so you know, you and I lost contact a little after that because you move on and keep going and I'm still stuck at the high school level. For what? 40 years, right? So after you left Burroughs, what'd you do after that?
Speaker 1:So I attended University of La Verne. I was there three and a half years. I graduated early and my first job I was what were your degree in? I got a degree in business administration with a minor in marketing. Okay, at that time it was really tough to find a job. So, believe it or not, I was working at a place called Photocam, phototronics, sure, and then from there I worked for Compact Video and I made For that time. I made a lot of money, not in my profession, what I went to school for, but enough to pay off all my student loans within 15 months. That's amazing. It was amazing. I made a lot of money, but not in my profession. And then I wound up leaving my dad almost killed me for a job making a quarter a quarter of what I was making at Compact Video. But were you happy? I made the right decision, yeah.
Speaker 2:I wanted, I wanted what job was that.
Speaker 1:So I took a sales job for a company in Santa Fe Springs and they sold medical products and I did that for about two years and then I moved into the insurance business. I was there about 15 years and then I was selling real. I had a real estate license and I was selling real estate on the side and I was making more in my side money in real estate than I was in the insurance business. So I went into real estate, which I've been doing for 25 years.
Speaker 2:Well, let's talk about real estate a little bit. The last few years you've been my Burbank's best realtor Eight years, yeah. Well, we've been doing it for my Burbank for the last three years.
Speaker 1:Burbank leader was yeah.
Speaker 2:But you win every year and we get thousands of votes from people and we don't put names on there in advance, we just say who's your favorite realtor, and every year you win, actually convincingly. So I mean that must be a testament to not only the people you've worked with in the past, but what you're up to.
Speaker 1:I'm grateful. All I can say is I'm grateful. I have a lot of great clients. I can count on them for real estate or I can count on them for a good talk and some coffee If you need advice. I have some really wonderful clients and I think in my business you don't just sell homes, you sell the community. I'm part of the community and I'm there for them to take out the trash, walk their dog when they're on vacation. I'll do anything for my clients.
Speaker 2:Well, let me ask you this I don't know what kind of a conflict it's going to be, but if you're on the city council and you have properties to sell that are in areas that are, you know, an SB 35 project down the street or we have a zoning or whatever it's going to be, I mean, right now you're probably also walking that tightrope, you know, with the planning commission. I mean, what can you tell people to make sure that you're going to not say people are like, oh, he's in the developer's pocket on this project. How are you going to convey that?
Speaker 1:to people. That's a great question. So, for the folks that don't know, I'm serving my third term on the Pliny board 12 years. I missed one meeting in 12 years and, believe it or not, I have never had a conflict in 12 years. Up until two meetings ago there was a cell phone tower going over on Main Street and it's near a preschool and I had to recuse myself from that conversation. So, needless to say, if it comes up I'll have to recuse myself. Has the city attorney talked to you about that or anything? Absolutely, we have a direct. As a member of the planning board and, I'm sure, city council, we have a direct communication with the city attorney. Anytime there's any gray area question, you ask the city attorney. Anytime there's any gray area question, you ask the city the attorney for his advice.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's funny that whole thing. I understand why they're upset and all those things. But I'd ask the city. And there's about 140 cell phone towers throughout the city. That's not the one and only that's just one of 140. But the problem is they hide them so well you don't realize they're all around town. But we had the same problem maybe 10 years ago at the Little White Chapel.
Speaker 1:That's right. You know it's sensitive when you're around kids and all I can say is, when the mama bears come out, be careful.
Speaker 2:They're very sensitive about their children. Well, burbank is a very tight community, as you know, and it's all NIMBYs. Every area of Burbank has its own little NIMBY section and I think a lot of them don't realize that once our leaders have the best interest in mind for them and in the long run they will enjoy the fruits of the situation. Very rarely does development go wrong, but there are times it does no doubt about that 100%. So have you reviewed the immediate district specific plan yet and do you have any thoughts on?
Speaker 1:that I have. I'm not going gonna comment on it because potentially I could be that may come in from the planning board exactly and I don't want have to recuse myself from that meeting and that's not what this is all about.
Speaker 2:We're not here to put you on the spot on things like that. Okay, so, getting back out of out of uh, out of politics well, back into politics. But let's get to the union of politics. What got you interested in politics? Why is this something that you know you have a passion for? Yeah, you like to give and work in causes and all that and you've done well and you're a people person. But why politics? And why do you want to put yourself through what a council member has to go through in Burbank?
Speaker 1:so you're not the first person that asked me about politics, and when I hear that, it's strange to me because I don't look at it as politics. I look at as serving. Um, I've been on the planning board for 12 years. I have a lot of knowledge, living here in my entire life. I feel like I'm the bridge from the past to the future of what Burbank was and can be. I think it would be a waste not to serve. Plus, I enjoy this community. I enjoy bringing things forward that make sense to our residents. That makes sense to our residents. I'm not afraid to be the only voice in the room to state something.
Speaker 2:And I really feel like I can make a positive impact. Oh, I think you understand the flow of the community. Let's talk about some of our current issues. Yeah, let's start off with housing. Yeah, and things such as the SB 35 and things like that that are A being forced down our throats to a point.
Speaker 2:It is, and also, but also, the need we have to have, I think it's five or 6,000 more housing units built within three or four years, or we'll be in violation by the state. So how would you, how are we going to fix that problem?
Speaker 1:Great, it's a great question. I'm the perfect person for this role. If you'd say housing, I'm a real estate agent. I know how to create housing. We'll take a couple steps back. You guys have reported it. It's been online. You guys have reported it, it's been online.
Speaker 1:I've been the no vote many times and the no loan vote many times on SB35, sb9, ab2011, and ADUs. I was for the first rendition of the ADU but when they tweaked the language, I recognized it as a zone, as a zone change in our uh residential community, and I and I fought I've been fighting against it ever since. Um, I figured out a better way. Um, other other communities, like Huntington beach and and uh Bel Air, have fought this at great taxpayer expense millions and millions of dollars.
Speaker 1:We need to work with our representatives our local and our Sacramento representatives in changing how we go about putting these projects in our community, and what I want to do is incentivize development where we want it, not where they want it. Let's say, for instance, the old Kmart site. That is a wonderful site for at least 300 units of brownstones, three-story units with garages, 3,000 square feet, 2,800 square feet, and then you've got the old Ikea site. We need to be able to incentivize development where we want it, to have the owner of the property release it and then have a developer build it. There's tons of those properties within our city that we can incentivize, so I think we just need to go back and rework this so that way we get.
Speaker 2:We get what we want without disrupting our residential neighborhoods I agree with going back and talking to your developers and the property owners, but you know the people who own the IKEA property. They've gone through new ownership and there was a tragedy in their structure. But you know, as we know, every day they sit in that land empty. That land goes up in value. So what's their motivation to actually do something and get something done there or sell the property or whatever it's going to take? What's their motivation and how do we get them to actually get off the Money.
Speaker 1:Money is the motivation. So if you give them a tax incentive, tax break, capital gains tax break, some kind of incentive to release that property, that's their motivation.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then do you think we can find developers who want to come in and then develop?
Speaker 1:that Absolutely and you got to give the developer something to do. To incentivize the developer, Either that's density or maybe it's a tax break. I mean, you have to be able to incentivize both sides to make it happen, and I think that's the problem in California. We've tried, like you said, force these projects on our communities and everyone's fighting in an uproar and disrupting our community rather than incentivizing it properly.
Speaker 2:I get it, I've said it before. I think we do need the housing, you know, and all that. But the problem I think Sacramento has is that there's a thousand cities in California and they put out a blanket law for a thousand cities. Well, it's not one size fits all. Every city has its own unique characteristics and what works in Eureka is not going to work in Burbank, you know.
Speaker 1:and Beverly Hills, everything else.
Speaker 2:So that's where the problem is.
Speaker 1:I think I've said this a million times in meetings you can't paint every city with the same broad brush. Every city is different. We all value different things in our city and you just can't do that, and I think that's the problem.
Speaker 2:I also think the problem was the fact the city was not SB30. You know, we actually kind of broke the story about Pickwick being SP-35, and we went to the city and they didn't know anything about it. And I think that's where the first ball got dropped was. They were not, didn't know about SP-35 being passed and didn't start putting protections in advance. And then you said you know you vote no on these projects. But when they voted no on the Pickwick project, it cost the city about a half million dollars because they're trying to decide with the residents, but the law was different.
Speaker 1:So I didn't vote on SB 35 only because I voted against SB 35, the bill. But I didn't vote on any projects for SB 35 only because that's only being looked at directly by our council. So I'm against all of these SB 35, ab 20, all these bills that impact a residential neighborhood. You're right, that cost us, you say, a half a million dollars. You're probably right With staff time, attorney fees, that costs our taxpayers a lot of money.
Speaker 2:Let's stay in the housing area, big hot button issue right now and we come up with council before the election, rent control or possible rent control, and, as I said before, I see there's two. Very there's no good guy, bad guy, unless sometimes you look at the corporations. I think the corporations are not very touchy, feely people, but your smaller landlords who have to pay the new roof, the new air conditioning, all those things, and they need to get their at least their money back. You know make even compared to the renter who sees their rent going up anywhere from 8%, 9% a month. You know, year after year is untenable for some people. What's the? Give me the solution on it, because I don't think there there is much of a solution. But what do you think? So?
Speaker 1:let me start by saying that, as a real estate agent, this has been a very interesting copy to me and I went back in my records 10 years and I represent tenants 60% of the time in contracts. Um, we do have statewide rent control in 1482. Uh, there are protections in there and our city council has increased those protections for the tenants. What you stated is exactly right. Recently I had a heater go out in one of my client's units. The last time I did the exact same wall heater, it was $900. It was $4,200 two years later. To paint a one-bedroom unit, it used to be about $4,200. Two years later. To paint a one-bedroom unit, it used to be about $1,000. $2,600 to paint a one-bedroom unit. Things are very expensive and if you want our housing stock to wind up like some of these communities where they're run down, dilapidated, that's what Burbank will turn into, because the owners will not be able to put the money into their units. They can't. It just there's not. There's just not that kind of money available.
Speaker 2:I'm scared about the SB35 project over SB7 that's on Empire. That's seven stories, 150 units and seven parking places and the developer just laughed at the city council, basically, and said nothing you can do about it. I think that's going to get run down within five years. Thank goodness the other two projects didn't go through. On Empire they got kind of pulled back now, but that's what I'm scared of happening also.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to be respectful because I know a lot of people are looking for housing, but that's a horrible project. We could do better for our residents. We could do better for Burbank, I agree.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's a. I think the guy took an advantage of a situation and no, I think the guy took an advantage of a situation and no, that's not I get, I get to say things you can't, because I'm not running for any office and I, I always speak my mind, that's my, my, my thing.
Speaker 1:I tend to speak my mind, and I just want to say we have to build 12,000 units in the next 10 years, so we got to figure out a way to do that.
Speaker 2:And so we can get our local control back, because that's what this is about getting our local control back. I think it's going to be tough. I think developers look at areas like the ranch area and places like that and it's, you know, oh, people would love to live here, and let me figure out how to do something. And after a while you ruin the characteristics of the entire neighborhood. And so we learned on the Mariposa project, when a developer residents complained about the project going in, that the developer just threw up a tent and said fine, I'm going to make an SP-35 project. And now you're stuck with what goes in there.
Speaker 1:That scares me too, you know. I'll be honest with you. Any developer that does go SP-35 is leaves me scratching my head, because that's the least line of resistance is SB35.
Speaker 2:Well, let's get on our bicycles and get out of that and get into transportation. Okay, so transportation is another hot topic going on right now. Let's start off with the BRT. Okay, feelings on that.
Speaker 1:Well, just looking logically, we've just said right, we just said that we have to build 12,000 units in the next 10 years. Let's say 12,000 units is about 25,000, 40,000 extra people in Burbank. Plus our traffic count goes up. People coming to Burbank every day, about 100,000 people. I can't see closing our arterial arteries like that. Our main thoroughfare on Olive to a dedicated bus lane, where it's one going each way. One lane. It doesn't make much sense to me. Not to mention the businesses along that corridor will get destroyed. It seems like every time we start to make some progress coming out of COVID and whatnot, and then all of a sudden the economy and inflation, our small businesses keep getting hit over and over and this would be one more thing that they get hit with. So again, I'm for transportation, I'm for the mixed flow, I'm definitely not for the dedicated bus lane.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think they need to have proof of concept first. You know, show me a bus that's 75% or 80% full going back and forth, and I might understand their point, but right now they're talking about saving a minute and a half Compared to the extra 10 minutes it'll probably take a driver to get through there in a single lane.
Speaker 1:You know, in my opinion we already had the test. It was called Raising Cane. If you saw what that business did to the traffic in that area in that three or four-month period, that's pretty much what it will be with a dedicated lane. It was terrible.
Speaker 2:Absolutely terrible. Thank goodness they've opened more now and people aren't on the flock in a Burbank anymore. Yeah, um, I've been. I don't know if you saw our our asked the mayor what we just did on Burbank bus, but I've always been critical of the Burbank bus system. We had David Kriski on and I think he made some really good points and I think we need to. I'm not against the Burbank bus, I'm against how it's currently operating and I don't think it serves the needs of Burbank in any way. What are your thoughts on just mass transportation in the city?
Speaker 1:Again, very few people live a one-dimensional life. So I'll just take me, for instance. I leave in the morning, you know, I drop my kid off at school and then I have to go to Costco and pick something at school. And then I have to go to Costco and pick something up and then I have to go to the Burbank Association of Realtors. Then I got to go to. I can't take public transportation and I think most people you got to go to the bank get your haircut. Most people aren't doing that on a bike and they're not doing that on public transportation. I think we need to incentivize If you want people to take public transportation, you have to incentivize that and and those, those can be people going to and from work.
Speaker 2:I agree, but right now you look at the Burbank bus, it costs a dollar and people still aren't using it at a dollar. So I know, if you made it free, I'm not sure people are going to take it because of its current routes and it does not serve the Hill community in any way.
Speaker 1:I agree with you, and I don't know if it was my generation or just after my generation. Remember the Got Wheels program? Oh yeah, we talked about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that went away too. Yeah, you know why? Because kids don't vote. That went away too yeah.
Speaker 1:You know why? Because kids don't vote yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, there you go. So I think we need something like that and my proposal we need to get smaller buses and we have more routes and more frequency in more areas, because I just don't think that those big, huge lumbering buses that I call burbank limousines because you have one person usually in them, are serving the community the way they could. We had a smaller fleet of small buses and and all around you know, going down kenneth and glen oaks and and all over the city.
Speaker 1:You know this could be just a generation gone by. Buses, rtd. I remember as a kid we used to take the bus down to look the one. So my car was in the shop about three months ago and I didn't rent a car but I ubered all my appointments. I ubered six times in one day. That's how people are traversing our city is through Uber. They may not own a car, they're just Ubering around. I don't think they're getting on public transportation and I think at some point we're going to have to realize or give up on this notion that everyone's going to be on a bus. That's a time that I think has gone by.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because also the timing If you want to go downtown and watch a movie and everything else, all of a sudden you get out at 9 o'clock. Well, there's no bus to get you home. If you did take a bus up there, if you could take a bus up there, which is also an issue, I mean, cities that live at night, even up until 10, 11 at night, still have a good transportation system for that time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and look, I've been meeting with residents for the last nine months preparing for this campaign and people are concerned Public safety, public safety around public things like buses and library, all those things that people are a little hesitant. They're concerned about public safety.
Speaker 2:Well, we're going to be in a situation like you said we're going to maybe increase our population, maybe by 20 to 25,000 in the next 10 years, and we're already having trouble getting enough recruits on the police department. How are we going to? You know you're going to have to increase the budget and get more officers. You know, exponentially with all the growth. How you know, what do you see for that future also, and how do you feel about the police and how everything are going?
Speaker 1:with it. So just full disclosure I'm the Burbank police officers. I was endorsed by the Burbank Police Officers Association. I'm on the burbank police foundation, um, but growing up in burbank you know we had I don't know if you remember craig ratliff. He was an sro officer at luther burbank junior high school. So I've always been pro um police, um. So we used to be budgeted for about 168 officers. Now we're down to 160, and I think we've got 157 uniformed officers now. Same thing with our fire department. Our fire department. We were down a rescue ambulance for almost 10 or no, sorry, 15 or 20 years. We were getting assistance from Glendale and they just budgeted and put one in service. It makes zero sense. As our population grows we're going to need more uniformed people and services, both fire and both police department.
Speaker 2:And, like you said, yeah, they have now RA-14, which runs Monday through Friday from, I think, 7 to 5 in the daytime. Yeah, but when the city grows at 220, 250,000 a day in workers and everything else, that's four RAs that you know. For that, 250,000 people, yeah. So, but I think we've done a good job in raising the pay and making it. We're losing a lot of people and now that's not happening anymore because and I think that's where you have to sometimes spend money and people don't like it, but that's where you know, I mean, crime is always the number one thing, that's the number one. And our website, crime is always what brings more people to our website than anything else.
Speaker 1:So you know as a small business owner, and I think running a city is no different as a small business owner. If you want to attract and keep employees, you got to pay them, and you got to pay them a little bit better than the average, because if you don't, you're going going to train them, spend all that money training them and then they're going to go somewhere else for a few bucks more. So in my opinion, it's money well spent. By paying people, you know what they're worth, or a little bit more than what they're worth, because when you start factoring in the training and all the hours spent on that, you could lose a boatload of money.
Speaker 2:I want to switch gears again and we're actually going to go in reverse for a second and talk about business, and there's been a real problem in the last 10 years five years, maybe 10, of people trying to get you know once they get their permit to get inspections to get things built. What can we do to speed that process up to get you know so people aren't waiting for weeks and weeks and weeks to have somebody look at something and check something off so they can continue their build?
Speaker 1:So I'm not going to name specific businesses, but I can tell you right now uh, there's a restaurant trying to open in this, close to this community that we're in right now. Um two years she's been waiting in the permit process and trying to get her restaurant open. She's paying rent, paying taxes and she's not making a dime. We need a concierge service. I mean a focused, focused service on getting these businesses opened. A lot of people don't know but if you close your business for I think it's three months and someone buys that business, whether it's a restaurant, you have to bring that whole building up, the code, the kitchen, everything. It's hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars, plus the permit fees, plus the time involved. So I think there has to be a task force that will huddle around this issue and streamline the process to get these folks, their business, opened.
Speaker 2:I agree and same with the homeowners who are just trying to do an addition or do something, even an ADU or things like that. It's taking them over a year to get anything done so.
Speaker 1:It was 24 months and on the planning board there was a member named Mr Atikani and him and I were appalled by this 24-month period. Just to put simple addition on your house, we made a request to do a study and it took about two years to streamline the process. We went from 24 months. I think the last report it was like we're down to eight or nine months in the process, which is still too long. Which is still too long, but there's a lot of demand. We're farming things out to consultants. We may have to increase that staff, but I hear it's a problem and I hear Burbank.
Speaker 2:I hear it's a problem and I hear Burbank. Well, yeah, it might have increased, and we're talking about, of course, more police, probably more staff in that area. That all costs money and we pretty much have a balanced budget. It may be a small surplus, but that's why we're always worried about the pensions down the line. So how are we going to balance that without having to raise taxes substantially in the city?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, that's it. We have to balance it with creativity. We may have to move staff around to focus more on one area than another. It just depends on the department heads and see how we can tackle this without costing our taxpayers a lot of money.
Speaker 2:Okay, Well, we're pivoting again. Great, let's talk about the homeless, because that's right now the buzzword in in all of California. The cover, the governor's kind of made a decree saying clean up your cities or lose your funding for things. Um, I think, um, no, number one. We had that Measure H five, six, seven years ago. $10 million. Yeah, we're putting in a lot of money, $10 million. We're getting back 5%. Burbank is getting about 5% of what Burbank puts into that budget with no recourse, no appeal, nothing.
Speaker 2:So now I hear there's going to be a new Proposition A for homeless. I have not read it yet and I'm wondering is that going to be the same exact thing again? Because I think Measure H is going to sunset.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, number one what are your thoughts on our homeless situation? I think we have about 140, 150 are declared homeless in Burbank. What can we do to help them? Are we doing enough? And what about you know? What do you see to get this funded? So you know, burbank residents aren't having to pay the bill when we're paying millions every year for the problem.
Speaker 1:So let me start by saying um, I participated in family promise before it went, morphed into hala um, and the way I participated in family promise was each of our local churches and synagogues would take in homeless families and then, um, I would serve as a chaperone and we would sleep amongst the homeless, make sure that they had what they needed over that weekend and that they were safe.
Speaker 1:So I can tell you firsthand I've met homeless people, I have slept among homeless people, I know their stories and I know their plight. I think, when it comes to Burbank versus other communities, we're doing pretty well with what we have with our MET team, our mental health people and our Street Plus team. They're very conscientious and they're very diligent in their work. If you read my website, the $150,000 that we're getting out of the measure H money $10 million is appalling to me and I would strongly lean on our local officials, senators, congressmen, assembly saying that that is not right, that is not equitable and we need more of that piece of the pie so that we can. We can help the people that need help.
Speaker 2:What do we do to somebody who says I want to live in this tent here on the side of the freeway or wherever I'm going to live and I don't want your help and you can't make me do anything. How do you fix that problem? To me, that's a mental health problem, because why would anybody choose to live outside with no restroom facilities and running water and all those things that we take for granted? So to me, I understand freedom, this is America and all that, but how do you deal with when somebody says I refuse your help?
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is a tough one for me and I always get choked up. It's a very tough one, craig. So my wife and I were pulling out of pavilions and there's a homeless guy standing there and he had these really thick glasses on. And I only saw those glasses on one person in my life as a kid that I went to Roosevelt with in high school with and I won't give you his name on air, and I looked at this guy and I said't give you his name on air and I looked at this guy. I said, wow, is it him? I hadn't seen him in 30 years. And I asked my wife to roll down the window and she's like what's the matter with you? I said, roll down the window, rolls down the window and I said, hey, can you come here for a second? And I called his name and it was him. It was my friend. I got out of my car immediately, I gave him a hug, I gave him 100 bucks. He was a vet.
Speaker 1:I made some calls around town trying to get him some help because he was living in the planter bed in front of the pavilions and I was told Chris, we've taken him to the VA a dozen times and he will not stay there. He will not get the help that he needs. He wound up dying of sepsis three months later. We have to figure out a way to get the people the mental health help, whether that's a partial institution, we have to come to grips with this. I understand we have civil rights and everyone has rights. But living in tents on our streets, in our parks, at our libraries, that does not work. And I'll be the first one to say it we need to get these people help professionally.
Speaker 2:That's an absolutely amazing story and my heart goes out to you because I've also, you know, living in this city my entire life. I've seen people I've known and they're down on their luck and you know, and as a high school baseball coach, you know, for 40 years and all the kids I've coached and then once in a while, you know, I've had kids call me when they're 20s and say, you know, hey, I'm in a situation like that and I always give, even saying financially or whatever it is they need. I always try to help them because you know you're family, you know, so it's a yeah, I mean, but the problem is there's no easy solution.
Speaker 1:There's no easy solution, but I can tell you this what we've been doing and the money we've thrown at it, we failed. So now it's time to do something different. You know how many billions of dollars are we going to blow on this issue and not rectify it?
Speaker 2:I think that entire issue and this is more of a statewide thing is the fact that there are so many organizations taking that money and you wonder how much that money actually filters through to the people and how much is, you know, for their fancy office and for their salaries and all those things and you know where is the money really going. And that's something that I think is always, you know, follow the money and watch the money. And yeah, you have nonprofits and a lot of great nonprofits, you know. I mean no doubt that a lot of our nonprofits are working on minimal budgets, but I think other nonprofits make more money than they're actually putting out.
Speaker 1:We've already witnessed. Our state has told us that billions of dollars of this money is unaccountable, so that's to me that's just horrible.
Speaker 2:Well, that's really heavy and it's something that you know. When you really personalize it like that, I think it really hits home for people. You know, and you know it's easy just to pass that guy by in the street or, you know, shrug your head or whatever it is. And I was actually. I believe I was actually at McDonald's last night waiting in line and a guy walked up to me and says I had my wallet stolen. I got rolled in the ditch and everything else. I knew he was lying to me, he was just giving me the sob story. I still gave him five bucks last night.
Speaker 2:I said just do me a favor, you know, please buy some food, do not buy alcohol. I said no, no, no, don't convince me. Just that's all I'm asking. Let your conscience be your guide. Who knows what he's going to do with that $5. But I said, is $5 going to help a lot? But you know what? Maybe put some food in his belly? We need to do so much more and we need to humanize it, like you just did for people. I think if you humanize this problem, then people get a lot more concerned.
Speaker 1:Look, I agree just what you just said. We have a lot of amazing nonprofits that do so much work in this community. I've served on many boards, many commissions, that do amazing, amazing work.
Speaker 2:So which boards and commissions have you served on in the last 20 years? You said it's been a lot, because I think that experience does a lot for you, that you've been in so many different areas in this city and know this is how your knowledge of the city has come about. Besides just you know, living here and being in real estate and all that but, but you've been involved in the the inner workings of the city also yeah, so, um, I've served on the burbank police foundation.
Speaker 1:I've served, uh, the board of Directors on Providence St Joseph's. I've served at the YMCA, again, I've served with the Family Promise. I've served, you know, back in the day, boy Scouts of America. I've done a lot within the community, um, and I continue. You know, uh, during covid, um, during covid, I had uh interesting, uh, covid outreach, uh, a couple times.
Speaker 1:So, um, my dad's, my dad's, 95 years old and uh, I, no matter what people think about getting vaccinated in our family, the most important thing was getting my father vaccinated because we hadn't seen him in so long, because he was sheltering in place and we didn't want to get him sick. And so, when the vaccine came out, I went to heck, hell and high water, if I can say that, to get him the vaccine. And while we were there, an old timer was sitting in chairs at the drugstore and he said how did you do that? How can I get it? And I looked at him and I said, well, just open your license and you do this, do that and just get a confirmation. So walked out to the car realizing what a complete jerk I was. Realizing, guy doesn't have a, uh, an iPhone. He doesn't have a smartphone. So I went back in and gave him my card and I said hey, I said if you need help, call me. So sure enough, a couple days later he called me, went there, uploaded all stuff, brought them over to get vaccinated.
Speaker 1:And I was inspired. I was really inspired and I emailed all of our council members and I said I got a plan, I got friends with laptops. Let's get the Burbank bus, let's get the vaccination over at McCambridge Park and let's get our seniors vaccinated, because they're left back because of the electronic age. And that's something on my website. I feel like they're left back because of the electronic age. And that's something on my website. I feel like they're left back because of the electronic age. Well, make a long story short. No one seemed to think that was a very good idea. So I took it among myself and I got about 25, 30 people vaccinated during that period of time.
Speaker 2:And for all you know, you might have saved 25 or 30 lives.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm not going to take credit for that. All I'm going to say is I got some very concerned people that were shut in and not able to. They weren't able to compete with the rest of us. Let's put it that way.
Speaker 2:I think people don't realize there's a lot of people who don't embrace technology but don't realize there's a lot of people who don't embrace technology but don't understand technology. Our older generation, I don't mind. My father never did, you know, he never knew anything. You know about it, you know I did anything for him. But there is that, you know. Of course we have the Jostens Center and we have a lot of seniors there and they do try to work on programs to educate people. But you know, not all the seniors are involved in the johnson center and they're not, you know, and they're around town and and they don't understand. So once again, there's another segment of our community which are they forgotten? Or just you know not, you know thought about?
Speaker 1:I think they're forgotten. I think a little both, honestly. Um, my dad look, god bless him. He's not going to the Jostens Center. He's just not that guy. I was at the Jostens Center about a month ago looking at their programming and they do an amazing job. They do an amazing job but, like you said, there's a certain segment of the population that they're just not going to go to the Jostens Center.
Speaker 2:And once again getting where I shouldn't go on this. But I look at our immigration and they tell all the people that are trying to get in the US well, you have to go on your cell phone, download this app and get on to this reservation. How do these people have cell phones? How can they afford a cell phone bill every month? And they're trying to get across. I mean to me it's crazy what we expect. Oh, we have an app for that, yeah, but do they have a phone for that?
Speaker 1:You know, is it practical, right yeah?
Speaker 2:Well, you've come a long way in the many years it's been what close to 40 years now since we first ran into each other. Wow, that's amazing. Watch how far you've come. I'm lucky as being a coach for that long. How many kids and they're kids back then they're forming their thoughts and watch them become successful people and all the things they do in life and I'd say, wow, look at so proud of these people, I'm so proud of what they've become and it says a lot for I think it says a lot for high school sports and what being part of a team is and the responsibility. There's just so much that goes into that that I think that we lose that sometimes and you know, what I'm fighting for right now is that there is no funding for these sports in any way to the schools.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean nothing, so I'm scared we're going to lose sports and extracurricular activities. But I know that's not a city council purview.
Speaker 1:But yeah, and, like I said, I've been out the last nine months meeting with residents and schools are a big concern. It's a big question I get all the time how are you going to help our schools? The only way I can help our schools, obviously if funding for the SRO officers, if they want them, I'd be more than happy to discuss that and provide that. If other council members are willing Joint use agreements. But I think we need bodies in our schools. We need to get the participation up and making more housing and making it affordable to get more young families in Burbank. I think my plan I can play a good role in that with my plan. I think if we can just get inventory up to 300 or 400 units, it would change the landscape. Right now we only have about 40 or 50 homes on the market. If you increase the supply, the prices will come down and I think my plan is viable and I think it could definitely help the situation with our schools.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's important and I think that's a mess over there. And now we've gone to districts and I think most people in Burbank realize they cannot vote for their school board member anymore. Two-fifths of the city will not vote for a school board member in this election which I just don't understand, but that's their. City council, you know, got rid of that proposal, but the school district embraced it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as you know, I was on the charter review committee, for it was supposed to be a three-month forward duty and I think we lasted two years. Because of the topic of districts Right, totally against districts. I, I want, I want our council people to be accountable to everybody, not just a district and a population size of burbank. I, I don't think that's the right way of going and, you know, I don't know why the school board chose to go that direction, but I think you're right. I think that's a bad way.
Speaker 2:No, not, not our problem right now. Right now, our problem is is running the city. Well, we're about the end of our show here, and what I always do at the end is I give the candidate whatever time he wants, and you know where your camera is right here. So I'll let you look in the camera and tell people why they should vote for ch Rezati for city council, and why their vote's important, and I'll let you talk to the voter right now. So as much time as you need, time is all yours.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it. I appreciate the time Again. My name's Chris Rezati. I'm running for Burbank City Council. I've lived in Burbank my entire life. Burbank is a place for everyone.
Speaker 1:My parents moved here in 1966. I grew up in Magnolia Park. I went to all the local schools. At a young age I started giving back and at a later time in my life I've served on over 30 boards, commissions and committees. I'm a residential real estate broker. The great thing about my job is I get to hear all the reasons why people want to live in Burbank and it's for all the same reasons why we live in Burbank. For the past nine months, I've been out meeting with residents, talking to moms about school safety and affordable daycare, talking to seniors about being lost in the electronic age. People want sustainability to help us and not cost us, and housing. As we discussed housing, people are concerned about larger projects impacting their neighborhoods, not having enough choices for houses for sale versus houses for rent. Tenants concerned about protections, landlords that are equally concerned about protections. I'm asking for your vote for council. I will focus on our community. I've lived here my entire life. I want to be a bridge from the past to the future and make Burbank better. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Wow, not bad. No, not bad at all Okay.
Speaker 1:That was a long. I don't know if you gave me all that time.
Speaker 2:No, but that's what the whole point of this is. You know, of course, get your views out, but for people to get to know who you are and I think that's what's important is they have this long form of you know, so people can actually watch this whenever they want to watch it and learn all about you. Know each candidate and what makes them tick.
Speaker 1:I've had four events in Burbank one at the VFW, three at different restaurants. I'm trying to reach out to people to say come on, come meet me, ask me questions. I'll be perfectly candid with you. I'm going to hold some more events. I always tell people if you want to get together and have a cup of coffee, or if you want to host a coffee and have people fire questions at me, I'm more than happy to come. I appreciate everyone's engagement. It's it's really refreshing because we all care. We all care so much.
Speaker 2:Agreed, we all did, we all do care, yeah, Okay. Well, thank you for listening everybody. We appreciate it and I remind all of our candidates if you appear on the Burbank ballot, just send me an email at news at my Burbankcom and we will get you on a meet the candidate show. We will take all candidates on the ballot. So please email me, let me know and we will take care of it, but for now that's it. This is Craig Sherwood saying thank you very much.