myBurbank Talks
myBurbank Talks
Meet the Candidate: Judy Wilke, Burbank City Council Candidate
What if you had the chance to sit down with someone who’s been in the trenches of city administration, influencing the very fabric of your community? Join us as we chat with Judy Wilke, an inspiring public servant with deep roots in Burbank. We journey through her career, from her formative years in Burbank's school system to her academic pursuits at Cal State Long Beach and Woodbury. Learn about her roles as Park and Recreation Director and Assistant City Manager, and discover how her father, former Mayor Larry Stamper, instilled in her a passion for public service that continues to this day.
Ever wondered how a city balances its transportation needs while ensuring public safety? Judy sheds light on her vision to enhance Burbank’s bus system for better accessibility and efficiency. She discusses the intricate dance of strategic planning for police and fire services, especially with future population growth in mind. Gain insight into the innovative ideas for revitalizing the Starlight Bowl, making it a hub of community and culture, and hear Judy’s take on the importance of competitive wages to retain dedicated public servants.
But the conversation doesn’t stop there. We tackle pressing issues like homelessness and affordable housing, where Judy’s firsthand experiences provide a candid look at the challenges and the multifaceted efforts to address them. From streamlining approval processes for new developments to the potential of a new multifunctional media center, Judy offers a comprehensive roadmap for Burbank’s future. Don’t miss this compelling discussion that underscores community involvement, strategic foresight, and Judy Wilke’s unwavering commitment to her hometown.
Check out her website at https://www.wilkeforburbank.com/
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 Schubert, here with you once again for another Meet the Candidate episode. As most of you know, this is probably my favorite podcast to do, because we get to know the candidates in Burbank and what they're all about, and we don't just, you know, see their position, but we get to know who they are and what their backgrounds are, which are, I think, important too, you know, is aspects of their personal life besides a professional life that makes them the person they are. So today we have Judy Wookie with us and we'll give you a little background on her. She actually moved to Burbank when she was three years old. She went to Burbank School System, product, went to Horace Mann back when that wasn't actually an elementary school, john Muir, and then Burbank High School. She graduated from Cal State, long Beach, with a bachelor's degree and later from Woodbury with a master's.
Speaker 2:She started working for the city of Burbank back in 1989 as a management intern, worked as an administrative analyst in the community development department, was twice elected Burbank city clerk deputy financial services. She was then the deputy financial services director, the management services director. She worked as the Chief Labor Negotiator, which, of course, is important with our unions. In 2012, she became the Park and Recreation Director until 2019, when she was then appointed as the Assistant City Manager before her retirement in 2023. She's a mother to four and a grandmother to one, with the stork bringing another one as we speak. And an interesting side note, that former Mayor Larry Stamper is her father, so she has some political background too. So, judy, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 2:Okay, my first question is a real tough one here now. You moved to Burbank when you were three years old. Where did you move from?
Speaker 3:I was born in Granada Hills. That was when my dad was at a church there in Granada Hills and so he got moved to Burbank where he spent over 50 years in the Burbank community, which is kind of unusual for ministers, especially where he spent over 50 years in the Burbank community, which is kind of unusual for ministers, especially in the Methodist ministry.
Speaker 2:Well, he was a very well-known person here in the city and always had good beliefs and stuck to his guns, and I thought he did a solid job when he was a politician, besides being in the clergy. So, horace Mann, horace Mann's gone now. Now it's a day school or whatever. What do you call it?
Speaker 3:Child care center Right.
Speaker 2:So used to be an elementary school there on the on the Hill and uh. So I was a little sad. When you see it was, saw go, or.
Speaker 3:I actually was the last graduating class of the school yeah, that sixth grade and it was at that time. The population in that area of kids and younger families had really shrunk. So at that point all the kids started going to Jefferson, which is why Jefferson has kind of been a little bit impacted, because it's the only school in that neighborhood up there.
Speaker 2:They probably should think about maybe bringing it back if they get the development they think they are up on the hill area. You know we got the new project on Empire, the SB35 project there, and then of course I know we got the Fries project, and who knows what I mean. If we ever do anything with the IKEA site and the old Zodis and all that, there's going to be a need for schools in that area. So it might serve the school district well to make sure they hold on to that and maybe develop it back into the elementary school down the line. So who knows?
Speaker 3:That's not your purview. All I know is that their enrollment is down now. So I guess the hope would be they can get back to sort of where they were and maybe grow it Right, and then there would be. That would be a good problem to have it would be yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, let's get in a couple of things here. So what were your interests back in high school? What would you do that? You used to play sports or doing activities? What would you do back in the high school days?
Speaker 3:Well, so in high school I had previously played softball. I played one year in high school and that was it. I didn't do it again and I cheerleaded, actually for one year too. But really what became more interesting to me was to be in ASB and speech and debate, and I ultimately was the senior class president at Burbank High School.
Speaker 2:Well, absolutely outstanding. Okay, and that brings me to one of the questions what really got you into politics?
Speaker 3:Absolutely outstanding. Okay, and that brings me to another question what really got you into politics? Is that a calling? You felt back then that you wanted to be the person making decisions. I mean, would be something really exciting to you know, work to help, you know whatever that was. I didn't really have a cause at the moment, but I thought it would be fun to work and be a lobbyist.
Speaker 3:But when my dad became a city council member, my mom would take me to the meetings every once in a while and I just recall sitting there, being in awe of you know all of Sue Giorgino, mary Alvord, you know all of the people that were role models for me and the knowledge that they had, the passion that they had, and I thought, wow, this is amazing. And then what I really loved is that on any given Tuesday night, a member of the public, a business member, anybody, could come up, share a concern, a problem, something that was happening in their neighborhood or whatever that might be, and literally staff or somebody would be dealing with that right, the council would have directed that night Can somebody please meet with Mr Sherwood? He's got a problem in his neighborhood and we need to address it right. And I thought, wow, that's awesome that you can come to your government and have them immediately want to work with you and make a change Right, and so I thought I want to be a part of that. That is something that I would love to do.
Speaker 3:You went to college and you went to Long Beach State, right, and I thought I think I read that you had a political science minor or something or so political science was my major and then at that time yeah, and at that time they had started um an option in public administration. It was a pretty new um area of schooling, and so I was able to get a little bit more about local government into my um, my curriculum and something that's actually very needed.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of people should take courses like that. You know, I think a lot of people should take political science courses and learn how to actually know the truth from lies when it comes to politics and how it works. Politics can be very shady, and I will say this I do not believe that we have a lot of shady politics in Burbank. I really don't. It's funny. I don't look to see what party people are with or anything else, I just look for the best person, and I think we always have a pretty good makeup of our city council. So I I think, uh, we don't have a lot of problems. They have nationally, thank goodness, so that's for sure. So, okay, well, so you went to now. You went to woodbury. Now, I always have a little problem with woodbury. They always call themselves in burbank and there's only like 10% of it in Burbank, so anyhow. So what was the Woodbury experience for you?
Speaker 3:That was a great experience for me because I had put off getting my master's.
Speaker 3:I was going to do it and then I had a baby and life just sort of happened and I never did it and I was a little concerned because I was pretty far along in my career at that point I was in my 40s and I thought, did I wait too long to do it?
Speaker 3:But in the long run I actually think it was the perfect thing for me to have done. I learned so much about myself, so much about leadership, and I connected with so many other professionals in the field who had real life work experience to draw on, to learn from, to talk about. And then there was also a lot of younger people who had just graduated college and were doing it. So it was a really great mix and being able to mentor some of them because they didn't have any work life experience and that type of thing. So I think just overall it was such a great experience and I got exposed to so many authors on, you know, on leadership and different types of things that I don't think I would have otherwise and I think it really just broadened my horizons and made me an even better leader.
Speaker 2:I look back on my educational life and they say, if you could do something again and go back and change it all, I would have done a whole lot better. When it came to academics, I mean, I passed no problem. I got my diploma from Burroughs, the whole thing. I went to Valley for like a year and a half and I lost interest. And even back in my days at Burroughs education, you just wanted to get through the day. You didn't really care about the subject matter. And as you get older you appreciate it a lot more, and I did. Actually, when I was teaching at Crespi I took a couple classes at Valley that the school asked me to take and I really got into them a whole lot more and appreciated the information and what it was all about. And I think sometimes our younger students don't appreciate what they're getting in education and as you get older and you go back, you say, okay, I'm here because I want to be here, not because I've got to be here for some reason, or it's part of the whole thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think those are good points.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, enough about me. We're not here to talk. Let's talk about you and some of the things, and you have an amazing website and I went to and took off with some things. But I'm going to start with something that I did not see on your website and something I've been gnawing at now for a couple years, and that's transportation. I don't know if you saw, we had a podcast with the mayor on a Burbank bus recently and the entire podcast was with Nick Schultz and David Kriske and we just talked transportation. I thought it was an amazing podcast. It was the best Ask the Mayor we ever did. And don't tell the mayor that, because next month he comes back into the studio again.
Speaker 2:Anyhow, I do not think the Burbank bus serves Burbank very well. I think it's outdated. I think the buses are too big. I think it doesn't serve a hillside area whatsoever. What are your thoughts on transportation? How are you with the Burbank bus? What should we do to get mobility in the city so people will use the system instead of just seeing empty blue limousines driving around in the media district?
Speaker 3:So staff has been grappling with that for a long time, because, on the one hand, we want to provide additional services on top of what you know the Metro provides for for people in town, but you don't want to cross either, and so I think that the whole Burbank bus the point of it was to help people commuting from other locations into Burbank and people who are leaving from Burbank to go and need to take the subway or they need to go to the Metrolink or whatever the case may be. So I think the idea is good. I just don't think it has been the success that we would all like for it to be. I agree with you. I see it a lot and I see a lot of empty spots.
Speaker 3:There are a couple of lines, I think, at certain times that are a little bit more popular, but still not full, and so I have concern with that, because it's a lot of money, some of which comes from, you know, propositions and other things, and it has to be used for those purposes. So it's not as though it could be used for other things. But I think we have to get smart with that. I really do, because the other side of that is we have our senior transportation program, which is incredibly important for so many people who live in our community and whose families need that to help their parents and other people get around town, and that's a totally different kind of service than the Burbank bus. And then you've got Metro. So you've got all these different things happening and I think we just have to really kind of maybe get stuck back and look at what is the most effective and what do people really need?
Speaker 2:I think when you look at the city and I think a bus system is great for a city I mean I've said before I've been to big cities like San Diego and have a great little trolley system around town. Same with San Luis Obispo, a smaller city with a great trolley system around the town I think we should have a trolley system in Burbank and we don't need huge, big buses. I think smaller type vehicles running more often would be better for the city and I say serving the Hill area, having a line that runs down on Kenneth besides Glen Oaks, you know, because I think if you want people to take transportation you've got to make it accessible so it's easy for them to get to, you know. I mean I think people will walk. You know a few blocks, but they're not going to walk a quarter or a half mile.
Speaker 3:I don't disagree with you, and that makes me think of former mayor Bob Frutos. He wants a trolley. He's always advocating for his role.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you've heard our podcast, but the trolley story, that was actually Ross Benson feeding that into Bob Frutos for the longest time. Because Ross's idea was to get trolleys but then go to the different studios, go to Warners and Cartoon Network and Disney and say, hey, let's put one of your cartoon characters on this trolley, and then it'll be like the SpongeBob trolley or the Mickey Mouse trolley, and then people will come to Burbank just to pose with the trolley and ride it. So not only is it, it'd be a help to the city, you know, but it'd also be practical for the city also. So Ross was on Bob Foose for a long time and then Bob kind of brought to the council they didn't bring the whole idea to the council.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the character part was new for me.
Speaker 3:So I think the issue about public transportation is this I talked to a lot of people in their 30s and 40s Life is happening, right, I've got to go here, I've got to go there, I've got to go to this place, and so public transportation can sometimes make that a little more cumbersome.
Speaker 3:So like, if you need to get to the grocery store, you need to get to the dry cleaners, you need to drop off a kid at childcare, you know all of these things, and so I think there's a niche. There's got to be a niche somewhere that makes sense for us, that helps people to get around town in an easier way when they're going to dinner for the night or they're doing something maybe a one-stop, two-stop type situation to the mall or whatever that looks like for them, right? But it's not going to be something for everyone, right, because life is full and busy for a lot. It it's not going to be a be something for everyone, right, because life is full and busy for a lot of people and the car is going to ultimately went out in some of those instances. But yeah, I think if we need to have transportation. It's an, it's something we need to do for our community, and I think we've just got to kind of step back and be smart about it.
Speaker 2:I agree. I think it's a it's ongoing thing and I know it's going to come up for you if you make the council, and so be ready for it.
Speaker 3:I will be.
Speaker 2:Let's move on to another one of your things on the website. Here you say you want to get, you're very pro-police and you want to see more resources for police. So what kind of resources are you thinking about?
Speaker 3:So for both police and fire. What concerns me is our goal right, and it's a great goal is to increase our housing by 12,000 units by 2035. I don't know what that looks like in numbers for our population, but even if it was another 20 or 30,000 people, I'm concerned that a lot of times the city we wait till we're in crisis mode, right, we wait till we've gotten to a spot where we're down 10 officers and now everybody's having to do a bunch of overtime, or we're down 10 firefighters and everybody's working too hard and they're tired. I think we need to be strategic about this and we need to potentially look at you know other ways of doing things too, right. Um, for instance, you know the fire department in the past has talked about a cadet program like the police department had. I mean, I just think there's some things we can potentially look outside the box about, right. Um, I just don't want to see us get to a place where we don't have what we need and we and as I know, you know we're already and I think, potentially I think it's about 10 police officers and about the same in firefighters that we cut years ago when we had major budget cuts, right, we've never gotten that back, and that was 10 years ago and our population has continued to increase and it's going to continue to increase, and so I just want us to be smart about ensuring that they have what they need resource-wise and whatever that looks like.
Speaker 3:Is it more mental health evaluation, people counseling, is it more paramedics? Is it another end? I don't know what those things are. I want to understand them and I want to understand from police and fire what that looks like as our population grows, because we have to remember too, at least 100,000 people, at least pre-COVID. I don't know what it's looking like now, because I know a lot of people are still potentially working from home a little bit, but there's still another impact just from people coming in to work in our community, to visit our community, that we have to think about as well. So I just want us to be smart, because we have had a hard time filling the positions and that's been a little bit of a thing everywhere, not just Burbank problem and I just don't want us to get to a place where we're, you know, in 2035 and we say, uh-oh, we didn't prepare very well for this.
Speaker 2:I'm worried about. Actually, in two years and four years we have the World Cup and the Olympics coming. You know that's it's going to have a tremendous amount of people in the area. I know that we were losing a lot of firefighters for a long time and the city finally stepped up in their last contract and gave them substantial raises and increases. Now they're not leaving. I know we just had a new police contract and I think they did some good things there, but do you believe that we need to make sure we pay it Now? It might mean raising taxes for people, but do you think it's a good trade-off to give them more money and increase their size if it means still more taxes for people?
Speaker 3:it's costly to have police and fire. It's costly to have all employees that's the majority of our budget, right. But it's also costly to lose people and I can tell you, for instance, I know our apprentice programs with linemen it's like over a million dollars to train one of them in a four-year apprentice program. You lose that asset. That's a lot of money. Basically, you trained somebody to now go to Edison or to go somewhere else and what that does to the organization from a morale standpoint, from a training standpoint, from a safety standpoint just all of that, right, it's harmful. And that happens in police and fire as well. We train them, we spend a lot of time as we should, a lot of time and resources into them, and to have us lose them it's a problem.
Speaker 3:I understand it's a double-edged sword because, on the other hand, in order to keep them, we've had to make some significant strides in some wages and benefits, and that's costly in some wages and benefits and that's costly. But at the same time, we can't not plan accordingly and we cannot plan and not plan and just hope that it all works out okay. We have to be attractive to people to want to come here and to want to stay here. We have to create a good culture here. We need to make our community feel safe, and I think that that's something that maybe can be done creatively without having to add bodies. We may find that out that they'll tell us. With another 20,000 people, we're okay at the number and levels that we're at, and that would be good to know. I just don't want to get to a place where we wait until 2035 and then we're in crisis and we didn't figure it out, so I just think we need to be strategic.
Speaker 2:I think the biggest problem I've seen in the city over the last 20 years is, you're right, they're reactive and not proactive, and that's something that has to really change, because we were, let's face it, those of us who lived in Burbank our whole lives are used to a certain way of life, a certain lifestyle and a certain we feel safe and all those things. So you know, the trade-off is how do we keep those values and still try to keep the net cost down to the average person? So that's a battle I'm going to now once again, we're going to change the subject and I'm going to have you put back on your park and recreation hat again, because you spent a lot of time there and I thought it ran great. But I saw on your website you want to work on fixing things and I saw one was a starlight bowl.
Speaker 2:I think if you took the starlight bowl to a jeweler and he said, oh, let me look at this, and then he spent 10 minutes on it and shined it and he said, my God, look at this incredible thing you have here. Well, we have an incredible thing up there and the best we do right now is we get basically cover bands up there a couple nights of the year and what a great venue. What a great venue and it could be making the city money. We could have great acts up there, because there's so many acts out there now who are past their prime prime but they still go out and play. But what can we do to to update? I mean, do you have any plans for starlight bowl? I mean, I don't want to say, you know, put words in your mouth, but what do you think about the starlight bowl and its potential up there?
Speaker 3:so, um, what you're alluding to on my website is, I feel like there's a lot of infrastructure we need to take care of, right and so the starlight.
Speaker 3:I just one thing, I fall is absolutely one of them. So yes, when I was the parks and recreation director, we had an architectural firm come in and do a master plan for that facility because we're close I don't know how close, but we're close at some point, maybe not being able to continue to use that facility because once you get to a certain threshold of of work that needs to be done to it and where we've kind of had some struggles over the years is in the seating and a few other. It's old, it's been there, you know, a long long time.
Speaker 2:For those who remember, we used to have that a great facility at Olive Park that was a baseball grandstands and we let that go and go and go and finally couldn't fix it. So we just demolished the whole thing and made a softball field. So that's why I'm scared you're going to happen to start a light bulb.
Speaker 3:So it's going to take a big commitment on this community's part. So we do have a plan. It's going to obviously have to be updated because it's old. It was done when I was there. We did community vetting of it at that time.
Speaker 3:We wanted to talk to the neighborhoods because the things we've always heard is that nobody wants us to overload that facility, like the Greek theater or something like that, right, because there's the access points up there aren't great I mean the Greek's not great either, you know, but the access points we've got a few access points up and down the hill there. But you know, that was always the concern that you would hear from the neighborhood is they didn't like the noise late at night and they didn't like the crowds of people coming all down at one time, up at one time, down at one time, that type of thing. And so we did some workshops and I actually feel like I was pleasantly surprised that people were very supportive of something changing there, of something better happening at that facility. They wanted precautions and they should get precautions. They wanted probably to limit how many nights a week it would be used.
Speaker 3:But those were fair things for us to talk about and to compromise on the problem is it's incredibly expensive, incredibly expensive, no matter at that time. 50 million or something. So it's going to be more than that now because that was pre-COVID, pre-everything right and cost of living's gone up everything. So it's going to be a lot of money and so the return on your investment is going to take some time. But what you're saying is true. We at one time did have um somebody who ran that venue and we had some very popular acts of the time in the 70s.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah um, who were up there?
Speaker 3:remember jim richmond and his uh situation up there I, I remember exactly what happened and that's what got us in trouble and we were sued and and we lost that. You know battle, and that that's why that facility sat vacant for a very long time, and so, yes, it's a gem. Like you said, it's a gem, um, and I and I want either, like we need to make a decision right, we've kicked the can down the curb a little bit long now and we need to make a decision, and I think we have some options on how you might structure that. You know, I think there's a lot of grants for arts. I think there's potentially a partnership, a private partnership, for that. I mean, I think there's. I think we have to explore everything before we give up on what might happen there.
Speaker 2:Well, once again I will take your, because you understand that a whole lot better than I ever have. I just hate to see such a great facility, you know, going to the wayside a little bit, especially when other people are coming in and renting it. You know, six, seven, eight, nine times in the summer and making a lot of money and selling out shows there, and we can't figure it out ourselves. So I will leave that in your hands down the line. Okay, now let's, it doesn't get easier from here. By the way, we just I keep coming at you here. We're going to talk about homeless and I saw a quote you had on your website. Your website's beautiful. Everybody needs to go. Look at our website. I'll put a link down in the description for people. It's very. You talk about everything, you just don't put generalizations. But you did say this about homeless. I also know firsthand that homelessness has negatively impacted many of our businesses and residents, so you know firsthand how. What's your firsthand experience with all that?
Speaker 3:Okay, so, um, a couple of things, but probably the most um, integral issue was when I got into the city manager's office, um, that was more of a of a of a place where I was hearing these things from businesses when I was in parks and recreation. It was the parks, right, so it was probably more affecting residential neighborhoods, because a lot of our parks are around residential neighborhoods, so I was hearing it in both of those fashions, right, and what that means is this you would have parents who would say that they were headed to a park, right, they would go into the park and somebody would either be doing something lewd, or they would be yelling filthy things, or they would yell, or they would say something, right, and so they felt scared to bring their children into the parks, right, so that became an issue. And then we had, as you recall, we had an encampment at mccambridge that was going on for for far too long and that was something that ultimately was addressed, but that was scary for a lot of parents, and so they were nervous about bringing their kids there and they were really wanting us to do something about it, right, from a business perspective. When I got into the city manager's office. I was hearing from a lot of businesses who had people. They would show up to work and somebody would be laying, maybe, right outside the door and they couldn't you know, they didn't know how to get in, their customers couldn't get in or, you know, whatever the case may be, or they were, you know, doing things in the parking lot, sleeping, maybe using the restroom there, lot sleeping, maybe using the restroom there, and they kind of had enough of it right.
Speaker 3:So I think my take on this I sat on the city's internal homeless committee so I feel like I have a decent amount of understanding of what the city has done, where we've come from, some of the successes we've had, some of the things we need to keep doing. But at the end of the day, I'm completely compassionate and empathetic to the situation. I don't want anyone living on the streets. I don't. We've had people die that are living on our streets several and that's the last thing any of us want. But at the same time, it's impacting people, it's impacting residents and it's impacting businesses. So I think it's something that we have to be empathetic to everybody about and I am so happy that we're moving forward with the Homeless Services Center.
Speaker 3:We you know Burbank hasn't really been a part of the solution for a while with respect to having housing for, you know, temporary housing or whatever that looks like. We've had great partnerships with Home Again LA and other nonprofits who have helped us to get people housed from our community. But I think this is gonna be a great thing because it's gonna have the wraparound services and that, in my opinion, I think we had this whole idea that housing first was the idea, and I think we've all seen that didn't really pan out, and most of the time it's because I don't know if it's because people want to live in the streets or don't want to, I don't know but I don't think there's sometimes a capacity to appreciate or understand what the situation is and how it might be better for them if they just got into housing Right Cause I don't. We have to treat the issues that they're experiencing and just putting them in housing.
Speaker 3:It didn't do that for so many of them. It couldn't withstand it. It would mess up a lot of those hotels. Especially during COVID we had a lot of those kinds of problems in surrounding cities, and so I think we have to meet people where they are and we have to help them with whatever it is that they're going through whether it's mental health issues, addiction and at the same time, we have to provide a roof over their head because, living on the streets, they're not eating well, they're not getting the medical attention that they need, they're not getting, maybe, medication that they need. There's just a whole host of things that are happening and it's so painful to watch, and I think most people feel that way, but I think a lot of people are at a point where they want us to do more.
Speaker 2:It's a very fine line. You know, empathy isn't very important, but on the other hand, frustration is also there. So it's a. It's a hard subject. Years ago we had a thing called Measure H. It got passed. I'm sure I voted for it, I'm sure a lot of people voted for it back then, but nobody read the fine print. As they say you that maybe $200,000 a year, and so we're paying a ton of money into that Now. Is that something the city should be looking at? Now we have another prop coming out, prop A, I think it is another homeless prop or something. And should we be looking into things like that and say well, how does that affect Burbank if it passes? If we vote for that, are we going to get screwed again? Basically, do you think we should be looking into that kind of stuff State measures and county measures and I know it's kind of outside Burbank, but as we just saw with Measure H, it affected Burbank immensely Right, so, um, I believe that what you're saying is absolutely true.
Speaker 3:we've been giving 10 million dollars to the county and we have fought for every single penny that we've received and it hasn't been much. That's just the truth, right? We've done a lot of this on our own. Um, we tried to work with the county a few years ago. The city management group did trying to get them to change it so that there would be at least a pro rata basis for each city so that everyone could at least have some guarantee of money back. And could you know, like us we're going to create this homeless center and we would know every year we're going to get $3 million back from our measure H dollars. So we know we have enough money to pay for the, you know, the wraparound services, because that's going to be expensive to have people on site to be there to take care of them.
Speaker 3:So we tried that and the county said no, I have a friend and she knows who she is, because she brought it up to me this morning, because we were actually talking about it last night and it looks like I was able to find that the city of Los Angeles has a new measure and that's to extend their homelessness money.
Speaker 3:I don't think it's not increasing it, it's just extending it because it ends coming up.
Speaker 3:It also looks like the county is doing the same, because those dollars and that was a sales tax measure that goes away in 2026. So it looks as though they have a measure on. It also looks and I haven't been able to dig deep enough into it, but it also looks like there is some guaranteed money back to local government. What we need to do is figure out how much that is, because if there's a decent amount coming back to Burbank, then I think we would be happy that we have some guaranteed amount of dollars coming to help us combat homelessness in our community. In our community. If it's not going to be a very much and if they're going to control how we get it, like if it's not, like if you just get it or we have to apply for it every year and it has to be some process by which the county forget it and I mean that sincerely, because and I agree we're not getting anything and we're having to work really hard to try and address the situation with pennies.
Speaker 2:So my question is with pennies. So my question is is anybody going to look into this new Measure A and find out in advance, is this good or not for Burbank? Because if it's not, we need to get the word out saying this is not a good deal and do not vote for it because you're going to not get what you put into it.
Speaker 3:So I think Measure A is city of Los Angeles. I'm pretty sure I could be wrong. I think the county one is's. Lahcma is the acronym, and I literally just started looking at it. So I actually was going to suggest to a council member that the city ought to look at it and see if that's something they think the residents should be voting on or not being proactive and reactive once again is part of that.
Speaker 2:I agree we need to look at those things. One of the things you talk about in your thing you talk about housing. One of the things you say we need to do is research any impacts or unintended consequences the state required housing development. Has that had on Burbank so we can go back to the state with facts to ask for reasonable modifications or exemptions to the laws. And as we learned with SB 35, which once again I think I really blame whoever the legislative analysts that reports to Burbank dropped the ball, because when that got passed I don't remember them coming to the city council and saying, hey, this happened and you better be careful because these kinds of things now can go on. And then suddenly Pickwick happens and we're going. What happened? We don't, you know. Nobody understood what happened until after the fact. So now we've done a couple protections since then. So how do we get ourselves proactive in that measure and those types of things?
Speaker 3:Yeah, honestly, I hadn't seen it, so I was so happy that my friend brought it to my attention this morning and I'm going to share it with the council because I think the council, I think it would behoove them to look at it, to have our staff look at it, to see if we think that's going to be something that would be helpful for the city and, if so, we should tell our residents that, hey, we're guaranteed this. So if you're going to vote for it, here's what you can expect, or no, we're going to have to fight again because we're only going to get some small percentage of it, or we'll have to apply for it every year. I mean, it could be that I haven't been able to read the fine details, but I think that that absolutely needs to happen and I plan to do that.
Speaker 2:So housing that's another huge issue and we have to have X amount of houses now built in, I think the next three to four years, or we're in violation of the SB 35 guidelines and all that stuff. And how are we going to? I just saw the city of Elk Grove is sued by the state of California because they denied an SB 35 project. So the state is actually really on this. So how are we going to? What's it going to take to get the the uh, the state off our backs? And how do we get the housing into Burbank? What's, what are your suggestions for that?
Speaker 3:So clearly we need more housing. Um, that's the bottom line, that's the easy part, that's the easy part.
Speaker 3:I also want to say that some of it needs to be affordable. Right, we need to have a good housing, a good stock of affordable housing, and I think we need to have both for sale and for rent, affordable housing. But one thing I think that could make the process easier is because, know and I've lived through it, you've lived through it plan developments can take. You know, plan developments, development agreements, everything when we're looking at big sites to turn over and to change the zoning and all of those kinds of things, that's takes a lot of time. So we have three specific plans that are right now undergoing review. Right, we need to absolutely ensure that we have inserted housing in a lot of reasonable commercial areas in those plans so that those will be transparent to the community, that these are sites that we potentially look for housing, and it will make it easier for the development community as well. We need to be smart about this and it's things like you said earlier. It's, you know, it's the old Ikea site. It's, and that's a plan development now, and so if the downtown specific plan says that housing is allowed there, that's going to be a lot easier for that developer to do than to have to go through a whole plan development agreement amendment Right. So we need to do things that incentivizes the developers to do these things and to do it in locations that make the most sense. And so, with the Golden State Media District and the downtown, we need to insert into those places in commercial areas where housing would be appropriate and something that we would welcome developers to consider.
Speaker 3:I think that most people want us to protect the residential communities. Right, I think we're going to still have housing in the residential communities. The ADUs are certainly, you know, happening everywhere and I think that's going to continue to happen as well, which is why I think we need to get smart about allowing housing in other non-traditional areas around our community, because there's plenty of places, as long as we build the things that people need to live grocery stores, dry cleaners, you know, whatever that looks like if we can create those kinds of environments, I think we can be smart about it and I think those things can happen and it can sort of be spread out one of the things I think people are very you you talk about ADUs people are very frustrated with is the amount of time it takes to get anything approved, to get inspectors or anything else.
Speaker 2:I think that's a very frustrating especially developers. Very frustrating for them because, you know, while they're waiting for an inspector, while they're waiting for everything to get approved, they're paying taxes on that property and with no income coming in. So how, what can we do to help the developers and streamline the process? You think for them?
Speaker 3:There's still a lot of streamlining of our processes that need to occur, as you'll recall, I mean, there was a time and a place we really didn't want development, so we made things very difficult. We've made some strides and changed the code in some areas to sort of simplify that a little bit, but there's still some areas we could do better. Going online, permitting and things like that has helped. We need to do more of that. It's not all there, but we need to do more of that and you know I think that a lot of it could be, especially with ADUs. You hear a lot of communities have gone to. You know we we did put some plans and specs on there, I think from the city of los angeles, but I think that's something we could look a little bit deeper in, that there might be some pre-approved types of plans and specs that that homeowners could go straight to and say, okay, I like this one and this is the one I'm going to take and it's a lot less pressure on the building and uh, division, you know, to do those kinds of things. So I think there's a lot of creative things we can do. I will say this too, just having worked there for 32 years.
Speaker 3:Community development is the department that gets slammed. So you know, they're working hard on these specific plans, they're working hard on building permits, you know all of these kinds of things. And then, oh, all of a sudden, now we're going to look at a rent cap, and so now we have to stop. We have to hold workshops, we have to, you know. You know I'm not saying that things aren't important and that we shouldn't talk about them. I'm just saying, in fairness, it's the same staff that's consistently having to deal with it, because that is the department that really is the hub of a lot of things.
Speaker 2:Well, I would give a quick shout out to Patrick Prescott and, of course, david Kriske. Anytime I call either one of them, they always they take the time they'll explain things to me. They're very knowledgeable and they do want the best for the city. They're not you know. They don't just say I want to talk to somebody else. So I understand community development is huge, but I think we need to also, like I say, have the. We need more inspectors. Maybe we need more people to just get things done. I I really don't know what the solution is, but I know the complaints are there constantly and I hear them all the time.
Speaker 3:So I know we need to fix it. Yeah we, we definitely I. I hear you, I've heard it for years as an employee We've tried to streamline things, We've tried to make, but we have more work to do. I think we've done a good job to try and make things a little bit better, but we definitely have more work to do and I plan to help staff make that happen.
Speaker 2:You want to run for city council? Huh, look at all the stuff you got to get yourself into. You're retired and life was good. But here you go jumping back in. Well, talking about upgrading, and we talked about the Starlight Bowl. I saw this on your site also and I said well, that's interesting, and you know what I agree. And it said City Hall needs to be upgraded to serve the needs of our employees and community. And I don't know if you meant physically the building, or if you meant how we do things. I know the building is in rough shape as it is. In fact, we're spending a lot of money right now to fix the fountain out in front, and we should. It should be a marquee type of a facility, you know. So what's your give me behind that statement? What you meant?
Speaker 3:The context of that statement, because it was under my thoughts about infrastructure is really that building needs to be. It needs to be redone. It's very old it is a gorgeous building.
Speaker 3:If you look at the old pictures, the ceilings were higher. We, you know, in the 70s, we came in and put all this you know, tile in. That building's beautiful and it needs to be rehabbed. And it needs to be built, though, to serve our community today and in the future, right? So, like the council chambers, I don't know what we can do, but it feels like it needs to be bigger.
Speaker 3:There's not great facilities for the council members to have offices. I mean, the reality is is, if we had a full-time council who that's was there, we would be in trouble. We don't have enough staff to staff them. We don't have the office space for it. I mean, you know what I'm saying. It just becomes really problematic, and so we need to, like, think about. I mean so I think when you design something, you need to think about the context of that into the future as well, and so I think there's not even really a great place. I mean, we've done the best we can to make it, but there's not even a great place for the council to meet in closed session.
Speaker 2:I wish I could be a final one of those meetings. Okay, so you know, this just popped in my head. You know, one of the big things we want to work on, which is down the line and the next council will be taking this up, is and the next council will be taking this up is we want to put a new library into the where Olive End, right across the street, where the community services building, and basically tear down the community services building, put in a new, entire, new, we don't know what. I don't like to call it a library because to me library is an outdated term and people think books and we are the media capital of the world.
Speaker 2:I think it would be a media center and books should be part of it. We shouldn't get rid of books. But I just think that so much types of media. But if we're going to do this entire large project that may include housing, that may include an amphitheater, that may include our community center, why not extend that where city hall is and maybe build a whole new city hall? While we're at it, while we're doing that entire project, what, what? Any thoughts on?
Speaker 3:that I mean that's just going to come down to money and what, where our resource, you know, and that's that's really what the conversations need to be had about being strategically thinking, because if, if we keep waiting, we're going to be in crisis mode with city hall as well. I can assure you of that. Um. So the new library I'm I'm sure you've seen some of the plans and it is more of a um, it's more of a community facility. It really is, with rooms for media, for people to rent out for, for different kinds of meeting spaces. I mean, it's really a whole new concept than what we're used to with our central library now, which is what I'm going to call a library.
Speaker 2:It's the stigma of being a library.
Speaker 3:I want it to be an interactive center, and that's what it's going to be for sure. And it wouldn't get rid of the community services building. It would be the administrative services building, you know, the old Glenn fed building.
Speaker 2:Well, I just want to be that clear, because we just thank you, because I didn't misspeak on that, and all of a sudden now I have a lot of people saying wait, we should build this. You know 15 years ago, you're gonna tear it down already. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, that member up and then we could have never had. We could have gotten rid of the glendale federal building, but that's all in the past and done um. But yeah, I think that was always to be a beautiful civic plaza. Those plans have been there for years. I think we'd be remiss if we didn't think about the connection, um and the what could really happen in a spectacular way between city hall and this new civic plaza that we're envisioning.
Speaker 2:I agree. I think that and once again, yes, it's going to take money, it'll probably take a little more taxes, but if you're going, a city like Burbank needs to have not only the infrastructure but the aesthetics too. You know, I think it's really important that you know. We're proud of our. You know, and, like you said, I've been up. Have you ever been up to the tower in City Hall, the very top tower?
Speaker 3:before. I've been up there. It's a beautiful view.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it used to be a radio room.
Speaker 3:There was something up there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a radio room back in the old days, you know, and back, I think, in the war days or something. Number one, I can't tell you how impressed I am with the knowledge you have and how much you've been around the city and you understand the city, I think. Being an assistant city manager, you basically are the number two person in the city to run the city. People may not know how our system works. The city council only hires a city manager and a city attorney. The city manager then runs the city and you were the assistant city manager and now you were in a bunch of departments but you were basically this number two person running the city. So I think that experience and the knowledge is going to be a huge benefit, like it was to Suzette Mullins, who'd spent time in the city before she was elected. I think it's helped her a lot too. I'm not sure there's a question in that, but it's kind of an observation, but I think it's you know.
Speaker 2:we should point that out to people. You know what I always do at the end of a show, and we've been spending a little time here, which is good. Time flies, doesn't it? Okay, you know where your camera is here. What I do is I give you as much time as you want. You can look in that camera and you can tell the people of Burbank why they should cast their vote for you. So it's all yours.
Speaker 3:Right. Thank you so much. I feel as though I am uniquely qualified to be our next city council member. I think I spent 32 years listening, learning and taking action in our community. I feel very connected to the people in our community, connected to the businesses in our community, the development community. I feel very connected to everyone and I think that's important because it's going to allow me not only because I understand the processes and I understand how the city works, it's going to make me effective day one.
Speaker 3:I don't need somebody to kind of sit and work with me to understand how things work and how things happen. I know how they happen and I know how they work and I want to be a catalyst now to make those things happen. We never always do everything that you want to do when you're a staff member, and there's plenty of things that I would love to see happen in our city, and so I want to be able to bring that to a new leadership position in the city and be able to understand that there are things that need to be brought to the forefront and need to be dealt with. I also feel very strongly that our city councils have always been passionate and cared about Burbank, burbank and Burbank alone. I don't know that that's necessarily the case with everyone. I think that there have been some things where people have come with some personal agendas and some politics and sometimes not wanting to listen to all the voices you know, feeling as though there might be only certain voices that are more important, and that's not me. Someone asked me on my Facebook do I lean to the left or do I lean to the right? And I told them I lean for Burbank, and that's it. I am here to listen to everyone. Everyone's opinion matters. I don't want to pretend that I have all the answers, that I know everything. No, I need to listen, I need to get my facts straight, I need to do research and then I need to make sometimes very hard decisions that I believe are going to be in the best interest of this entire community, and that's what the job of a city council member is, and that's what the job of a city council member is.
Speaker 3:I loved every bit of my 32 years. I feel like I'm still in a position to give back more. I want to now come and take what I know, the experience that I have, and bring it to you a leader in this community, who will care about everyone, who will listen to everyone and who will work really hard, day in and day out, to do what's best for all of Burbank, and I would absolutely love to be in a position to do this. I hope that people will look at my experience. I hope they'll look at my, my passion and my investment in this community.
Speaker 3:I also was in a lot on a lot of nonprofit boards and commissions and not commissions a lot of nonprofit boards. I currently serve on the hospital board. I was in charity league as a young girl. I've just you know, service to my community is what I am all about. I was born into public service. I've loved every minute of it and I feel as though giving back is just the most rewarding thing that you can possibly do. I was lucky enough to do that as an employee for 32 years and work with some amazing people to get some amazing things done, and now I want to come and be your council member and make a huge difference in that regard.
Speaker 2:Wow, probably of all the candidates, probably the best speech we've ever had, the ending speech we've ever had before. Very impressive, judy Wilkie, very impressive, thank you. I think you're a very impressive person also. Well, that's it for another one of our Meet the Candidates shows. I once again stress to all the candidates that if you'd like to be on one of our podcasts, please just send me an email at news at myburbankcom and we will set it up for you. For any race, as long as your name appears on a Burbank ballot, we'd love to have you here and talk about your views and opinions and, as you know, I don't pull the punches. I ask the tough questions because I think that's what people always want to know what do they really think and then it'll be on their record. You hold them to it. So, anyhow, thank you very much for watching. We appreciate it and we will see you next time.