myBurbank Talks
myBurbank Talks
The Week That Was and That Will Be - October 21
Unlock the secrets behind Burbank's latest hot topics and events in our engaging community roundup! Ever wondered what changes the Burbank school district is making to its cell phone policy, or how the city’s dealing with transparency issues in the wake of a controversial officer-involved shooting? We promise a deep dive into these pressing matters, starting with a heartfelt tribute to local hero Drew Woods. Join us as we dissect the recent City Council meeting, highlighting the passionate debates on rent control and the impactful retirement of Chief Michael Albanese. We'll also shine a light on the California Attorney General's findings on the Ruben Ramos shooting, raising critical questions about police accountability.
But that's not all—Burbank is buzzing with activities you won't want to miss! Explore the lineup of upcoming community events, from the Advisory Council on Disabilities meeting to the Halloween Skate Fest, ensuring there's something for everyone. We also tackle the ongoing concerns about the city's shift to an all-digital parking permit system, exploring its implications for seniors and advocating for a solution that accommodates all residents. Tune in for a lively discussion filled with local insights, community pride, and a call to action for a more inclusive Burbank!
My Burbank Talks presents another edition of the Week that Was and the Week that Will Be a weekly podcast featuring highlights and commentary on local events and issues taking place right here in Burbank. Now let's see what's on today's agenda as we join our program.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you very much. Thank you very, very much. Turn off the applause. You very much. Thank you very, very much. Turn off the applause. Hello, burbank, craig Schubert here with you once again for another week. That was, and the week that will be. So, as always, we have a humble request that you like this video and subscribe to the channel so YouTube continues to recommend this video to others like yourself, and also think about a channel membership to support us here at Vibe Burbank. So we're left in the control center here. But last week we were told then people enjoyed going out on the road, so let's get back on the road again. There we go, enjoy the ride. Last week's award of the Week winner was Drew Woods. Congratulations, drew. And yes, you did send in your address, so we will get that gift card out to you in the mail forthwith. Last week on the YouTube channel, we uploaded two different podcasts from our friends at Notebook LM. One was about the school district's report on banning cell phones in schools and the other was the AG's Attorney General of California report on the Burbank Police Department's officer-involved shooting in 2023. So please listen to those two podcasts and it'll give you some information about what was said, always try to keep you informed.
Speaker 2:Let's move on to last Tuesday. While it was not officially announced, there was a speaker at the city council meeting who was a former and now retired Burbank police officer that wanted to be the next chief. We had not heard about the retirement of Chief Michael Albanese. It would be nice if the timetable would be more public. If there is going to be a national. Is there going to be a national? Is there going to be a national search? Does this candidate know the city council does not hire the police chief. The decision is solely that of the city manager, justin hess, who, in all honesty, I have complete faith in his decision. He has a great track record with his hires over the years, so I would hope we just put it in his hands instead of spending a quarter million dollars in tax money paying for a national search firm, with Captain Crimmins also retiring next month and it looks like the police department may be getting a complete overhaul at the top, and who knows what the future will bring.
Speaker 2:So the city council met and rent control was a big subject. Both tenants and landlords spoke and the only thing that really stuck in my mind is that the landlords want to cap rents at three or 4%. I understand this because you know maybe they should also find a way to cap water and power, insurance, property taxes and all other mandatory expenses for landlords also at 4%. It's a great point and it will never happen. I really don't know what the solution is.
Speaker 2:So Wednesday the police commission met and one thing they said it was not the department's policy to ever release body worn footage. Carry on from cameras and body worn footage because they want to be transparent as possible. I guess yes, I'm being facetious. Um, I don't understand why the department has a policy not to let, uh, the body worn footage go. Once again makes no sense to me. My break has put in requests to get footage and has been denied, so I I don't know. They have to release it in officer involved shootings by california law, but that's all they have to do. They also talked about the crime mecca called the empire center. So they had no type of cell station there, but it sounded like they wanted some. It was said it would be useless to have one without a booking facility. So put one in. Stop taking officers out of patrol section, bring them to the Empire Center, have them book somebody go through an hour of processing while their area they're supposed to be patrolling is being left unpatrolled. Makes sense to me, huh?
Speaker 2:The police department also acknowledged that, in the event of a large earthquake which would destroy, let's say, the overpasses over the freeways, the department would be at a large disadvantage dealing with problems in the valley with the main station located on the hill. Once again, maybe something the city council should be looking at. I think it's something that is important, because we do only have one police station In the city and it is separated by the five freeways. So, well, I don't think Earthquake is really going to knock all the bridges down, because they say the highest Earthquake we can probably get In this area is around 7.0. Bridges still are about 60 years old, so who knows? But I think that it's still better to be prepared for something, so we should have some kind of a substation or a booking or something on the other side of the fire freeway.
Speaker 2:Now, this is interesting. California Attorney General Rob Bonta released a final report on the officer-involved shooting of Ruben Ramos at Home Depot in May of 2023. The report and let me bring it up on the screen for you here, the report which was released on October 9th, was not brought to the City Council, nor the Police Commission, nor any reference or press release by the City of Burbank or the police department. Someone needs to pull the old transparency word out of the mud again. So that report is basically 31 pages and it has. It's an incredible document.
Speaker 2:We did a podcast on it and and try to, you know, refine it. We also did a a story on my burbank, but it's a long report and very detailed. The one thing I found very interesting in it was that the um, the three officers who fired their guns, did not submit for interviews. Now I'm sure it's the police union not letting them put things on a record or whatever, but but don't you think the people who pull the trigger have allowed to be interviewed by the Department of Justice, if anything? I'm not saying they did nothing wrong here. They were told they did nothing wrong. I believe it. But it'd be nice to know what their frame of mind was, what they saw, what they thought. It'd be nice to know what their frame of mind was, what they saw, what they thought, because this information can be used down the line with other information and maybe help with officers' thought process. I mean, there's no doubt that this is a it's a terrible situation.
Speaker 2:They did say, though, that the report did say that, you know, burbank needs to expand their mental health outreach because it's very lacking, and they're trying to do it. They're having problems with the county trying to get more mental health professionals. We keep talking about all these things we need to do, but they're not getting done. So at the city level, a county level, a state level, you just can't keep throwing money at it. You need to get the resources, you need to get the vehicles, you need to get the people, you need the hours working. You know homeless problems happen 24 hours a day, not just from nine to five Monday through Thursday. So once again Friday, friday Night Lights saw Burbank destroy Glendale 64 to zero, while Burroughs defeated Chris Edelweiss 37 to 35 in a very exciting game. So it's still setting things up for a big time big game coming up between Burroughs and Burbank, with playoff implications and everything else. So congratulations to both schools. And that's it for our first half of the show. Now let's jump to a quick commercial and we'll be back right after this.
Speaker 1:How would you like your business advertised in this very spot? My Burbank Talks is looking for local businesses interested in a 30 second spot to appear in our podcasts. If you're interested, please email advertising at myburbankcom and we'll be glad to discuss all the exciting possibilities with you. Now back to our podcast.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, thank you, Thank you very much. Thank you once again. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you Once again, craig Sherwood, here at the MyBurman Command Center. Let's go for another ride. What do you think Put on your seatbelts? So today the Sustainable Burbank Commission will meet at 5 pm at the Community Services Building. They're going to talk about the Burbank Water and Power's Customer solar program proposed updates. Uh, it's very interesting. We're going to look at that down the line. I think I want to find out what it's all about. My understanding is that the um they're not going to give as good of deals as they used to and I can't understand why they wouldn't, because don't they want more people to go solar? Aren't we trying to save energy where we can? But we'll look into that a little bit. Other sub communities will also give reports.
Speaker 2:Tuesday. City Council is dark this week, so you get the week off with pay, very nice. Moving on to Wednesday, the annual State of the City will be held at 11 am at the Airport Marriott. This really is a great event thrown by the Chamber of Commerce each year. Nick Schultz will be presenting, and I know that Jonathan Jones and the entire Public Information Office has been working overtime to make it a very special event. Senior citizens will then meet at 2 pm at the Johnson Center and the Transportation Commission will meet at 5 pm at the Community Services Building. It'll be a busy day for some. They'll be talking about the downtown parking plan, the one with the parking meters. They will also be getting a six-month update on the San Fernando Boulevard reconfiguration.
Speaker 2:I would love to tell you about the staff reports. But they do not include them on the lesser meetings, which is a shame. But they do not include them on the lesser meetings, which is a shame. It'd be nice to have them available for the public so that we can study them in advance and be able to comment on them during oral communications instead of having to wait a month afterwards, and I could bring in information. Also. Maybe they should create a rule that when a staff report and recommendations are not made available to the public in advance, they need to then supply another oral communication period at the end of the meeting so the public can talk about the subject instead of having to wait another month before they can comment on it. Currently, it says the staff reports are only available at the Office of the Transportation Division Really, and where is that? We'll have to go hunting around for it. I'm not sure where that is, but why not put these staff reports online? Makes a lot of sense to me.
Speaker 2:Let's see, there will be a meeting of the Friends of the Library from 5.30 to 7 pm at the Central Library. You ask what do the Friends of the Library do? The Friends operate two bookstores, one at the Central Library and one at the buena vista branch, where they sell gently used books, cds, blu-ray and dvds for younger people out there. That's how you used to do movies and uh and um music on cds and dvd something the olden days. They run a pop-up book sales throughout the year and provide tax prep help each year, with all profits returning to the library to pay for programming and special purchases.
Speaker 2:Thursday the Advisory Council on Disabilities monthly meeting will be held from 1.30 to 3 pm on Zoom. The Infrastructure Oversight Board will meet from 6 to 8 pm at the Community Services Building. No agenda has been posted yet on either meeting. Pm at the Community Services Building. No agenda has been posted yet on either meeting. Friday there's a free, california-friendly and native plant landscaping class hosted by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Burbank Water and Power, which will be held from 6 to 7.15 pm at the Burbank Water and Power Building. So something for you to do on Friday night. Let's move to the weekend.
Speaker 2:Saturday. The kitten fair returns for another saturday at the animal shelter from 10 to 2 pm. The national drug take back day will also take place at the police department's parking lot at orange grove and third street from 10 am to 2 pm. So drop out of your drugs and go grab a kitty. Take a look inside your medicine cabinets and make a difference. If you have a medication you no longer need, haven't used or have expired, bring them to the perfect police department's parking lot and they will dispose them for you, no questions asked. They're not going to read the labels either. They just want to get things off the street. We don't want prescription, okay, so they just want to get things off the street. We don't want prescription, okay.
Speaker 2:So also on saturday at 10 am, the third event. At 10 am on saturday, it's the uh, the little pumpkin. Wait, did I say pumpkin there? It is, of course. When you hear that noise, it means only one thing it's the word of the, and this week's word of the week is pumpkin. So if you send an email to contest at mybrickcom and put the word pumpkin in the subject line, you'll be entered for this week's $25 gift card and we'll tell you the winner next week, as always. So deadline is Friday. Once in a while, somebody can send ones out on the weekend, it's too late, dead. So deadline is Friday. Once in a while, somebody sends one down on the weekend, it's too late. Deadline's always Friday, okay, so please send it in. Anyhow, let's get back. The Little Pumpkin Tot Party will take place at McCambridge Park from 10am to 11.30. You can enjoy carnival games and activity stations, crafts, treat making and goodie bags. The Halloween Skate Fest will take place at the Valley Skate Park from 6 to 9 pm. Skaters can enjoy free skating, raffles, barbecue skate, competitions, park and play truck and costume contests.
Speaker 2:Alright, well, that brings us to the one last thing. If you're still awake, you're still watching, you're still listening hopefully you are. It's my little time to get the little vent out, so it's time for craig's comment. My comment this week is on new parking permits and the system. So the city of burbank is now going to an all digital parking system for permit and I get it okay. No more mailing out the little tags, no more doing any of that stuff. But here's the problem I have with all that, while you have to do it online, in the past you got a parking permit and you could. If somebody drove over to your house and they're going to spend the day there in a two hour parking zone or in no parking zone or whatever it is, for you know, you can give me a little parking pass I could put in their windshield and not worry about it. You can't do that anymore. No more parking passes will be issued. It's all going to be online.
Speaker 2:But here's the problem. Every time somebody comes over, let's's say, let's say, grandma has a visitor coming over to the house, somebody else's grandma. We have two grandmas getting together and grandma is not a real good computer person and her friend, another grandma, comes over and parks inside of her house and now she gets a ticket for parking illegally because poor grandmother doesn't really run a computer, doesn't know how to do a computer, doesn't have time to go online and get license plate numbers, put them in, figure the whole thing out. Hold on, louise, I've got to go to the computer and figure out how to get you a parking pass for the next three hours, and then she's got to pay money for it too. So now she has to pay money for a way to park inside of her house and visit her, and not just this time. Every time the parking pass is only good for a day. Instead of just handing Louise the parking pass, put this in your rear view mirror and then you're good for the rest of the day.
Speaker 2:I don't know, does anybody just try to make more money? How many times is poor grandma going to not know how to get a parking pass? Why are we making this so difficult? They think it's easier, because all you do now is stick in the license numbers in the old computer system, so the last parking people can just push a button and it's already in their system. Well, congratulations. Yes, that's easier for them, but is that easier for grandma? That's the question. I feel bad for grandma. There are people that maybe don't have a credit card. How are you that maybe don't have a credit card? How are you going to pay for your parking? What can I do with cash? There's just too many.
Speaker 2:This has not become a good situation for many reasons. The city needs to re-look at this. The city needs to once again issue hard physical passes for residences. I'll tell you what and I'll tell you what people. I'll tell you what people. If you've got two-hour parking on your street and this becomes a problem, well, you got two-hour parking on your street because you went around and got a petition that said we want two-hour parking. Well, you can go around to your neighbors and say hey, you know, the city's just now taking money from us and giving out tickets. Anyway, let's get rid of our two-hour parking. You can get rid of it as easy as you got it, so I'm hoping that you know they come up with a better system.
Speaker 2:This is not fair to to people who don't have credit cards, to people who don't run on the computers. You know, as you're entertaining people and somebody shows up and you know you don't know if they drove or not and all of a sudden, now you're, they're gonna get a ticket. Laz doesn't care. Last people don't live in burbank, laz is an outside company and I hear that last parking is making the city a ton of money right now. Great, I have no problem, you want to make a ton of money? Great. But as we need to really make money off of grandma and her friends.
Speaker 2:That's where I kind of draw the line and at this point I say the technology does not work For what it needs to be. Let's dumb that down a little bit. Let's give the option, at least An extra dollar, of getting a hard permit, and we want to pay for the Mailing cost. But let's figure this out. Anyhow. Once again, that's my comment for the week. I try to give you, I try to give you what I got, and I just see little things like that that kind of bother me a little bit and I got to shake my head and I wonder you know who's making these decisions? Because they really think it out and think about, well, you know not what's in front of them, but all the side stuff. So, anyhow, that's it for another week. For the week that was, we will be once again.
Speaker 2:Please, please, please subscribe to our channel. That's free. Like this video. You don't have to like me. Like the video, though, okay, like the podcast. If you're listening to the car right now, give it a like, let people know you like it. It helps. But if you want it, if you're on youtube and want to give us a channel membership, that would be great. You can also do a super like just on the video alone. Throw us a couple dollars. You know it all helps. None of this stuff is free time and everything. It's all you know. It all adds up. We love to do it, but we also love to survive. So anything you do to help us, we would appreciate it, as a just hitting the subscribe or just hitting the uh, the like button. Anyhow, hope you enjoyed the ride. We'll have more, more travels through the city with you in the future. This is Craig Schert, once again saying thank you for watching or listening, and we'll be back again.