myBurbank Talks
myBurbank Talks
Ask the Mayor with Nikki Perez - January 2025
What drives someone from a lifelong residency in Burbank to the mayor's office? Join us as we uncover the inspiring journey of Nikki Perez, Burbank's newest mayor, whose deep-rooted connection to the city fuels her mission to improve the lives of its residents. From her upbringing in local schools to her career as a social worker, Nikki's personal story is a testament to her unwavering dedication to community service. Listen as she shares the challenges she faces in addressing bureaucratic hurdles and her ambitious plans to bring meaningful change to Burbank.
Our conversation takes a deeper look at pressing issues like immigration concerns and public safety challenges. We tackle the complex dynamics of protecting undocumented residents while maintaining trust in local law enforcement. Hear about the critical policies and community engagement needed to ensure safety and cohesion in a rapidly growing city. We also discuss the importance of retaining trained personnel in essential services like police and fire departments amidst staffing shortages, a crucial step towards sustaining Burbank's high-quality city services.
The episode wraps up with a focus on the heartbeat of Burbank's economy: its thriving film industry. We'll explore how local businesses can flourish with targeted support and incentives, maintaining Burbank's status as a global media hub. Additionally, discover how the city's emergency preparedness plans are evolving, with initiatives like the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) playing a pivotal role. This episode is a comprehensive look at the challenges and opportunities facing Burbank, offering valuable insights for residents and stakeholders alike.
My Burbank Talks presents another edition of Ask the Mayor, a monthly forum giving the Mayor of Burbank an opportunity to answer questions from you, the listener, and address issues important to the City of Burbank. Now let's join our hosts as they welcome the Mayor of Burbank. Hello Burbank, it's Craig Schroed, once again with you. I'm back again, of course, to do this with Ross Benson.
Speaker 2:Tally-ho, hi-ho, hi, wait, there we go. There's my tally light. We're doing a show. House of Makeup I got my false teeth in Looking good.
Speaker 1:What more do I need? Well, ross, as we always talk about, this is probably our favorite show we do every month and since we've started it, and with us we have Burbank's newest mayor, nikki Perez Madam Mayor, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Well, glad to be here. Hi Craig, hi Ross and Ross, you never need any makeup.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you very much. What do we address you? Do we address you as Madam Mayor? Mayor Nikki, madam Perez.
Speaker 3:You know you can call me Nikki Ross, I'm just a girl from Burbank.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's talk about it for a second. So you're just a girl, not only just a girl from Burbank, born and bred in Burbank. You grew up here in Burbank, went to Burbank schools. What color is she wearing? Well, she's wearing the right color.
Speaker 2:Because she knows.
Speaker 3:No offense.
Speaker 2:Burbank High people.
Speaker 3:No, none, you really beat us this year. It's okay, I'm not over it.
Speaker 1:Anyhow, you were born here and you were raised here, and let's talk about when did you first decide? Hey, I kind of want to get into politics a little because I want to make a difference. What did that start for you?
Speaker 3:You know, I would really like to describe it as falling into the rabbit hole, because I don't think there was a moment when I said I want to go into politics.
Speaker 3:I think the best people don't think you know the folks who really want to make a difference, don't think about that, but I, for me, it was as a social worker. I worked in social work. I went through the county, I went through different systems and most of my work was either with unhoused folks or in child welfare. My clients were between three months and three years and with a lot of them and their families, I noticed something which is they teach you every client is different, but, yes, every family was different, but a lot of their issues and the big like stoppage and blockage points they had were all the same and they were all bureaucratic, and so that made me want to go into the government and start working on those kinds of things, because I realized we didn't have a lot of people who had worked handson on the ground floor with folks and just change those details and change those things to make things a little easier for people.
Speaker 1:And, of course, you're getting that $250,000 a year for being a mayor. I mean, wait a second. No, you're not. You're getting nothing. So that means you'll continue to work in your job now. So what are you doing right now?
Speaker 2:Let's back up up a second. We jumped over that good old high school. You went why?
Speaker 1:don't we get back into that. I was gonna ask her now.
Speaker 2:Okay, I want to know about the french horn and did you really play the french horn? I did, and I do I love the french horn. I think we have a band up behind, you know, at city council. Can we call them a band or five piece or something we got? We got a french horn player here and did you love burroughs, like craig and I did.
Speaker 3:I love burroughs okay, I, I mean, high school is amazing and that's what I'm saying. You know, working in social work got me into the whole government rabbit hole, into working at the state, into all that. But what made me want to run actually for office because I'd seen a lot of people run and I know how difficult and how crazy it can be to put yourself out there what made me want to do it is that I had the chance to do it here at home and to actually work for the people that I know that I care about. That I grew up with and so for me, a lot of I always tell people what shapes kind of my decision making. My, my experience is, yes, my my work and academic background, but mostly just being from Burbank, you know what it's like. You know who to talk to when you have a question.
Speaker 1:Let's go back to you. Know, ross got you back in the high school days. Let's keep you there for a while. What did you do during your high school days in that, in that area? What'd you do for fun and everything else in Burbank? What was your memories of Burbank back in those days?
Speaker 3:Well, in the good words of Char Tabat the other day, she was like, you know, in high school, you know we weren't that popular. She was like well, you might have been. And then she paused and she was like you were in band, you were not popular.
Speaker 2:And I was like like shark, come on. I played the french horn. I was not popular, but burroughs was you know, apparently they did some. You learned some good stuff. We had guys like mr marshall, was it? Uh, the english teacher, the history teacher. We go back years ago to some old, old teachers there's. You had some newer ones, but burroughs. You know what I love about you being mayor. When somebody references the street purpose or glen oaks, you know glen oaks from one end to the other. You know this city like the back of your hand. You know I mean anytime somebody talks to you. You've probably been on that street, being a lifelong, born and raised here. You have a brother I do have a younger brother, and they live Magnolia Park. They still live in the same place. I grew up right by Verdugo Park. I know your parents are very, very proud of you. Every time I see them At the reorganization at Christmas they beam ear to ear.
Speaker 3:You have succeeded and you know you're a mayor, so that's a big thing and folks always ask how do you keep up with constituent questions and constituent services there? You just mentioned my two most intense constituents, mom and dad.
Speaker 1:You know we pull you here and there and everywhere else we pull you here.
Speaker 3:I can imagine how many people pull you in different directions now when the the lights went out, those were the first two text messages. Madam Mayor, my lights are out. Love Mom.
Speaker 2:Now that's a text that you don't think about getting you know, and I bet you answered her rather quickly.
Speaker 3:You're right on that. Oh yeah, oh, definitely. I'm smart enough to know who I got to answer right away, and Mom's right up there.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Oh, definitely, I'm smart enough to know who I got to answer right away and mom's right up there. Absolutely Well, what about a few questions here? Yeah, we have a couple that we can.
Speaker 1:Let me start off with our last council meeting a couple days ago. Wasn't that fun. And you put on the agenda the sanctuary city status and it was a long discussion. We had a lot of speakers and everything else us and it was a long discussion. We had a lot of speakers and everything else, and I think we kind of found out that most of the protections are already in place and there's really little Burbank needs to do.
Speaker 1:I think we're not really going to call it a sanctuary. I think we're going to call it something else To have the police department's policy kind of put around the different departments. But what I'm worried about and I saw today I'm worried about and I saw today, Trump fired a bunch of FBI guys, a lot of retribution, and I'm worried, if we call ourselves a sanctuary city, are we going to lose that funding, maybe for the airport, maybe for the bridge project we want to do. We don't want to produce a central library. There's a lot of projects we might want to get government assistance on. And what if he just goes after cities that are called sanctuary cities, new central library? I mean, there's a lot of projects we might want to get government assistance on. And what if he just, you know, he goes after cities that are called thanks for your cities?
Speaker 1:But I really think we had to do, we have to do. Why do we have to do it in the first place is amazing to me, that we have to protect our people, protect people from being pawns. I'm just that amazes me. Last thing I'll say is this it was kind of on the I'm not sure, when Tamla brought up what she brought up and kind of the posters and everything else and talked about internment and everything else. It's like wow, I didn't think that's how we did treat people 60, 70 years. And have we, have we learned anything? Obviously not, craig. That was your agenda item and everything else. Are you happy how it turned out? Talk about it a little bit.
Speaker 3:I am and you know when I propose it. It's the reason I left it very vague Because, as we all learned the term sanctuary city, it isn't even a defined term. What LA calls a sanctuary city is very different than what the city of Pasadena is calling a sanctuary city. It's really based on what you and your city attorney and your city manager feel comfortable doing locally and what you need you know, based on some of the things we discussed. La didn't have a police policy like what we do. Our police is way ahead of the curve on this stuff For years what 20 years?
Speaker 2:Yeah, police is way ahead of the curve on this stuff. For years what 20 years? And it sounded from what our deputy chief said, you know, and, and that's what bothered me um, I feel sorry for anybody that lives in fear. You know, um, if you've been in custody once they put handcuffs on you or wire ties or whatever cuffs and you can't freely say I need to go to the bathroom or or those things, it just scares me. Um, I know, growing up um from the jewish faith you know years ago was nazis and so forth and you had to worry about that and there's still tons of jewish people in our communities that are still in fear of that.
Speaker 3:And that hate is out there we hear anti-Semitic things all of the time. It's horrible.
Speaker 1:It's worse too.
Speaker 2:And that's what you need to feel safe and that's what Burbank I've always said it's a great community and you hate to see people feeling in fear of going to the police department to ask them a question, going for medical service, going for all these things. They're afraid to go get their laundry done at the laundry because they might be. You know, and and I think that was one of the things that I really took from people need to know that our police department are not going to stop you. There are, there are policies on on Burbank's books and I know you brought that up through our PIO farm and they're not going to stop you. There are, there are policies on on burbank's books andi know you brought that up through our pio. You guys are going to do stuff to educate everybody. Yeah, you know, and yeah, there are some that don't want our citizens to be educated, but you have to.
Speaker 1:I mean, we're in this, we're in a time now that you we need to Are you satisfied with how things went the other night and how you know you're getting ready now for the second step?
Speaker 3:on all that and everything, I am, and let me backtrack a little bit here. Here's why I really brought it forward, right, Knowing that the police had the protections in place. I talked to the chief early on about this, you know, to let him know I was thinking about this, to get his thoughts, to see what. What was the best thing we could put forward. And whenever we propose an agenda item, in my opinion it's probably better to leave it more broad, because you never know what kind of fixes and tricks are going to come out of it, or how much or how little you need to do. And the real thing that I wanted to get across were three things.
Speaker 3:Number one we talk so much about being proactive and not reactive. Well, our police department is already there. Where's the rest of the city? And we're seeing across the nation and unfortunately, we're seeing with this administration, but it's nothing new. We've seen federal departments in the past get really creative about how they're going to enforce immigration because there isn't a guidebook. Ice is a little bit Wild West right, Cowboys absolutely.
Speaker 3:And the last thing I wanted and that's why I said it from the dais, and when I said it in conversations with our city manager earlier, what he said was I didn't think about that. That's why we're talking about it, right, what happens when, be it an ICE agent, be it another federal immigration officer, goes to a normal staffer in Parks and Rec and says I need to see the addresses of folks. And I know Justin said well, I think it would be confidentiality or we have some system. With all due respect, that doesn't inspire a lot of like a lot of confidence in me. I'd love a policy that tells the staff member this is what you do when you're confronted with this.
Speaker 3:And, to the city attorney's point, it also takes the liability off the staff member if there is retribution. I'd rather the federal government say we're mad at the city of Burbank than we're mad at this staffer. Right, we can handle that. After, Protect them legally because there's something in place. And then also, if the federal government wants to come attack us for that and come throw dog whistles, at the end of the day there's something called the Constitution, there's something called the 10th Amendment, and we're very well protected.
Speaker 1:Right now we're trying to suspend the 14th Amendment to a point you know. So it's scary.
Speaker 2:Well, you brought up a good point there and you know, I remember a council member two or three terms before or years before they wanted to change our police uniforms and our police, you know they they wear, they have an assortment of uniforms that they wear.
Speaker 2:Um, some wear these raid vests that, um, you know, look very, they're the same thing ice wears and some wear shirts, polo shirts, depends, you know, I think, uh, you know, the um met team wears a different shirt and I think people need to feel safe and I thought about that, the uniform that our police officers wear, that when this council member wanted them not to wear those vests. But the reason they do that is they carry, and I've talked to an officer more than one, they carry so much stuff now that's why they do that is they carry, and I've talked to an officer more than one, they carry so much stuff now that's why they wear that vest. It's not to make it look more intimidating or anything, but it's because they have so much gear, it's it's spread out better, you know. But I think it it needs to always be clear you are bur police officer, it has to say Burbank police. You know, front and back sideways. So if anybody ever gets stopped. You feel safe that you're dealing with Burbank police and not an ICE agent.
Speaker 3:Exactly, and you know we would hate for that to happen. Like you said, ross, we want folks to feel safe in the community and it's really not for one particular subsect of the community Because, of course, like, we want our undocumented community to feel safe in the community. And it's really not for one particular subsect of the community because, of course, like, we want our undocumented community to feel safe, but this affects all of us.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:If they don't feel safe reporting a crime that affects the person who is a victim of the crime, if they don't feel safe being a witness. Right and again, I know our police had these policies in place, but this is twofold, because now we have them across where, we're going to have them across the city if votes go the same way they did as they did in this first step, and we would also have the discussion out there which I can promise you. If you were undocumented in the city of Burbank, you were watching because people care, and now you know about the police policy if you didn't before. Now you know about the state policy and exactly what that means if you didn't before. And to Councilor Mullen's point, you also know where our limitations are. So it isn't a false assumption of oh well, I'm completely OK and you know exactly how to prepare yourself and take care of yourself and that you can continue going to parks and rec activities, to our library, school, school.
Speaker 1:The thing that bothers me, though, is that ICE could come into Burbank at any time unannounced and do whatever they want to do, and we really can't do anything they know or anything else. I just saw they rounded up some people in New York, and there were people around the people they were going after, and they said, oh, we'll just take you too, and they had done nothing. I mean, there was nothing, no camaraderie whatsoever.
Speaker 1:Once again. But they took them in and they're going to, just because they were in the area at the time and they were easy targets. And that's what scares me. Is that indiscriminate and untargeted?
Speaker 3:I mean, you know, checks and balances are important and and we're losing a lot of that lately and it's sad. I mean I I'm in communication with a lot of our different tribes I don't know if you've heard the navajo nation is very upset because we've had they've had like 10 members who were taken and who had their citizenship questioned by ICE because they have federal or, oh my gosh, tribal registration for the I'm forgetting the word right now where the areas where, where they live, which is a different uh registration than a normal id and so they had that question and and they had threats of deportation given towards them.
Speaker 3:They're literally more american than anybody else. Where are you gonna send them?
Speaker 2:so you know that's what kind of gets me, because if you look at, you know when you get stopped out in the street, you know, or by police or whatever, and you're in fear of rolling your window down. It makes it harder for police. I'll tell you, nowadays I was watching something the other day where it's just they're making life harder to stop anything and everything, even if you're in the wrong, you know, and people don't want to roll down their windows and people don't want to answer them.
Speaker 1:I think we've gone the right direction. And when does it come back for a second reading?
Speaker 3:So Justin said two weeks and I'm going to hold him to that. I hope two weeks we get to see something comprehensive and I know there's a little back and forth at the end. I'm glad that Joe clarified that a resolution has teeth. It is the best way to go policy wise in a department because it creates guidelines, it creates departmental structure that Justin can actually enforce without the ordinance might have created a misdemeanor and then that's not what we're looking for. We're like you don't want to punish staff for that, we just want to give them and protect them. Protect them and give them policy, give them rules.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm curious with that. As you said, through our PIO public information office, are we going to educate people that move here? It's kind of like the thing with the pine trees Did you know you were responsible for watering the trees along the curve? I did. A lot of people don't know that Every year are we going to communicate and I will say we have the best PIO department we have. It hasn't been that way years past, but we now have somebody that is running that department that's quite well good and can communicate real well. And those are things that you live here. That's why you live here, you know, because they communicate right. You know how safe it is. You know and this is what Burbank's policies are on some things.
Speaker 3:And it's great that you mentioned that, ross. Actually, one big kudos to PIO. A lot of them and the folks who work there, including Jonathan, live here. They know what it's like. They get to hear a lot of what's going on, but just by going to the supermarket and then they bring that information back and they disseminate the information that people actually want to hear, because it's what they're talking about right now.
Speaker 1:One of my pet peeves for a long time, russ, right, I mean staff comes in here, they make decisions and then two years later they're in another city. Now we're stuck with their decisions.
Speaker 2:And he also has brought up, and both of us have. We don't hire people from Burbank anymore, a lot of people from Burbank. We hire somebody from Cerritos or from Redlands. They drive here, they literally get off the freeway. They collect a check every two weeks. Their heart isn't in Burbank. They're here for a job. They're only going to be here for so long.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're just moving up the ladder instead of looking at a career in Burbank where they live. And now, yeah, it's nice about our PIO. They all live here, so they know what street you say something's going on over here. They know that neighborhood and that's one of the things that we got away from, that that we weren't hiring people from Burbank, and it's unfortunate.
Speaker 1:Great subject. I mean we got more to come and we'll talk about that next month with you, the finalization of it, and we'll talk about that next month with you the finalization of it, Ross, we want to know because we got a large agenda here. The next one is a good one. Arf arf bow. Wow, I think we have something for that, don't we? Yes, we do.
Speaker 3:There we go. I don't know if I want that dog at the dog park.
Speaker 2:Well, I know you're a dog lover, you're an animal lover. I know that for a fact. We've been talking about this dog park for over 20 years. I thought last year. I heard from Parks and Rec from Marissa that they're about to break ground I mean by August. I heard it keeps getting put off Every time we put it off. Now, in another couple of months, you're not going to find a contractor that's available to do anything because they're going to be busy either in Altadena or Pacific Palisades. But and the costs go up Are we ever going to break ground for a dog park in Burbank?
Speaker 3:So that came up in our goal settings, as I'm sure you know and I wasn't the only one to bring it up and you know a lot, a lot of the reason why we haven't seen the dog park happen. I got to give it to our staff. Anytime, there is something where we have to collaborate. With an entity like the city of LA, it's a lot harder to get things done. You saw it with our dog park, you saw it with the community garden situation here in Magnolia Park, and so we've had a lot of patience, we've had a lot of negotiation room and it looks like things are moving in the right direction because they finished their project that they were working on here by the 134.
Speaker 3:You've gone by there. I've reached the point where I kind of ran by there every day on my morning run just to see like, are you really almost done? What's going on here? And and we have communication from them that they're they're about done. So now we are moving into it this year. But I I have to say you know again not not to throw any, any shade at the city of la, but it hasn't been our- staff.
Speaker 2:Another politician that throws dirt we won't talk about. We won't talk about that. We won't talk about that guy. Well, you brought up a good point because Craig brought it up. The community garden, the one at Whittenall and Pass, is growing like. I mean growing like weed? No, it's growing and it's occupied. The one you had written about or we talked about a while ago at Whittenittenall and hollywood way. I drove by there yesterday. There's a lot of work being done on that piece of property. It is cleared out, the ground has been cleared, trees have all been cut. That's supposed to be a community garden. In fact, yesterday was david galansi's birthday and I know he was behind that originally. Is that getting cleaned up for community garden?
Speaker 3:it is. So that's moving forward and and the thing I will say is you know we've let staff do a lot of the lead way. You know they're talking to their counterparts, but I've also told justin I'm committed to getting this done and if I need to go have a conversation mayor to la city council member, mayor to mayor I have karen bass's phone number. I'm happy to give her a call and be like this is happening in our city. We need to talk because we we are another municipality. We need to get this done and I know it's not going to be super high on their priority list, but it is on ours. So it's on us to follow up and I'm committed to doing any of the follow-up necessary.
Speaker 2:I think you just made a good point. How, how many times do people look at government and how long does it take to do anything? To order a paperclip, it takes three months because all the Not like compared to Burbank, you know. But here you just wonder. You know it's a much smaller city and things do work a lot quicker. Well, it's nice to see you on both those items. Thank you.
Speaker 3:I did have somebody ask me one time what's? You've worked in government your whole life. What is the number one skillset you need? And I know they were looking for grant writing policy analysis and I just said patience. So much patience Wouldn't work for me, huh.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, it's funny because when I had a son, my son matt, you still have a son. I do still have a son, um, but I was told the reason will teach me patience. I've never had to use it, you know. But when you have kids and I know you don't have kids yet, you have dog, but, um, when you have kids you learn patience and you sure do all right.
Speaker 1:bring a baseball coach and see how much patience you need at times. Well, Ross, I'll ask you the next question also.
Speaker 2:So let's move on and go ahead and Okay, the next one is you drive over the Burbank Overpass, or Burbank Bridge, as my granddaughter would say. The Poop Bridge is the water reclamation plant, but we see that huge project going in on front street. Front streets closed every two weeks, I think, for some utility install our first street too.
Speaker 2:First street, we got the first street villages we're going to eventually have out on hollywood way. We got a lot of people moving into the city. We're down police officers. You know, I, I was, I witnessed an accident tonight and I called the desk and they said we don't have anybody to send for half an hour. You know, you put it out glenn, oaks and uh, and kenneth and kenneth um, which don't cross, it was actually naomi. I told them, yeah, but um, they had no officers. And I understand that now glendale just hired, or got permission to hire, 25 officers and that's going to take them up to what their staffing levels are are we looking at? But again, that's also budgeting too, which they have to budgeting. But also, if you hire that many officers, where are you going to put them?
Speaker 2:Our police department, I hear, is built out. You know when they built that building. Oh, we have room for 20 more years. Well then, you had MET and you had K-9 and you had drone operators. You had all these. We're out of room at the police department. What are they going to drive? We don't have enough police cars for the number of officers that we have out. That's a big picture, know you. You have this as bob frutas. You say you don't have a crystal ball. You know a snow globe maybe, but not a crystal ball. But I mean, you know, it's all these things that what are we going to do with? Uh in in, it's hard to get. It was real hard to get police. I think it's getting easier, the pool is is getting easier to get and good officers.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you touched on a couple of things there, ross because I think we have to look at where we've been and where we're going right. I think our city staff constantly tells this council because we're very frustrated, we want to keep going faster and do more, and they'll constantly remind us. Well, let's look at what you have done. You know, don't don't run before you walk, and I think a lot of what we've been doing has been that catch up work. When I ran for office, I one of the things that I ran on was making sure our fire department had the budget they needed, because I've seen what happens to a fire department that doesn't, holy cow we're seeing the effects of that right now, but even more so to a smaller city like us.
Speaker 3:If we, if our fire department really hits that critical point, what happens is we shut down and then we're on la county fire and we are under a mass umbrella where we don't have the same level, the same expediency of service that we're accustomed to, and so that was my first priority right Giving them a comprehensive package, even if it cost us in the wallet.
Speaker 3:Because, really, when you look at local government the main things that a city supposed to provide, especially a city of our size you have your utilities, your police and your fire. You can't do that. You're not a city, absolutely, and why do?
Speaker 2:people move here. Exactly. I mean literally. You hear people move here. Why? I always say people look where the media capital of the world. Why do these large corporations tend to want to be based in Burbank? Because they look at police and fire. You dial that three-digit number, 911. You don't want to hear a recording. Usually in Burbank you never hear a recording. You'll talk to a live person but you're guaranteed to see somebody in three minutes. It doesn't matter where you are in the city and that's why these big companies like to come here. But again, when we have calaria got built, that added how many more people to the mix. Right, these new locations. Um fry is going to be built on also right, and I'm just thinking you know, craig, and I listen they now have an extra paramedic unit that's working during the day. We talked about that for a long time. They finally but I you know, I know the fire department has just gone through a big change. We have a couple of new chiefs in there, meaning battalion chiefs overseeing EMS and different things.
Speaker 1:But it's just the mayor's point also by them stepping up on a contract. We don't have people leaving anymore. We're not training people and then they go to different departments. We're keeping people now and they're happy. I've talked to a lot of they're very happy now and that's what we want as citizens. You want to be happy.
Speaker 3:It's a world of a difference, because that was one of the complaints from our department.
Speaker 3:Listen, we're training guys, we give them quality training and then they leave because of a little bit more money they could be making in LA, in the county for Cal Fire, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 3:And so I think, doing, you know, doing what we did with the fire department, even though I know it was very hard for the city manager's office, for staff, for everybody, because it was taking a lot of money when it came time to look at police, it was a very easy decision when the chief said we need to keep people and it's going to require a 10 percent raise. That was so quick, so easy to do, because we had already seen the effects of what happened with fire and we're now seeing the effects of that with police. So, all that to say, we've been playing catch up and I think we're at a good place right now for where we are. Now to Craig's point with that proactive mentality, we have to think about where we're going and one of the things I always tell people is, yes, we need more housing, but with housing comes more city service infrastructure more infrastructure, everything.
Speaker 3:So we have to think about that now as we're building and I think we're in a good place because as we look at the downtown specific plan, we're looking at that new civic center we're going to do a lot of shuffling in that area so that people have offices in the right place. Right now in downtown you don't have parks and rec staff. If you saw, a few weeks back on council we talked about the Olive Park restructuring. There's going to be more offices there, so a lot of those folks who are downtown are going to shuffle to where they should be a park, which is going to leave more space for our departments. That should be downtown, like PD, like fire.
Speaker 2:Well, I know, for PD I talk to officers daily and you come here one because you're not in some parts of LA which they don't get treated, you know. I mean a car goes by a police officer and they don't get waived at, or at least not with a full hand. Here you also have the newest equipment. You have a small department, you have new equipment, you have better communications and that's why they like to. You know, come to work here. I mean, yes, you might not promote as quick, but you're guaranteed a job. I talked to somebody that came from lapd here, um, who I went to school with and in here like transferred 10 years ago, and he says i'm'm so glad I came to Burbank. It just is, it's night and day.
Speaker 3:And our chief has really created that culture. I hope to see it continue after he leaves us, but it really is. It's a culture that you create, right? I think Burbank PD has done a great job of not only creating culture that welcomes officers, but that also makes the community feel good. And I have to tell you, I've seen a traffic stop in Burbank and I've seen a traffic stop in other places and there's a world of a difference.
Speaker 1:I think the word culture. I had a talk with our team the other day and I brought that word because I've been watching a lot of sports and at the end of the day people say we're successful because of the culture. Here the word culture is always being used in sports as success and it's great you brought that up because you're right.
Speaker 2:The culture, whether it's sports or whether it's just in a job or anything like that, is important for people's well-being. Well, I think you know you talk to people and you talk to a lot of the kids and I hear people you know you don't, we got to keep up on it. I mean, before your term is over, not as known as mayor, but your term is four years being on council is by the end. You're probably going to need a lot more officers, you know, and that's a big that costs. A People don't realize it costs a lot to hire 5, 10, 20 officers and you got to stay up on the times with that, I mean. But also, why do people move here If it's Magnolia Park or if it's up on the hill, whatever? Because they feel safe, absolutely.
Speaker 3:A hundred percent and I think the only other thing I'll say on this thinking forward right in this year, I would love to see and we talked about this earlier the theme of community. I'd love to see more of our high schoolers interested in going into fire, into PD here in Burbank. That's why I suggested the fire camp when I did and I'd love to just see them go into these trades here. I know college isn't for everybody and for the folks who have maybe interested in these careers I don't want to see them go to Lancaster, I don't want to see them go outside. They have a community here at home where we're hiring.
Speaker 2:So I definitely want to make that fire camp that day to shoot, you know, and I read that story and it was great and I thought out of that group. Some of them probably did it because mom and dad wanted them to take it, sure, but I bet some of them said this is a career that I'd like to do. Are we fostering that group? Have we done a survey with them or have we talked to them? Years ago we had guys like ronnie bell who would take a group from a camp like that and they would meet at the fire station on saturdays. So if it was to roll hose or to learn the apparatus, we don't do that now, right, and that it's so sad because these kids go get hired other places. But if you live here, you want to work here, you know, and, um, I hope that program. It was great. I saw a lot of happy people there, but there were some people that you could tell it was like PE. They did that for their parents, not for them. But hopefully we'll get some, you know, possibly.
Speaker 3:Well, you never know, ross. That's why I joined band, because my mom forced me. But then you know, eight years later, later, I was getting my degree in French horn. So you never know, maybe some of those very uh begrudging firefighter cadets are going to be our future firefighters very well.
Speaker 2:You'd hope so I. And it's funny because my son he played the tuba at Burbank High and went on to Long Beach on a scholarship, and you know. And then when he got to Long Beach he figured I'm never going to make a million dollars playing a tuba. You probably have said you're never going to make how much money playing a French horn. I double majored, oh wow See. Well, in the middle of Long Beach, I remember him saying I'm just going to get the diploma here, you know, and then we'll see where I go.
Speaker 1:Well, I think we have a great transition to our next question. We're talking about performance right now. That's right, and in performance is Hollywood. You know, we're here in the, we are the media capital world and all those things. We have two major studios in our city. How many, two major studios?
Speaker 2:Oh, I was going to say aren't there more? There's a lot more.
Speaker 1:I said major.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Nickelodeon, that's not major, oh is it no, no, no.
Speaker 2:Oh, you mean, like Disney and Warner, the big movies out and everything else? Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:And the big TV shows.
Speaker 3:So I've heard over the years that we have a lot of restrictions and regulations in Burbank and we have that poor speaker comes every week and gives you three minutes all about you know what's going on in the Mr Mark Scroggs and I got to say he emails us and I look forward to that email every week because that's to me it feels like I don't know if you're signed up to LA Times or you know New York Times. That's what it feels like to me. The Mark Scroggs email is like the film industry report and I go through it and I'm like it's great.
Speaker 1:yeah, it's great because he always comes up and he's great for me. I feel bad. We've got three minutes.
Speaker 2:You know, now that I sit here and think about it, yes, every, and Mark has Just watching him and he loves doing that. But it's what's that old term, the squeaky wheel? You know the or the oil, and you brought it up.
Speaker 2:You, you can say it you know well yeah well, you know that's well, my tooth is loose so I don't, but every week he gets up there and he reminds you we are the media capital right and and my point was kind of this is what can we do as a city to help streamline permits, to get incentives?
Speaker 1:Because we all know that not only does a production company pay the fees and everything else and fees really shouldn't matter it's the money they spend on the outside, the caterers, all of the prop houses, all those things that we have here in Burbank, also those other industries that depend on them and they'd probably, you know, would get the benefit also. But what can we do to get? Because I see there's very little filming in Burbank anymore, you know, and I've heard, well, there's not a lot. You know, sometimes we have a lot of regulations and everything else, and in this city we don't and everything else. And so have we really looked into that and see what we can do and said, hey, you know. So have we really looked into that and see we do, and and said, hey, you know, back in the day in the 70s, Adam 12 emergence, all those shows up and down the streets here all the time, you know, there was always shooting here in Burbank. Oh, there, that is in Burbank, that is in Burbank. We're not seeing that much anymore.
Speaker 3:I will say the reason that is unfortunately, is we're not seeing that in California anymore period, and that's been the biggest hit, you know, and and so to answer that question, really I think I'm looking at my goals for this year right, and one of the major goals I have is to really make sure, when we say we're the media capital of the world, we put our money where our mouth is right.
Speaker 3:The city needs to support the film industry wherever we can, and there's several ways we can do that. Probably the the most largest structural way in not federally, statewide is the film tax credit and supporting that. We need to make sure that the legislators who may be if you're voting for this, are northern cal, california friends know how much we need it and know that this isn't just oh, hollywood and the actors asking for a bailout. No, these are unions. These are everyday folks who are florists here owning a small business, who are going to rely on that tax credit because they need the production here back in California and, in my opinion, newsom is a little too late with this tax credit. This should have happened a few years ago and the attention from the state should have been on this a few years ago, because the film industry is the economy of California as much as it is of Burbank, I think.
Speaker 1:Newsom kind of went to the tech firms and everywhere else and tried to court them because they're the big money people and not realizing what kind of money the studios actually bring into California, and now they're all leaving. Now we're starting to see that tax money decline.
Speaker 2:So I got a question for you, madam Mayor. Sure, we have a ton of production-related companies here, from Caters to Floris, as you just said, to Taylors, to. I mean, there's Post-production, there's everything, there is a ton. When they get a permit in Burbank to film and usually then it's too late are they given a sheet of paper that said these are Burbank businesses that are related to filming in Burbank? Are you guys supporting them? Are you buying your gaffers tape from Burbank, so-and-so? You know, I mean, being involved with the Chamber blows me away how many different companies there are in Burbank that you use on a production. Why are these people going to the other out of burbank? They should be buying it right here in burbank. That money stays here. You know I I gotta say, as you know, my I wasn't going to bring up burbank comp parade, but I made not burbank comp parade holiday in the park.
Speaker 1:I love more shows to do, so don't worry holiday in the park.
Speaker 2:I made sure that we use burbank based companies for our porta potties, for our walkie talkies, for the lights in the middle of street and industry was slow in november and december. They were real glad to get paid by us and their Burbank companies. I did not want to leave Burbank and to me that's important. We got to use more Burbank, these businesses in Burbank. This is how we survive.
Speaker 3:And that's where I think what we need to do this year and that's why I've asked for the film and industry subcommittee. I think it's insane that we have so many commissions, boards, committees, subcommittees, task forces, but not one is focused on media and entertainment, when we are the capital of the world On Tuesday, so it's time to bring that back up. Oh, 100%, even though to me it still feels like a long time coming. Asked for this at the beginning of last year.
Speaker 2:And again, mark Scroggs, thank you for reminding us Every week. He's, you know a lot of people. You think he gets up there and Got tenacity. He does, but he also his life is getting work for Burbank people.
Speaker 3:And he's well-connected because I've had several meetings with him, and the folks that he'll introduce you to are those exact people that we're talking about the folks who run a costume shop here in Magnolia Park, the folks who work in catering, and the thing is, and the reason I wanted this subcommittee is because those are the folks I want in the room together. I have seen now what that does. So post, strike, post all of this. I've been in a room where and this is very interesting because we we did a group of all of the film unions warner brothers, michael walbrook was there, there were a couple of other studio folks and a few sprinkle of electeds, and I was invited to join the conversation and we talked about the film tax credit, what's working about it, what's not, what else we feel like we need Shout out to our musicians union. That was there. They're located here in Burbank, Local 47. So it was just a conversation from everybody and some folks like them who shared hey, we're not included in the tax credit, we really should be. And so talking to groups like that has been my focus. Because now I want to take that and put it twofold.
Speaker 3:Burbank needs to do as a city two things. One, support what our folks are asking us from the state level. Send those letters, make that noise and Make that noise and make that noise in Sacramento, as the media capital of the world Say. We are the experts on this, we have the people Listen to us and I know we have great advocates in our state assembly member. I was going to make sure a lot of that gets heard.
Speaker 3:And we also need to then look at the local level and say what can we do. And I'm working with another group there, California United, and they're a group of directors, producers, union workers who are really coming together. It's interesting because a lot of times these folks are on opposite sides of the negotiating table. They're coming together because this affects all of us and they're putting a list of proposals that they think Burbank could take a look at and could be the leader in and say we are doing this because it's 51 percent of our city's economy, the rest of Southern California. You should do this too, because we need to work on these things.
Speaker 2:We need to bail ourselves out. Work on these things. We need to bail ourselves out. But the problem with when it comes to LA, they have so many plates they're twirling and they don't think of it. Oh, they're going to. They take it for granted the production amount that goes on For us in Burbank. You know, it's like I said, our studios are major studios.
Speaker 1:You did not know the questions before you got here. We didn't prep you or anything else and I had that question and, wow, what an answer. I mean you are really involved and it looks like you have solutions in mind and I give you a lot of credit for that, because I did not expect that detail of an answer and I I'm very impressed by that. So let's continue to you know work on that Absolutely.
Speaker 3:And I think you know, just to go back to kind of our rolling theme here, it really does go back to me being a Burbank girl. I don't just know that this is a media capital, I didn't just grow up with high school musical filming in Burroughs Hallways. I was, I think, seven years old the first time I drove in the van with my dad down Magnolia Park and we stopped at the costumers to pick up something there. We stopped at a bakery to pick up something for set and I got to watch the whole process. And then driving back into the Warner Brothers lot, my dad's a teamster with 399. So I've literally been in the seat watching it happen and seeing what the entire community has done to come together having a mayor that grew up here absolutely I've been along, I think, burbank.
Speaker 2:People don't realize what we have in you growing up here sitting in the front seat with your dad to do that trip you just said, because it's in your blood, it's in your parent, in your family's blood, you know, and and so forth and I realize that most families in burbank are in the same boat.
Speaker 3:I am right, everybody has at least. I mean I would. I would bet that everyone has at least one family member, if not your neighbor who works in the film industry degrees of separation.
Speaker 1:With kevin bacon, it's by one degree in burbank, you know, I, you know. Um. Well, ross, let's, let's move on here. What, what do you got next for us here? A little more kind of turn the page, a little more serious topic here. So, um, why?
Speaker 2:don't you go ahead. Okay, I did, uh, I threw that at you kind of late. You brought up, um, we just witnessed some horrible fires, um, the worst in you know, I mean altadena, it was right over our backyard pretty much. Uh, pacific palace you brought up. You want to see better training for the rest of our community, for the whole city. I thought about it today, you know, yesterday, we, you know. Yeah, we don't have a plane going down in a river, but we have helicopters that fly over the city every day. What happens if a plane does drop out of the sky taking off from burbank? How prepared are we? Yes, we have a great emergency manager, that you know. If we have an earthquake, which we've drilled for for years, I don't think anybody expected to win Two major freeways, major rail lines touring through Burbank Exactly.
Speaker 2:How well and I talk to people all the time that move into Burbank, us lifelong Burbank people know where Verdugo Park is. We learned during the past earthquakes people go to the fire stations. They're all empty because they're all out responding. But if you move in here again, that booklet that you get or one sheet of paper, you know where your local park is. If you live down here, you know you go to Verdugo Park.
Speaker 2:And how prepared we need to prepare this city. I mean, like you said, we need to strengthen it for any disaster. I mean, like you said, we need to strengthen it for any disaster. You know Altadena, you know there is just a ton to go on and I know our fire department is quite taxed. Yes, they offer the CERT classes, but a lot of people don't want to take that time out, like on Thursday nights. The community academy just started. If you want to know about Burbank police, the best class to take I say you learn so much and CERT you do too. But how well prepared. And I know you brought it up last week that you want to see us more.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I'll start with CERT, just because I'm going to do the shameless plug for them, because this is something I learned during this disaster I was on call with Justin. I mean, justin took my calls at 11.30 pm, 1 am.
Speaker 2:Well, I will say he worked all night. He did, he was there all night. He was there all night long.
Speaker 3:I got to see Justin in emergency preparedness mode and I'm really happy with what I saw. I feel safe going to sleep at night and shout out to Eric Baumgartner, our emergency preparedness fire member, because he's really on the ground floor.
Speaker 2:His updates were constant. We got him from LA City and we were very lucky when we did many years ago.
Speaker 3:He's been great and he also lives here in the community, so he's on watch all the time. And one of the things I will say to start because I learned it this time around the CERT program. I think people tend to only think about this during disasters. If you're thinking about it now, please do it. Please sign up, because one of the things we saw and and thank god Burbank was not impacted in this way but one of the things we saw when, when folks reached out and said how can I help?
Speaker 3:I asked Eric and he said the Red Cross is asking for volunteers and people were offering donations or people were offering space, but they really just needed bodies. And the problem is the people who said, well, ok, I'll volunteer. They were told well, do you have cert training? And to find that pool of volunteers that they needed to be certified, to have those credentials was so difficult and they were short staffed across the county this time. So if you're listening right now and you're thinking about it, please do it, because you may be that right person that we need during the next disaster and, if I recall right, they're starting a class.
Speaker 2:I drove by station 12 and there's a sign on the uh on the fence, if you're interested. I think the classes are starting this month, but they do them every so on. But again, yes, I'm cert trained, uh certified, when I was working at a church in hollywood, which it doesn't matter if it's hollywood or whatever. The cert training is all the same for everybody. But again, it's only so many weeks. You wouldn't believe how helpful it would be.
Speaker 3:And that's why I say folks are really thinking, because I know a lot of us, especially here in Burbank we feel so lucky because we were. We were really, really lucky in comparison to our neighbors. Um, if you're feeling that way and you're thinking I don't know where to donate clothes or things, think about donating your time and getting prepared because, unfortunately, we don't know when the next earthquake is going to come. We don't know when these things are coming.
Speaker 3:About time. Time is ticking for that one and if you're certified, you're ready, you're one of the most vital volunteers. But shifting gears back to the question, I had to do my shameless plug there for cert. I think the main reason I asked for not just disaster preparedness because I think that's on everybody's mind on our council, from elected leaders across the region the reason I asked specifically for neighborhood by neighborhood is because, when you think about it, I thought about myself. Right here in Magnolia Park, we have our backpacks, blake and I have our backpacks in the front for what we're going to do. My parents, I know, have their backpacks in the front and then I think about it and I don't know what's after that. Where do I go? What is the safe place right for my neighborhood? I also think of my neighborhood here in the media area, where where are the folks who are in the studio is going to go if it's the middle of the day?
Speaker 2:and people I don't think understand those power lines are going to be down. You can't drive over them. There's so many things that you got to be aware of that. Again, I highly. I love the idea because as a media person I've seen it and I know everybody likes to help. They want to bring something to the fire department cookies, food, water. They don't understand the fire department gets inundated after every event such as a fire or whatever. They usually have so much gatorade and water they're putting them in people's desks because they'd have no storage. They don't realize that the burbank, each fire station, only has so much room. Ross, who's repair one now?
Speaker 1:um, bob, I can't think of i'm'm asking yeah, on Channel 9 News and on Passing I saw them interview the guy driving Repair One who brought an entire truckload of stuff out to the donation center out there, all from Burbank, and they didn't put his name on the screen. But I go, oh, I recognize the rig and I go that's Repair One, right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's just people want to be helpful, I get it. Pair of one right there. Yeah, and it's just people want to be helpful, I get it. Um, it was funny because one day the fire union there were they were at one station said bring your stuff. It's money they need, it's the people, just your body.
Speaker 3:You might not be able to do much, but volunteer, that's it yeah, and and I I think, as a as a social worker, I I have to again throw in the plug. I've said this from the dais If you want to help, it's always best to ask how. I actually felt very compelled when the winds were happening, even before we saw all the issues with the fires, because I was on my street, a tree fell and I got to watch BWP in those winds at three in the morning fixing a pole at 30 feet in the air. That's not something I would do, and so to see them do that, big kudos to them, and I thought, wow, these guys, this is the rest of their night and they're just going in, they're going back to to their stations and they're going back out well, I know people are going to be one of their stations.
Speaker 1:They just call to call, to call. We were hearing it all night. We were listening to it.
Speaker 3:They will go in sometimes just to check in and then and then come back out. And so the thing I actually learned with with this, when I was like what can I do is I picked up the phone and I asked what do you need? And I was surprised because you know, we get a lot of donuts, I get a lot of treats. They wanted grab and go snacks because that way they could have actually something to eat on the way out. And that wouldn't have occurred to me, because I'm not somebody who's a first responder in that field. And so one thing I always tell people is, wherever you're donating, call first and ask what they need, because you'll be surprised. When I used to work in a homeless shelter, a lot of times people were like, oh, I have mittens, I have gloves, and I smiled knowing that I had a closet full of mittens and gloves. And then they would ask what do you need? And I would say tampons, because people don't think of donating things like that.
Speaker 2:So it's always helpful to call, ask what people need, and then you can be really the most beneficial. What I'm curious, madam Mayor, is year round, you know, yes, we witness fires, you know, and we're just going to have some rain coming up. But if somebody is out shopping Costco, smart and Final, whatever, and put together a dozen bags, they could take it to the guard shack at Water and Power on Lake Street for the guys in the field year-round. I mean, those guys need that nourishment all the time and they'd be appreciative, good way to say thank you for you guys being up that pole in 30 mile an hour winds or whatever. Year round. It doesn't need to be an emergency and I just think people need to think about that. These guys are working year round. I know for the police. They get fed very well, yes, restaurants take care of them very, very well, but year round I think people don't realize.
Speaker 3:And in our lovely PD I have heard from them sometimes when I'll say like what do you all need? They're like no more snacks.
Speaker 2:No more yeah.
Speaker 3:Those guys are fit. No more snacks, no more. Yeah, those guys are fit.
Speaker 2:Well, they took the. Somebody just told me they took the vending machines out of the break room because they were always breaking down. So that's why and they also don't eat donuts anymore they don't stop More of a fallacy probably.
Speaker 3:But yeah, to go back, I think you know it's really important for all of us to have a citywide plan, but that's neighborhood specific, because I realized in that moment when I thought about how I evacuate, it's going to be really different than my friend who lives in the hillside and the things they're going to be ready for are also very different. You know, and I want all of our neighborhoods to have a plan, to have a place to go. It's kind of like when we do our school fire drills, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, and right now I'm hearing it daily. I see it on social media. People are frustrated that all the branches, the leaves, the gutters still have stuff in. They don't realize.
Speaker 2:I listened to the parks rec marissa gave a report of how many trees, how many many branches you go by Verdugo Park. There are mounds of branches still. They've made a prior, they've triaged it More like they did in the emergency operations center that night. They triaged incidents and I saw a witness, the fire department. If there were power lines down they would go out and put a caution tape on it. So if a police officer drove by or somebody else saw it, it was a sign that they'd already been there and they were doing that all through our tree. If there was a tree down you don't need to report it 20 times. They'd put a tag on it. But I know Ken Berkman and his department and forestry are cleaning up. There are still tons of debris that it's hard to catch up. I drove Glen Oaks last night. City of Glendale hasn't even touched the medium down the street there must be 25 trees down.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I'm glad you said that, ross, because I think you know kudos, kudos to our guys, and if you're a little frustrated out there, I hear you, it's hard to deal with. But we are really going in order and our priority is always safety, you know. So we we really went through the trees that were on top of things, first, that were blocking roadways, and then I got to see it in action. We went to the trees that were. Then that then turned into emergency situations. We had about one hundred and seventy or more tree failures, and some of those, it was worth noting, were not just trees that had fallen down, but trees that were on a teeter, potentially about to fall down, and so those potentials were an emergency for us, because God forbid that falls on somebody or on something Right, and that's how Parks and Rec and our BWP and our public works crews have gone about it.
Speaker 1:So I know they're frustrating to see, I know the branches on the side, but those are our last priority because they're not going to kill anybody driving down victory afterward, I saw a couple trucks that were out of service, just had their arms up, holding holes in place until you get back to them at a later time to fix them. That was an, that was a band-aid, which they incredibly they don't do that they lose power completely, that whole area that was that those were crews at work.
Speaker 3:I mean, when I talked to mandep, she was incredibly proud of that, because that was the creativeness of our crews at work. What can we do now, in this moment, to safeguard this? And it actually saved a lot more poles from coming down. It was something that I got to see in action when we decided on in the moment to say, ok, if you have a tree issue, call this number, if you have a power issue, call this number, but if you see a downed wire, call 9-1-1. And it was the way we funneled all of those calls that were real emergencies to 9-1-1. And I think that saved us in a lot of ways that maybe some of our neighbors didn't figure out right away.
Speaker 2:Well, it's funny because just yesterday I think I read yesterday or the day before in the LA Times a very big article on people getting notified. There's tons of programs, A dragon I have found during the Latuna fire. It was on a weekend, I think it was a labor day or something. The city staff wasn't around. I I gotta give kudos to our pio staff again for getting stuff up. It's on the website. It's somewhere for people to look there. People are wanting and what this article said, that's what la and county said. They found that people are saying it's too slow, the city is too slow in putting out something. They turned to us. We had plenty. I was up to what 4 in the morning putting stuff out, you know, because people wanted to hear, know what was going on. And I will say that on this emergency, getting that city web page where people can ready get go, or the different notifications, are just totally different.
Speaker 3:And really kudos to Jonathan and his staff with that, because not only was it quick, but it was also accurate, which was the priority. As we saw with the county, sometimes you can be quick but not accurate and that scares a lot of people and send some misinformation. So we did a good job, I think of. Maybe we're a few minutes behind, but we gave you the right information. Not, you know, put folks into a panic, and I think the next step of that and the next step of what we do with emergency preparedness is also get more people to sign up for our alerts page, get more people to go towards our burbank specific pages, because we're going to have the most accurate information.
Speaker 2:very, very, very good point, because we found I found a ton of burbank people getting these alerts from outside of burbank thinking do we need to evacuate? And we heard it the whole time.
Speaker 1:Honestly, and I put that as soon as I got that alert. I put out there is no problem in Burbank, relax, it's okay.
Speaker 2:Well, people need to and, again, part of that overall communications plan is to let people, when you move here, we have our own police, our own fire, our own public works, our own forestry. All those depend on Burbank to get your source, not LA County, not LA City. They're not going to tell you what's going on in Burbank. We're our own city and we need to get people to understand. There are a ton of programs now that you can get alerts on, but if you want to know from Burbank, you get it from Burbank.
Speaker 3:Exactly, and I got to do one more shout out for our 311 app. If you have not signed up for 311, you can download it from any app store. If you also go to, if you love the computer, you can also get 311 on there, can you? I didn't ever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's Burbank 311, not just the county 311. Right, I have one also.
Speaker 3:Yes, Burbank 311.
Speaker 2:A lot of people don't realize. Yesterday I answered somebody that there was a traffic accident. Police were moving traffic down a side street or something and then they got sent down an alley. And somebody said oh, I'm going to call Bob Kramer. He needed to put a detour sign that it's not a through alley. And I wrote back. I said you might not find his number. Bob retired. He was in that position for years and years and the city really wants everybody to use Burbank 311, or call that department. But Bob, but you'll get a. You know Bob did a great job, retired and they're not going to replace him.
Speaker 1:He created that job and retired and they lost that job If you want to talk about public service.
Speaker 3:There is no public servant like Bob Kramer. That's real dedication.
Speaker 2:That he was.
Speaker 1:Well, we had more, a couple more questions, but you know what? We can wait until another month. It's nothing that's that timely. I like to try to get about an hour or so, but I will save this question for next month. So if you're listening, you have a reason to listen next month, because I have a good one for you.
Speaker 2:Well, you know how do you always end the show it's up to the mayor.
Speaker 1:This is how I always end it. I always say what's on the mayor's mind. So I give you the time you want to say anything, you'd like to say anything coming up, or anything that's on your mind that you want people to know, or this is your time.
Speaker 2:So please go ahead, don't give your personal phone number out.
Speaker 3:No, no, I think what I'll say is gosh. I'll tell you all what I told the chamber last week when I did my first update. I said hi, I hope this is my first and last update revolving around emergency preparedness, you know, because it's really scary times. It's been a rough start to 2025. And so I guess I just want to wish everybody listening a happy new year and hope that February is much better than January for all of us, and I think what's on my mind is really now, now that we've gone through this, hoping that we don't get hit with anything again.
Speaker 3:I'm really ready to focus on some of the things we talked about today, on the film industry, also on economic development. That's my big, big push this year as mayor. I think there's so much we can do there to help our community, and economic development is quality of life. People move to cities not only for the safety, but also because they know that there's a coffee shop they like down the street, because they know they have good nightlife street, because they know they have good night life, because they know they have good quiet scenery Right, and so that's going to be my focus for this year. I look forward to doing a lot of shows about it, a lot of um mayor's minutes about it. To look out for those.
Speaker 2:Well, I watch your mayor's movement, but Craig and I, you know, I know he will extend the invitation to you you ever want to use this platform. We have found with our previous couple of mayors that have come in here we heard when we were out in the field Craig did Holiday in the Park. We've set up other places. People watch these shows and if you want to come on it's kind of different On the dais you have to what's a Brown Act and there's a lot of rules and regulations. But here we give you the mic.
Speaker 1:If you want to come in and do a different show on a single topic, it's open to you. Bring a guest in. Absolutely, there's a lot we can do. We like doing this because it gives us a chance to kind of wrap up the month and what's going on in burbank and get it from your opinion. But it's a special thing coming up. We can also. It's up to you. This is your city, you, you are madam mayor. You know it's going to be fun, it's going to happen. You have these goals right. You have a year, but how fast that you're going to go, it's going to, it's already going by so fast, so well.
Speaker 2:We just got your calendar for the week and it's almost two pages. You are busy this next week. We get a copy of you know, sandra, your secretary sends it to us and you are one. I don't know how you're going to work. You are everything else and you know feed your dog.
Speaker 3:You know I don't want to waste a single minute. I this is the privilege and honor of a lifetime to serve your hometown and I think I want to enjoy it to the fullest. And I want to do the best I can for burbank, because the rank deserves it.
Speaker 2:It did so much for me we see that too, and crick and I said at the top of the show we didn't get a lot. We've put it out there that you were going to do the show. People, if you want to ask questions, you can send them to Questions at mybergencom Anytime. You know we have an open line to you. I mean we could save them for the show or if there's something that people want to ask. I always say people don't realize our mirrors are available, yes, not just in the grocery store or, you know, putting gas in your car, but if they have a question and they don't want to go to the city council because that's not the place to ask, yeah, and like I said the other night, it can be an intimidating thing to go in front of that microphone up there.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we've all been up there it's like, and we, you know ross and I know you guys, it can still be intimidating up there, you know absolutely.
Speaker 3:I mean I, I think tamla said at that time but we all know what it's like to be on the other side, speaking ourselves, and it is intimidating, even if some of the people up there are your friends, um, but yeah, I, I would just say that too. I think the most important thing for for living in a city like burbank is you know your mayors. They're your friends, they're your neighbors, they're your community members and they should be approachable. If you want to talk to me, my email is nperez at burbankcagov, and the reason I use my email and not the phone number is because that one goes to the office and if you email me, sandy will make sure that I answer you within a few days.
Speaker 2:Sandy's amazing. Oh, she is. She has been great for uh to help us out to line you up for your, to get you on your schedule for us, and she is, see, we really depend on her and every mayor that. But I mean she really she will protect you. I mean you and I will see each other at a million ribbon cuttings. You know and we get and I know when somebody I go to a ribbon cutting you're not scheduled, I will know before anybody else and I will tell the mayor's not going to be here. We'll have a stand. You know either vice mayor or somebody else, but it's very helpful, yep.
Speaker 1:Well, Ross, anything else you got before we?
Speaker 2:wrap it up. I'm not on. Oh, oh, am I on? I couldn't tell my tally light wasn't on. This was a great I. I'm glad we did it in january. Yes, we'll be out in a day or so. Hopefully you get a couple thousand hits, like we do on some of our other podcasts. And um, you know, you, you've seen craig out in the field. You, you sat down with him at holiday in the park. We're gonna do some shows out and you're always welcome.
Speaker 3:Well, that's what I'm looking forward to. I can't wait to do some out in the community. Be more active. The only thing I can never promise you is, unlike our past mayors, I'm not going to be out there in a polo.
Speaker 1:Neither am I All righty. Well for Ross Benson and for Mayor Nikki Perez. This is Craig Schubert, once again saying thank you for watching. As always, the little things. Hit that like button and subscribe to our channel. If you're listening to your car two hands on the wheel right now, if you're watching at home, thank you for watching and we will talk to you next month. Goodbye.