myBurbank Talks
myBurbank Talks
Ask the Mayor with Nikki Perez - May 2025
In this compelling conversation with Mayor Nikki Perez, Burbank residents gain valuable insights into the city's remarkable financial stability during challenging economic times. Unlike many neighboring municipalities struggling with deficits, Burbank maintains a budget surplus while preparing thoughtfully for future challenges. Mayor Perez doesn't shy away from discussing difficult decisions, including upcoming utility rate increases, while emphasizing that Burbank's water and power rates remain among the lowest in Los Angeles County.
The discussion explores why infrastructure investments cannot be delayed any longer. From aging water reservoirs to storm-damaged power lines, the mayor explains in accessible terms how postponing these improvements would ultimately cost residents far more in the future. She shares how the city balances fiscal responsibility with maintaining quality services, highlighting Burbank Water and Power's exceptional reliability record and the various assistance programs available to residents who need help with their bills.
The conversation shifts to the challenges facing beloved community events in Burbank. As insurance requirements and regulatory hurdles mount, Mayor Perez describes the city's efforts to preserve these cultural touchstones, including a new community grant program for non-profits. She shares personal insights about the importance of these gatherings to Burbank's identity while acknowledging the realities of modern safety concerns.
Listeners also receive updates on significant city projects, including the storm damage to Starlight Bowl and alternative plans for this year's July 4th celebrations. Throughout the discussion, Mayor Perez demonstrates her deep connection to Burbank as a lifelong resident who understands both the city's history and the challenges it faces moving forward.
Have concerns about your utility bills or upcoming rate changes? Contact Burbank Water and Power directly, where staff members are ready to help you understand your options and access available assistance programs. The city is committed to supporting residents through these necessary transitions while maintaining the services and community spirit that make Burbank special.
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.
Speaker 2:Now let's join our hosts as they welcome the Mayor of Burbank. Hello Burbank. Craig Short here once again, along, of course, with Ross Benson.
Speaker 1:Good morning, good afternoon, and look at the mayor. We have the mayor here.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, you know, we can't have an Ask the Mayor show, of course, without the mayor, so let's welcome Mayor Nikki Perez.
Speaker 3:Hi, how are you both doing on this warm and sunny day?
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I got a question already right off the top. You're glowing, you know you think you're pregnant or something. You know your makeup. You're pregnant or something? You know your makeup. How did she get a half an hour in makeup and I get 30 seconds? I don't get it.
Speaker 2:I have to talk to our makeup person.
Speaker 3:Okay, Ross, you call it pregnancy glow, I call it sweat. But you know, to each their own.
Speaker 2:Well, as yesterday you know you probably understand a little bit bit we had our um, um, a memorial day celebration over cambridge and, uh, give us your thoughts on it well, I gotta tell you, the only bummer was we didn't get to do the flyover because it was very, very cloudy when we got there.
Speaker 3:Of course, bright and sunny by the end of the ceremony, but everything else. Our veterans committee planned a flawless event, as they do every year. They had lovely singers. The young man from bros who sang the national anthem was amazing. He performed a good school, he performed great school, um, and of course they. They had always those renditions with the guitar. They're so emotional. They always get me and it was very nice to have my year as a mayor to share my thoughts with the community and I was really grateful that I got to share my father-in-law's words. He feels very strongly that we have Veterans Day and we have Memorials Day and we have Armed Services Day and each one has their own special meaning for folks who are currently serving, folks who have served and folks who gave the ultimate sacrifice.
Speaker 1:So it was great, yeah, the whole situation out there. The American flag that was huge, hanging for the fire truck as a background. You know the roses, the ceremony of the rose, where each person that has not come home literally was acknowledged and a rose was put on the you know monuments and so forth. That is always very, very touching. And it was just in community, band playing all the different you know songs and so forth. It was really good.
Speaker 2:It was years ago that we actually redid that entire thing. It used to just be run down and we got to put things together and it's a beautiful place now.
Speaker 1:It's really a fantastic, you know place to honor people, the Rose Garden, in fact, channel 5 News at 10 o'clock did their piece from there. Everybody was gone. We were, most people were home asleep, but they came out there and they did their uh wrap-up show. And the rose garden. Mickey depalo, who is um, you know, takes care of the vets and is a vet, a vietnam vet and even mentioned how the DIG program came out yes, in May, to help fluff up and make everything look and it really did look pretty, I mean.
Speaker 3:And for all our residents out there. If you don't know about the DIG program, I have to do a shameless plug for them, because they're wonderful. Dig is someone or something that everybody can volunteer with If you're here in Burbank, even if you're outside of Burbank, we do have groups come in and help us out. They really have big days where you can go on a Saturday morning, you can pull out some weeds, you can help us replant. It's a very nice and like calming experience. I had the chance to participate a couple of times. It's very cathartic. You really pulling out weeds from the park makes you feel good and then you see the efforts of your works and having them come out to the Rose Garden was really nice for us.
Speaker 2:A little funny side story. We kept always seeing that. You know we talk about that. You know DIG, it was always capital D-I-G. You're saying what does DIG stand for? They always capitalize the letters. It just means DIG.
Speaker 1:Now I Just means dig. Now, mayor, I have a question. Many, many, many. When I had hair, I think Burbank had a SEDA program. It was they'd employ kids or not kids high school students, to go out and do gardening projects or paint light poles and so forth. I noticed in Magnolia Park and driving down San Fernando yesterday. The weeds are getting kind of high and I know we cannot use any type of weed killers, but is that something that the DIG program could maybe start at Victory and work their way west and pull the weeds out of the summer?
Speaker 2:That is very true. There's a couple businesses, especially between Victory and Buena Vista, where the weeds are probably five, six feet high in the parkway I'm going. How does Burbank let that happen?
Speaker 1:I know we don't have forestry crew to do that and it's time consuming. But that's what the dig program. I wonder if that could be put in there. There are you know long because you can't use the weed killer, you can't use weed whackers, but maybe something that we could do to beautify our business district it's definitely getting hard to manage.
Speaker 3:I'm glad you brought up the point about the, the weed killer, because that's getting very in the weeds. But, um, I had to wait a second. I've got a but, um. But the reality is the state banned a certain weed killer that we use. That was very effective, and then they did so for good reason the chemicals in it. But then we also have the issue that with the weed killer that is supposedly safe, some of our forestry guys are allergic to it. It's causing rashes. So we're, you know, kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. And for folks who wonder about forestry, I'm still in awe of them, because there's only about seven of them and they handled all of the debris and everything from the from the thunderstorm. So do you have one of?
Speaker 1:your players. That used to be a player for you, Kind of a forestry crew. I see him out there every time. He says I was coached Sure.
Speaker 2:We'll do it. You know, I've had many players. He's been doing it for a long time. Yeah, he's not ready to retire, in fact. Yeah, yeah, he's not ready to retire, in fact, he's been doing it. Well, I've seen him.
Speaker 1:He might give you a 30-year guy, oh yeah, and I've seen him out there at 3, 4 and our forestry crew again. The rose garden was a good example of how gorgeous it was. If you get out into our parks, that's a lot of grass to mow. That is a lot of you know besides. Just the grass, the care and everything goes into it. They do a good job.
Speaker 3:And I'll bring up the question about dig to our parks department because I think the answer in the past, because I've thought about it too. Believe me, on some of my morning runs I noticed that me and the weeds are kind of getting crushed, um, and I thought about, like what about this right away? Why can't we clear? And I thought about digging the past. The answer I've gotten in the past is that we have so much already on our hands with with the parks, and I have seen that firsthand, like having done a couple of dig days pre-pregnancy you're not supposed to garden while pregnant, but, um, but I've just heard that it's too much to get to, so we're looking for for other solutions.
Speaker 2:I think it was that made noise. It's very it actually looks like. Yeah, it's not good at all, so I remember that program.
Speaker 1:We're going back many years. I think I know a couple firemen just telemontas who started in that program and then he became fireman and we're talking 35, 40 years ago and it's had different iterations, because I remember when I was in high school it had a different name.
Speaker 3:I can't recall what it was, but it was like everybody knew it as oh, that's the folks who sign up to clean brush in the summers right, yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 1:But back to memorial day. It was a great, uh, two hours. I think we had started it right at 11 and we were out of there 12, 31 o'clock, a line, no, a ton of people went over to the vfw for a great picnic. They had put on a heck of a barbecue. I didn't make it. But the committee it's not just Mickey, there's a committee of a dozen or more that are part of Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies. They really do. As Craig would remind me, memorial Day is to remember those who didn't come home.
Speaker 2:That's right and veterans at the day, the ones who are still or have served. There you go, yes.
Speaker 3:And then the last thing I'll say about Memorial Day ceremony. I think it's really nice because it's one of our few solemn holidays and I think the crowd that was there really understood that. The Veterans Committee for sure understands that and it's nice for me to see them, because they don't get enough credit. They do both of these events, but they're also really a resource for veterans. I've gone to Mickey when I have questions about hey, I have a veteran who's asking about this and this, where can I send them, or who can I send them to, and every time he says send them to me.
Speaker 1:I just the other day on social media I you know a lot of people say I comment, I make. Somebody had come on and ask they know a vet that has been talking suicide working here in burbank and I said first, family service agency. That phone is available 24 hours. Or get a hold of mickey dipalo, he will make sure you are taken care of and whatever they need. Uh, they have some programs over at uh family service agency for our military great place and it's tough. You go and serve and what you get to see, oh you know when you're serving and so it it affects okay, well, you know what, let's move.
Speaker 2:We got a long, long topic today. Let's move on. It was a great ceremony, absolutely, yesterday. The budget, that's been a a huge thing for months now. The toilet flushing or something for you, for you, the budget, there, the budget, Okay. So yeah, the budget is something every year. It's it's, it's that beast that we have to tackle, and I come to a final vote on June 3rd. So I know there's something you really can't talk about because the vote has not happened yet. But, kind of you know, my question is what's the hardest part of doing the budget, of coming together with everyone? What for you, is the hardest part, as you're?
Speaker 1:doing the process, spending money oh, we gotta spend money.
Speaker 3:that's what we do. But, um, what is it? You gotta spend money to make money, yeah, but I I think for me, in the way I've described it to most folks, without getting too much into it, because, like craig shared, we're still it's not final. We vote on June 3rd and anybody who's interested please tune into that meeting. The reality here is the way I look at it in a very crude way is Burbank has always been incredibly fiscally responsible. We have done our homework. We are the kid in the group project that did our homework and everywhere I look outside I feel like we're the only kid that did the assignment and it's really a group project.
Speaker 2:Well, years ago a lot of cities had problems with the pensions and cities went bankrupt, Counties went bankrupt, but Burbank always held their head above water. So Burbank has a history of being, you know, always held their head above water. So Rebecca has a history of of being, you know, of doing their homework.
Speaker 3:And you don't have to look too far. I mean, look at the county budget. City of LA has a massive deficit. Look at our state budget and don't even get me started on our federal budget.
Speaker 1:They print money, they just make more money, but they, they cut out the pennies. You know literally. But you save your pennies. They might be worth something later exactly you know. I will say our financial department. I know several people that work there and in madam becker, who is our department head, she knows our budget. You can ask her at any given time. She could almost tell you what page of our city budget she keeps. It's not only her, she's the keeper of all that, but also every department head is responsible and if you really look at our budget, like you said, it's amazing. Other cities are going bankrupt and you look at Burbank and all those things still work.
Speaker 3:I have to say. I think the number one thing is we are not in a budget deficit. Burbank is not a budget deficit. We have a surplus, which is huge. Most of our neighbors can't say that and we have had that budget surplus during COVID. During this time, as we head into a literal recession, because that's where we're headed as a country, and as literal recession because that's where we're headed as a country and and as a state, that's where we're headed. But as a city, we have kept our head up above water and it's because of the very, very responsible financial decisions, which are sometimes really hard votes to take and really hard things to to do, to sell money, that potential recession which we're all you know.
Speaker 2:who knows if coins will land one day or another on tariffs? Are you taking that into account, that we may be heading to a recession and how to save for that? Is that part of the process?
Speaker 3:So I think the biggest or the most common thing you heard in our budget discussions, which our first one was, let's start with day in May, but we started early May, then we had the May 20th meeting, which we just had, and our last one was June 3rd, but our entire discussion has centered around economic uncertainty. And that's where I say I feel like we're the kid that did our homework right. We did the assignment, we turned it in, we were really responsible. But some of those county dollars are in question, those state dollars have been cut back and those federal dollars are still hanging on the balance. And you know, for us as a city it's really hard to have six million question mark that we may not get from the feds, or two million that we for sure will not get from the state. And where do we pull from? So I think, on the one hand, we're really lucky that we've been economically stable because we can fill some of the gaps. On the other hand, we also want to make sure that we don't completely use all of our, all of our rainy day funds or all of our budget, because we want to save for what will be a recession and we want our city, our small businesses and our residents to feel recession-proof. You know, and I think right now we have $1 million in recurring funds that's what it looks like in projection $1 million of recurring funds and we have about $21 million of unrecurring funds in the general budget, which is really good. That means we've done our job to bring in the money this year. It's not recurring, but that's why we keep our eyes on on that one million.
Speaker 3:And the only thing I will say is looking, if you look at our budget white papers and the things that we're we're looking to spend money on, we have been very conservative about how much it is. Nothing in our council, asks I, I believe, has gone over my gosh. Nothing has gone over the $100,000 mark from our, from our council, asks the five of us, and I think that's been because we've been very thoughtful about what does a community need right now and they need a steady hand to save. And then the other piece that I see is us putting money towards things that we've had on our council goals housing and homelessness. We're trying to fill some gaps that we're not going to get grants for. Um.
Speaker 3:A great example is a jobs connect program that's on the table right now and council proposed again. It's not voted on yet, but council proposed again. It's not voted on yet, but council proposed filling that gap. It's about $87,000. That program has been helpful to so many people, especially during this economic time where they switch careers, look at different paths. That's been really important for folks and we heard the community. We had hundreds of emails about that program and so those are smart things that we can invest in. While maybe it's not the time to spend, you know, $500,000 on some economic study, we've thought about what we do at this time and I think you know it was no surprise to me, but I also thought as a sign of good leadership. When I sat there I knew that justin had said we don't want to spend over that million because that's our recurring. We don't want to spend that on asks just so today.
Speaker 2:The president just said today that he's going to cut all the funding to california because a transgender athlete participating in a sport and uh. So if they cut all the funding, then that means sacramento is not sending money down here either. So you're gonna have to prepare for those kind of things and that's where I'm saying it.
Speaker 3:It really feels like we're the kid doing our homework and it's really hard to have a president saying things like that offhandedly. I have to sit there, hold my breath and wait to see what actually comes out on paper. And and, if you're interested, one of the budget white papers I did ask Jennifer for and she was wonderful about this is the Conference of Mayors of US mayors is tracking all of this and it doesn't matter what political party you're in nonpartisan, it doesn't matter. All of the mayors from the different cities across the nations are part of that Conference of Mayors and they are just dollar tracking each, each thing that could be impacted. So hud, um, hud, department dollars, which are going to section 8 funding, cdbg, which are the community development block grant funding, which goes to anything from your parks to some non-profit activities all of that has been put on the table as a question mark in this budget and they have tracked, dollar by dollar, how much cities could lose. And so I gave that list to Jennifer and I asked her to asterisk and make a note of where we as a city could be impacted Good and the bad.
Speaker 3:On the bad side, again, those are community dollars we're not talking about, again, those are community dollars. We're not talking about, I don't know, not getting dollars because of some, some political opinion. We're talking about, literally section eight. That that's not, you know, that's money that's been on the table forever. Community developed block grant. It's been on the table forever and we use it for so many things, from roads to playgrounds, which roads and playgrounds don't have parties, and then um and so like. That's that's the bad part, that we would lose those kind of dollars. That's on the tape. That's a possibility.
Speaker 2:That's happened once before we lost all of our redevelopment. We've seen what that looks like. Yeah, okay, that costs a lot of money.
Speaker 1:But when you talk about that budget, you also had a report from ken berkman.
Speaker 3:The same arranged in our sidewalks, and our alleys are looking the best that they have in many years and that's where it comes in, the fact that we've been doing our homework, we've been doing a good job, and so, on the one hand, I would take a look I forget what number in the budget papers it is, but you you can look at the actual entire budget. It's towards the back. It's our budget white papers and those are proposed solutions. They just included it as a memo. I didn't ask for any dollar items there. I just wanted the public, who asks a lot about this, and then, rightfully so, people are asking how are the federal cuts affecting the city? So the bad news is those are some pretty important programs that could be affected. The good news is, in comparison to a lot of our counterparts or other cities, we don't actually use a lot of federal dollars and would not be as severely impacted as some folks, you know. So that's a really good thing for our residents to know, for peace of mind, and I can talk later about how it affects us in other areas. But you know that's that's been the hardest part with the budget.
Speaker 3:To your point, craig about what's hard, it's the economic uncertainty. It's not knowing how deep of a recession we're going into. It's not knowing whether or not some federal grants are coming in, whether or not some state grants are coming in. That's been the hardest part. And I think you also asked me like what would I love to see? I think, just for the future, one of my biggest things was I knew during my mayorship I did not want to be in an economic deficit right for the city. So keeping a balanced budget has been one of the most important things and I'm really grateful to my colleagues that. When it came time to propose ideas look, in past years all of us have thrown like $100,000 ideas down the pipeline just to see what might work or what might sound good. I will say people were very good about saying this is not the time.
Speaker 1:We need to sit down and and figure out the economic situation first and get through this next year, and so I do appreciate that, oh, I know one of the craig will be uh, I like the fire department, for example, um, they had done a project, um a test of that extra, our rescue ambulance between the hours of 7 am and 7 pm and that they found they're going to as of July I hear it'll take a little longer but they will now man that as a 24-hour rescue ambulance Driving here. Verdugo, at least forward five times said any Burbank RA available. The calls are going up. We were building front street, the um, the project out by the airport. All these different things will cause more calls to go up, but you guys were thinking about it before they're occupied.
Speaker 2:Exactly, demand the equipment that's needed and I think that's police and fire service day. We talked to you know, on our deputy chiefs and said we got a lot more people coming to see, especially our housing we have to do. Do we need another fire station or two? And he said, yeah, we're gonna, we're already thinking about it, it's already being projected, we're already in the process. So it sounds like people are already thinking about that stuff and that's what I appreciate about fire, police, burbank, water and Power.
Speaker 3:They're already thinking about those things, like Ross said, before we get there, because we can't think about it after. We have to be proactive about this and the reality is the billings are coming. It's up to us to decide how we do it and how we manage these things responsibly.
Speaker 2:Well, let's move on, and we're talking, and we're talking about budget, but let's talk about another thing that is not really budget but affects a lot of people and I'm sure you're getting a lot of questions about it. The council is because now, for the last couple of years, we keep getting water power rate increases I think a new one is coming on August 1st, I believe and these are, and there's reasons for this. I don't think a lot of people agree with the reasons, but the reasons are kind of, you know, black and white, so you want to kind of get into what's coming on with the rate increases and what the thinking is behind them.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I just want to interject real quick. People don't bring this stuff up when other cities a windstorm comes along or a rainstorm and they're without power for four or five days.
Speaker 2:Doesn't happen here well, not wonder what.
Speaker 3:Not only that, but I think after all, our rates are some of the lowest in all of la county, as it is and you all, y' all have my talking points, because those are two things that I really want to highlight, and I think the first thing, first things first. I want folks to know exactly what to expect. So, effective July 1st 2025, sewer and refuse are going up. So sewer is increasing by 6% and refuse is by 8%. If you want to talk in depth about what that means on your bill, please do reach out and call the city or reach out to talk to me, because I've had conversations with folks where you know, folks are like, oh my God, that sounds like a lot, but then, when we get down to the nitty gritty and calculate what that actually looks like for them, there's ways to save. It can be a few dollars. I and I don't say that to be like, oh, it's just a few dollars, it's not, it's still a cost. They raised that last year.
Speaker 3:Also, sewer and refuse, yes, but this is this one is something that we had planned to do for a couple years. So both of the um, both of the waste plans and the utility, the water and power plans, that has been a long time coming. The council that I started with my first year on council, we decided to begin the rate hikes, because we hadn't. For years, in my entire lifetime, we did not get rate hikes in Burbank, and that sounds nice, but people have to think where's that? What's happening then? Things are not free. That just means that we were creating a balloon. No, and I have to be really grateful to our new general manager of Burbank Water and Power, who has very openly said that she is not going to be the manager to kick the can down the road.
Speaker 1:How many city employees or department managers will give out their personal cell phone and tell people. I will take your call to explain it to you. I mean she has said it from the dial. She says that she's gone out on these coffee times that my Burbank has promoted.
Speaker 3:Heck, I even have it here in my notes straight from her yep, she is just.
Speaker 3:She is there to answer your questions and it's just, I think, great and and I'll try to do some of her explanations justice, but oh my gosh, I wish I could. I wish I could speak water and power the way she does. Thanks to her I've learned a lot more, but I I can explain some of the issues and then at the end I do want to share her number, because if folks have detailed questions they can call her, and water and power are things that, for the most part, require either a business degree or an engineering degree to talk about absolutely, or some kind of science degree in the water department. Boy Mandipal explain it to you as if you have that degree and you leave with an understanding. She is phenomenal Sharp sharp, sharp engineer.
Speaker 1:Yes, she, when you guys hired her she came in and she was ready to go and she just changing that department. I mean, mandeep is a great person.
Speaker 3:And speaking of water, you know those were your sewer and refuse rates. Those are for your trash and your sewage, but the actual water and power rate increases. We made a very calculated decision because we think the worst time to increase rates is the summer. That's when you're using your AC, that's when you're using water the most. We're all trying to keep cool somehow. So those rate increases do not go into effect until January 1st of 2026.
Speaker 2:I did not know that Very good. That's very, very good thing. I mean, that's great. That's really taking consideration. You're right, the worst month of the year, august to through november it's 100 degrees every day usually it's.
Speaker 3:it's an awful time to do it and you know, electric rates will increase by 9.9 percent and water is going up 14 percent and, if I'm telling you, if we didn't do it now, it would be 20 to 40 percent in the next few years, which is why we want to make the tough decisions now. That's what people elected us to do, not kick the can down the road.
Speaker 1:And I don't think most people understand. We don't own the water, we buy our water. We have no water rights at all.
Speaker 2:Exactly, craig and I, you've gone on that trip up to the Colorado River and see, and when it rains here we can't get any of that rainwater Right, you just watch it go right down the LA River. Say goodbye, rainwater.
Speaker 1:So that really is, if you think about it, raising, it's what we're getting charged.
Speaker 3:And when we talk about that I'm glad you mentioned that, ross, because again, we have no water rights and we buy all our water from MWD, the Metropolitan Water District, and they have a need right now to rebuild their depleted reserves. They went down from 80 million in 2018 to 30 million in 2023, and they're still collecting, you know, funds, and that's due to not raising those rates. So one thing we're doing is raising our rates to match what they're charging us, because our costs have gone up with them too. I always like to remind folks, you know, burbank Water and Power is a publicly owned utility. You own the utility, we all own the utility and, as such, it's really not generating profit.
Speaker 3:The goal here is to pay for what we're using and pay for the things that keep our water and power running, and a lot of times, folks will ask what is? What are the increases do? Are folks getting salary increases? Is that what it is? It's not. I think. You know salaries are make up, actually, about 15 percent of water and power's budget, and this, this rate increase, is not leading to any of that. It's due to really six main causes. The first one is very clear in plain sight those thunderstorms and the damage from the storms we had. A lot of our polls are old. A lot of them went out. If you were out and about in the public in January, you might've seen a bucket truck holding up a pole.
Speaker 1:Yeah, literally in the victory, yeah.
Speaker 3:I really famous one. I always like to tell people you remember where Marty McFly flew out of the Burger King holding onto the truck. That pole right there was being held by a bucket truck. It was and and then you know that kind of work from our staff to keep us running cost us a lot. We had a lot of damage. The Starlight Bowl is a great example of that. That's a great example that we see. Some examples that we don't see are those poles, the lines that were damaged. We actually had more downed power lines than I've ever seen in in-pass storms. We actually reached the point where. That's why we're telling folks to call a certain line for trees, a certain line for pole damage and then a last 911 line for downed power lines, because that's how pressing the issue was. And you know that's a huge major contributor to the increase in cost.
Speaker 3:The second major contributor is construction. We are constructing a lot and I'm going to be really blunt, it's because of unfunded state mandates for water, power and sustainability. The state is asking us to do a lot of things and I think it's not any legislator in particular, it's not the governor in particular. The state has always had a dance with its municipalities where they think it's a great idea for the entire state of California to do something like. We want to go sustainable, we want to go green cities. You need to do this. That is rarely matched with we're going to give you money to do this. Right, and it's been the long standing argument from cities up to states You're telling us to do things, you're not giving us money to do things, and that couldn't be more true for water and power.
Speaker 3:We have quite a few unfunded state mandates, some that we have already submitted, and Mandeep will tell you. We've submitted papers and we've submitted pleas to not have to reach certain goals because they're just too expensive for us and they would be too much of a burden on our constituency. And you know, right now, because of those budget problems or because of those mandate problems, we're seeing things that are just unattainable, and that's why we're looking for other solutions, like the battery storage that we've started putting in. We do do solar. We have taken an approach as a utility where we're doing a little bit of everything so that we have our foot in every kind of sustainable market, so that if one of them does really well, we can hold on to that when we're ready, which is something we didn't do years ago One of the last utilities to get into solar, and that's not on this council, not on anybody who's currently working at the utility, it's on our predecessors and we're trying to learn from maybe some of their sidesteps.
Speaker 1:I will say that and I agree with you. Mandeep even said she's going to Washington all the time.
Speaker 3:I've been with her. You have. We do not stop. There are no breaks in Washington.
Speaker 1:She goes there to try to negotiate yeah, and really so much. She goes with a team that knows what they're talking about, you know, and they're really they're not sitting in their offices back at Burbank thinking how we can, you know, do this crossword puzzle. It's you guys are traveling, you guys are talking to your counterparts and, like you say the rates here, people call your friends in other cities and ask them what's your water and power bill? You know, last time your water, your power was out, how long?
Speaker 3:was that out and we're part of the American Public Power Association. Our city is a member. I'm really proud to be that representative from our council. So I get to go to Washington and advocate for our money and I'm lucky to say we do have a budget ask from Congressman Friedman that was put in the budget. We'll see how it goes. That's not done yet in Washington but that is our ask was for a portion of funding that's going to go towards our reservoir, which was going to be my next point of why our money or why our rates are going up. The third thing is the capital improvement projects that were not done years ago and I think this one's a very hitting point for our constituency because when I heard it I was like, oh my gosh, it made me mad as a resident Right Before any of us were on the council, before mandy, before anybody working there. We have our water reservoir that has been leaking just a little bit every year and now is that the one at brace park, or is it the one above um orange grove?
Speaker 3:I think it's the orange grove one. It's the bigger one, sorry, like I don't know exactly where it is, but it's our main reservoir. It's two million gallons of water. That's is, but it's our main reservoir. It's 2 million gallons of water. That's its storage. Instead, it's currently holding 1.2 million gallons of water.
Speaker 3:So we're losing almost half of our water because we've had a leak that we haven't fixed for years. You know, at the beginning it was, oh, we're losing some water, but you kick the can down the road and you don't get that project done. And that project was and I may get the numbers off, mandeep has as much better numbers but it was something like a $20 million project when we were first looking at it. It's now a $60 million project because of many, many factors. And so we need to reach this point where we can't say anymore of, oh, we'll do it later. We got to do it now because, let's be real, in, in three years, that's going to be a 70 80 million dollar project. We got to get these things done because we got to save our water for for us here. And then the last thing is and I know you've both alluded to this well, not the last thing.
Speaker 3:Second to last thing is the long history of no rate increases. We haven't raised those rates in so long and for folks who maybe sit here and I'm guilty of this sometimes you sit here, you look in your Burbank bubble, you think things are happening here. I can tell you from being on the calls. Every other Friday we have a call with the American Public Powers Association. Every other Friday we have a call with the American Public Powers Association and so I tune in to a call with mayors, with water and power directors, with folks who sit on metropolitan water boards across the nation. We're talking folks from Burbank, folks from Kentucky, folks from New York, and all these conversations are the same everybody's raising their rates because it's just unaffordable.
Speaker 3:Now, this is a nationwide issue and the capital improvement costs are also nationwide issues. I heard from folks in New York that they're also building something that has gone up 200% in cost and they're looking for ways to do that. And those are the state folks, right. So there's a problem across the board and we're trying to address it now, before it gets much more costly and before we have to turn to residents and say it's a 40% increase. I never want to turn to people and say that. So I'd rather take these, these rates now and and fix our problems here in Burbank and continue to be the kid that does the work in the class, the federal government.
Speaker 2:You know they're hot and cold. You just don't know where to go on some of these things. These are necessities.
Speaker 3:I mean it's really hard. One of the things we went to fight for and I think I mentioned this in the last show one of the things we went to really really push hard for in Washington was our tax exempt municipal bonds. It's really important for us that those municipal bonds stay exempt from taxes, that for Burbank alone that can mean a six million dollar difference, and that is again not a partisan issue. We in the APPA you have mayors from all kinds of cities, all places. We may disagree on a lot of things. Things everyone agrees that those bonds need to stay tax exempt to keep our utilities running and to not pass those six million in the case of our bank onto our residents. So it's really hard to be fighting for that and to find things that as americans we all agree on on the ground floor and then take it to the federal government and kind of hear crickets. You know that that's really hard for us, um, but I will say the the federal government and kind of hear crickets. You know that's really hard for us.
Speaker 3:But I will say the last reason and speaking of the feds, is tariffs. That's the last you know reason for these increases. Those are six reasons why, but I also have to say, on the other side, what you're paying for is really the best reliability in the nation we have. Okay, I have to be to be honest, we have the strongest reliability on water, we have the second strongest reliability on power in the nation and I think that's huge. Yeah, it's huge. You know that and we we sometimes take that for granted. I feel like I've had moments where I'm like I mean, indeed, my power was out for two hours, when I know for folks who handled the storms in other cities, that was days.
Speaker 1:If people are curious, every month when the Water and Tidal Board meets, their minutes are public information. Board meets, their minutes are public information and anybody can go online, uh and and see, literally, when there's a power outage, what it's caused by if it's equipment failure, if it's a mylar balloon, all those different things, and I'll tell you how downtime is minimal if you have power out. They know that fast. The scada center out there by the fire department training center, they can tell you when you turn on your tv. Almost you know, years ago they used to during the super bowl they could tell them how many people flush their toilets. They knew it was after. You know, yeah, exactly by the amount of water and power that people would use. It's funny.
Speaker 3:And if you call our customer service line and you have questions about this stuff. Look, I know I did. I called them because I was very sure that my husband has a few computers at home and he loves setting up his almost game-like system and I knew that's why our power was high and I called and the folks at BWP backed me up on that one. So you can find out what it is, what you can do to really save some power. And you know, without joking, there are real things that you can do, like changing out your light bulbs, changing out your water fixtures, and we have a lot of those things available for free at BWP. If you go over to the customer service desk, they will help you with all of these things to help you make your house more, more reliable in that sense.
Speaker 1:And making it more efficient. You think about somebody that owns tons of apartments in the city, owns tons of apartments in the city Burkow management. They've gone in and changed their shower heads, their light bulbs in their places, their water faucets, and you know, in the long run when you have that many renters and you can save that much. They've also done that at the mall with sufficiency, so it's not taking as much. People don't understand. You could call the Department of Water and Power. They will send somebody out for you scheduled it's an outside contractor, I believe and tell you in your own house how you can save from weather stripping around windows so your air conditioner is more effective, If you're flushing your toilet and it's taking too much water, which you can do. All those things and it's free, it's all free, it's unbelievable.
Speaker 3:I mean, most recently I'm a renter, like folks know. My landlord and I were good friends. We talk about all of this stuff and he knows the hikes are coming and we actually had the conversation. I was like you know, listen, I, I can call burbank water and power, I can connect you and for all the renters out there, um, burbank water and power has a great template letter that you can send to your landlord where you can explain hey, these are some of the rebates here, these are some of the programs, if you're interested. I've heard some good things come from the letter and from those conversations because they want to save money too.
Speaker 3:And there are things that you can do as a tenant. I mean, look, I changed my own shower head, I changed a few of the faucet rings to add the, like you know, water efficient saving ones, and it was very much appreciated by our landlord. And then there are things that I can't do right, like some of the metering things and some of the outside sprinklers. But I did share with him. This is where you can go, this is who can help you, and he was incredibly grateful.
Speaker 3:And on the commercial side, I will say that program is on pause right now, but it's coming back. We do all of this through SCAPA, which is another it's a Southern California powers association that we're also a member of and they have a program where they'll send out somebody to commercial establishment. So if you're a coffee shop, if you're a business owner here in the city, you can also have this done. They'll check your light fixtures, they'll check all these kind of things. It's on a wait list right now. It it's coming back for sure. We're just renegotiating the price um for for the state.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, before we get off of uh, water and power. Totally, I know you made it a very important point and, um, it was said many times. If people are worried with the studios being slow right now, if you're work at a store and they cut your hours but these rates are going up, if you cannot pay your bill, if you need help, the Water and Power has several programs that they have available that they're not coming out to knock on your door and turning your power off. Tomorrow they will work with you and I've been. I've used a couple of their programs. If you're a senior citizen, there's programs that they offer that you don't need to worry about your power being cut off and so forth. They really want to take care of you.
Speaker 3:And I just have the number right here. You can give folks a call at 818-238-3572. And we will work for you. We do have several low income programs under the bus program. We have grants. We know we have ways to help folks say, because the last thing we want to do is turn off people's power, we just want people to be able to pay their bill. And many times it's enrolling in the program, many times it's changing your appliances, you know. And the last two things I will say is also, mandeep is incredibly open to talking to folks. Mandeep Samra is our general manager for Burbank Water and Power, who explains these issues like no other. I think at the end of all the coffee chats people left, if not happy about it, at least understanding why these rate increases were coming. And she's available at 818-967-1997.
Speaker 1:That is her cell phone. I can tell you, you know, and think about it, their team, three Sisters, sisters, coffee, she had a coffee there. Um, romance in the bean, she had coffee there. She'll go out wherever you want to meet to figure this out, her team will be out there. And that was very, very helpful. I don't ever recall, in all my years of living in burbank, any other general manager leaving their office to go out and go face to face.
Speaker 3:And they've been really helpful. Those chats have been really helpful because, you know, to our credit again, burbank, I always think, is a high information community. We're not asking why is my rate going up, we're asking why. Well, there was a woman who came to city council the other day and loved her questions. She actually asked specifically about why Burbank is in a 50-year contract with one of our larger utilities and why, specifically, we're not looking at the second part of a question. She asked very specific pieces about why we're not going with a different provider and Mandeep answered most of her question on the spot. But she also said call me. And I think those are the folks who really, if you're looking at these rate increases and you're like I just don't understand why this percentage or what portion of this is going to capital improvements versus this, she will tell you and it'll be in a very understandable way because, believe me, I have had the questions.
Speaker 3:Very last thing I will say on this is because I want folks to understand that, look, I get the financial strain, unlike some of the folks in Washington or Sacramento. Your city council lives and breathes in the community and will be directly impacted by the decisions we make. You know, I think if we look at taxes, it's very easy for legislators to talk about that on a broad sense. Or Medicaid Very easy for some of those folks to talk about them because they have lovely government health care. When it comes to the decisions we're making here, I also get the rate increase and some of us on council, like I can tell you, I make right above minimum wage right now.
Speaker 3:It's going to impact my family a lot, especially with a little one on the way, and so it's not a decision I'm making lightly.
Speaker 3:My family, my parents, work in the entertainment industry, not doing so hot. It's not a decision we make lightly and I know it's going to hit all of our wallets. There are ways to help you if it's really hitting your wallet to a degree you can't handle. But but please know that it's not something that we wouldn't decide to do unless it was absolutely necessary and unless, looking at the budget, I thought there was no way to avoid. Because right now, where I look at it, I think I have, you know, a hard decision, a much harder decision, and the hard vote is to say we're going to vote to raise rates. People are going to be upset and it's going to hurt our wallets this much. The harder decision and the worst choice would have been to say oh, I don't want to raise rates because it make me look bad. Let the next council person handle that in two years down the road and let's let our rate payers pay 40.
Speaker 1:Let's, let's bankrupt people, and I don't want to do that right I think that's one of the great things of having you as our mayor, a lifelong Burbank resident. Everybody you know it is a requirement. You live in Burbank to serve as a city council member, but you grew up literally in this city, not the same as every one of your fellow council members, but you know. You know literally everything where the dollar goes and so forth and so forth, and how the budget works.
Speaker 2:So well, I'm going to come up with our next subject. Sorry, craig One last humble brag.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Go ahead. One last humble brag, please, please, look at the reports. Please look at the reports from our last council meeting. I have it here. I don't know if you can see this clearly. These are the electrical bill comparisons. I just want to remind folks that burbank is right here. We are the second cheapest electrical bill, riverside is the lowest and I promise you that riverside glendale. All these utilities have rate hikes of their own coming soon. And let's look at uh, at water. That was electrical, okay. Looking at water, we are the lowest, the lowest of all of the cities here in the county. So I just want to remind folks that that tidbit, because we really are trying to keep it that way too and this.
Speaker 1:If, if people want to dig down deep and you can go into, uh, last week's city council meeting and you can look at the video, and Joe, the chief financial officer of Water and Power, broke all this down you could see for yourself exactly this chart. She didn't have this printed up by some PIO in City Hall.
Speaker 3:For us it's available up by some PIO, you know, in city hall. For us it's available. If you go to uh Burbank city's website and look under council meetings and agenda notes and look at uh May 20th, you can scroll down, find this. What I say was agenda item nine, eight or nine. You can look for it. It's on there. I would watch the YouTube video, quite frankly, because joe and mandy do an excellent uh job of explaining things and if you have questions after, give me a call, give me a call all right.
Speaker 2:Well, we're gonna move on now. And something happened to me I should say my burbank, which I've heard for a long time now. There's a lot of people very upset with how events in Burbank just don't happen. And we have the Road Kings car show coming up and my Burbank has a booth there. And I was talking with the Road King people and I said I'd like to bring some shirts and hats and stuff to sell there also. He goes yeah, you can do that, but I need a copy of your insurance policy. I go, a copy of my insurance policy. What do you mean? I've never had to bring one anywhere before. And he goes. Well, the city of Burbank is requiring that you have a million dollars of insurance to sell a hat or a shirt. And so I went out and got it. It cost me over $300, which I won't make that day, so I'm going to lose money. And then I've got my Burbank vendor's fee also for the day, so you're looking at close to $400.
Speaker 2:And so I'm talking with the guy who was in Road Kings. I was saying, wow, I go. Why would you? Because the decision query that came out last year some people didn't have the right insurance. They fined us. They fined us a big amount. And the Road Kings is 100% non-profit. All the money they make that's their big thing every year and all the money they make they use Boys and Girls Club Home. Again, it goes to all the Burbank non-profits. And they said well, we just had to give them less money than non-profits because the city of Burbank took a big fine from us. And I go wow, he goes.
Speaker 2:The future of our event is really in jeopardy right now because the city's making it hard for us to put this on. So my thing was you know, yeah, I'm going to lose some money on this, okay, and can I afford to do the future? Probably not. So I probably won't be involved. But if you lose the event, we've lost so many events.
Speaker 2:Now we said earlier the Barranca Parade might be coming back, but I know Holiday in the Park, which has been going on for a few years. I know there's a lot of it. We used to have the Fourth of July at Cambridge every year by the Brink's JCs A great event. There used to be a lot of great events in the city and more and more they're all disappearing. Other cities can be able to do it still, but Burbank seems to be having less and less experiences for the citizens as a whole.
Speaker 2:You know our people, so I'm not putting you on the line on this, because it's not your decision or anything else, but I just think that the thing you start thinking about is how do we help these nonprofits, how do we just help all these events to keep things happening in Burbank? I'm going to find we have the Visit Burbank Street Festival this coming weekend. I'm going to find out if everyone of those booths had to pay a million dollar insurance policy to be out there, because if not, why are we picking and choosing which events and who gets it and who doesn't get it? And so that kind of stuff bothers me. Is it the consistency also?
Speaker 3:And I can tell you now, craig, they did, because that is a blanket policy across the city. And again it comes to some of these new mandates, new safety mandates for a lot of these events that we have. We have new insurance policies that we need to require vendors to get. And that's really hard. And I hear you, especially with our nonprofits, because the goal of what they're doing is community, which has been one of my biggest concerns, and I can tell you that again we sit in our Burbank bubble and we look at Burbank and say it's costing us so much to do. I promise you that folks who are vendors at Ventura County Street Fair, folks who are vendors at a City of LA event, are paying these exorbitant fees too. It's getting harder for everybody.
Speaker 3:So one of the things that I wanted to look at is how do we help out the right people to host these events right?
Speaker 3:And so one I will tell you, I'm happy to continue talking with our parks department and I did talk a little bit with them when it came to the Road Kings show Continue talking with our community development department on ways we can start to sift out and support folks that are the non-profits, or how we can take on as a city and sponsor some of these events.
Speaker 3:I think our rank on parade, I think holiday in the park should be and that's one council member's opinion but I think they should be city sponsored events. We should be really, really supporting these things and happening. I remember back in the day the movies they called the movies in the park, but they're at the old Ikea lot, right. A lot of those events were so amazing for me as a kid and I want kids to have that experience now. So one of the things I've been doing is really talking to our departments about how we can make these community events that the city is putting our own money forward and I know that's a long-term discussion and even though you're asking budget and all that, you asked me what I wish we could have included as a vendor.
Speaker 2:I don't. I don't mind paying a day vendor fee. I get that, but when you're you're looking at paying more money than you could possibly make, then at what point you're saying?
Speaker 3:forget it. Exactly, exactly, and we're seeing a lot of that. You know that was a big issue. I know last year for Pride, like Burbank Pride, they had that issue with many of their vendors who said it's really hard for me to do it. And in talking to some of those vendors, you know I kind of followed the money a little bit and watched Okay, well, did they go to do another Pride event in another city? Well, did they go to do another Pride of another city? They didn't. It's just getting hard across the board, but one of the things I put together in hopes of helping and I know it's not a solution, but I hope it's one step to help, like you mentioned, some of these nonprofit folks who are really doing it for community with zero personal financial incentive. Nothing is. We did have our first iteration this year of my proposed community grant for community events.
Speaker 2:Something that needs to be done for a long time now, and so you championed.
Speaker 3:Thank you. I felt very strongly about that one and actually one of my reasons for doing that and I know we're not there yet and I'm getting ahead of myself in a few years, but well, in a year but one of the reasons I even put that grant forward was talking about Burbank on parade Ross and I have been talking about that for years how do we bring it back? And I wanted a community grant out there that helped events like that to come back and helped our current events that are struggling to stay, and we had over 30 something applications for for our first iteration. It's a pilot program program, it's two years and you know I had a great time explaining.
Speaker 3:I got a question from one of my colleagues about why we were doing this and whether or not the government should be funding these non-profit events. And the way I see it again is this is not the government just funding non-profit events. This is the government saying, hey, part of our job, because it's part of our goals, not just housing, it's not just water and power, it's also quality of life. Absolutely Part of our job is funding the community events.
Speaker 1:Exactly. People I don't think realize turn on the TV. Where was it? Yesterday A car drove through a festival when Liverpool, liverpool. Last week a car drove through a parade you know, a marathon somewhere. It's happening more and more and it's a sad state of how we have to look at things.
Speaker 1:But as a city, I know for Holiday in the Park, burbank On Parade, safety is the number one thing. Being the chairman of large events like that, I think about it all the time. You know we need to now use some cities use sawhorses. Some cities use sawhorses. Burbank, the traffic engineer and the traffic lieutenant has come up with these barricades that will prevent a car from going through. We have to use those. They cost a lot to be made but they also are safe. You can drive a car at 70 miles an hour and not get through them. But the nice thing is your community grant will go toward paying for part of that. Burbank on parade uh, we have found some money put away that will help pay for that. Um, holiday in the park again, the city co-sponsors and helps pay for that. So that's how we can still do these events, but it's tough. Uh, you know, the city does make us.
Speaker 1:The city fees are one thing, the county fees, if you want to serve a cookie, and I will take for an example Porto's. You know Betty Porto, last year she had to package everything that she gave away as a requirement of the la county health department. You know which cost her. On top of making the product and giving it away, she had to put what the contents was. You can't make, you can't sell now homemade brownies. You can't. There's so many restrictions brownies. But I get you know, you think about it. You have 40,000 people and people are eating things. You don't want everybody to get sick.
Speaker 2:Great. No, I mean, that's our society today. Our society is who's the next crazy guy going to be? We all get that. I don't think everyone wants a free ride either, right, but I think all we want is help and assistance and knowing we're not fighting the system working with the system.
Speaker 3:The hardest part of those insurance costs. You mentioned, though and I think that's across the board, I think one of the themes I've seen if you ask me right now what's the worst thing you've seen working government Insurance. It's awful right now, be it home insurance, be it apartment insurance, be it car insurance, medical insurance $300 for a one-day policy think about that. That's insane, and and that's the part where it gets really hard, and and we've sent letters for our insurance commissioner saying like this is out of hand I do think it's incredible price gouging when it comes to insurance and, honestly, I, it would be something that I know I can't do anything about at the local level, but, man, I, if I ever got up higher, that's something I would want to tackle, because it's just predatory in every vein well, it's funny.
Speaker 1:Um, I look back again, uh, from the former burbank on parade, when they did it down all of many years ago. The state makes mandates. You can't use a fails at a yeah, because it'll go down the sewer and it'll fog up the sewer. You can't run water down the sewer over so many gallons and it's a state requirement. So the city has to, you know, abide by those things, all these little tiny things that people have no clue on. How you know that, to put on the event of all these things that you have to take into consideration, it all costs money, yep yep, I like I said.
Speaker 3:I know it's not the solution, but for folks who are wondering about the community grant, we did put 50K aside for this pilot for the first year and we're going to do it again next year.
Speaker 2:Let's get the community grant. So you know, I mean I might as well box it. I'm off it now I'm back down to regular size here. Let's talk about the community grants, let's talk about you know who's getting what and what the whole is going.
Speaker 3:So it was really tough for our city because, of course, we got the applications which I thought we would. You know, I know there are some folks who are skeptical, saying I don't know, we'll see. And I was like I promise you, people are out there who want to do good in the community and we had applications from a lot of different groups, like Zonta put in their application, btac, all our normal nonprofits and some new folks, which was really exciting to see Some folks who have ideas and want to do good in Burbank. We couldn't pick everybody, and the way we did it which I think was the best way, and if you watch last week's council meeting you'll also get to see a little bit of our discussion on this was we had a committee made up of staff from a few of the different departments that would Iraq, so CDD, parks and Rec, the city manager's office, and these are just staff members. These are not council members. They don't have a vested interest. They're not, you know, members of an organization.
Speaker 3:I'm very openly a member of Zonta myself. It would have been really unfair to have me on there right, and so it was great to have that group really sit there and look at each application and then graded each of them on feasibility, on their budget, on their actual plan, on benefit to the community and also on how open it was to the public. For example, if you asked for money for a gala, that was denied because you're asking for a more private function, it's not necessarily a benefit to the community. If you're asking for something political or religious again community event that's open for everybody, you know you didn't get the funding. So one of the things I really appreciated is in this May 20th meeting from was that last week, my gosh, last week, my goodness, I feel like the time is. I feel like it was last year.
Speaker 2:How busy you are, though.
Speaker 3:But from that meeting, our staff Catherine Labrado really breaks it down for everybody on the criteria, on each thing that was judged for the applicants, and I think we learned lessons too, right, and in how we want to market this and how we want to make sure folks know what we mean by a community event, an open public event, right. And so we set our criteria and what I really appreciated was, you know, one of our council owners brought up an organization that didn't get funded and he said I'd love to see this funded. And we did have a talk as a council and saying we're not going to make any changes because that would be unfair and bringing our own bias into this, which is fair, and we but we also agreed that our staff would be available to have at least a 20 minute discussion with any applicant that didn't get a grant about why they didn't get funded, so that next year they can apply with a project that will get funded, and I think that's an invaluable resource. When do you apply for a grant as a non-profit?
Speaker 3:As somebody who's worked at a 501c3, I have never had a grant application. Where I apply, I don't get it and I don't just get a letter that says see ya, thanks, you know, nowhere have I gotten. We'll sit down with you for a few minutes and explain to you how you can make the application better for next year. So if you're listening out there and if you applied and you didn't get in, you're a little disappointed, or if you didn't apply and you're thinking of applying, do call our city staff or city manager's office and talk with our staff about what the criteria is and what you can do to strengthen your application and make it better for next year. We have an extra $5,000 that we didn't use this year for next year because we hope we can fund even more projects.
Speaker 1:Well, it was quite interesting because I watched this one very closely because of Magnolia Park, burbank, on Parade, several things, and I'm glad you stood up for a couple. When you are giving money out, if it's CBDG funds, if it's a grant, community grants, I will tell you people come out of the woodwork. Don't take that personal folks, but people I find come up to that dais and I know most organizations in the city quite well. One of the things on your community grants were you need to be a 501c3, not a 501c6, c3, not a 501 C6, 501 C, whatever there are requirements and that's why I know for a fact Magnolia Park we didn't apply because I did the homework. We did the homework and asked and it says right on there you got to be a 501 C. I didn't want to take your time and I would think a city staffer would have caught that real quick.
Speaker 1:Anyway, come August we will be, but it's funny, there are some requirements but people come out of the woodwork and it's nice to see that the city is trying to work with these organizations. It's not that we don't want to do events. Burbank is one city that you know we want to. It's real important having community but that you set the goals. And here's a perfect proof that I think you gave away $45,000. Now, folks, that doesn't come out and that's not because they're raising your power bill. That's money that Burbank has had put away in different funds, that things have changed and that's what they're based on.
Speaker 2:But aren't those very separate funds? I think tax money not tax money per se, but city funds should be used for the well-being of the community and I really believe that's part of the whole process is yeah, we got to have the cops, the firemen, all those things. We also have to have the community. We have to still be who we are and talk to your neighbor all those things too.
Speaker 3:One of the things I tell people and that's why my priorities when I ran for office were in that order. My first one was public safety, because if you don't have fire, pd and let's say you own a utility those three things are not good and well-funded. You're not running the city, end of story. My second thing was housing and homelessness, because that's our job as a city to make sure that we're housing folks, that we have a sustainable place to live. And then quality of life was on there, because I do also think I know it's not the priority. I know I'm like sorry Ross and sorry me, but Burbank on parade is maybe not as important as keeping the lights on, but it's still important. People live in a community because they care about the businesses that are next to them, they care about the events that are happening and they care that they're safe, and all three of those things are really important, and I don't think sometimes it's always about giving money.
Speaker 2:It's just about making it easier for them to have their events. Exactly, it's like streamlining things, it's making sure that, you know, maybe the fees aren't required and things like that. So there's a lot of things they can do besides just giving away money. That makes the event, more you know, go on easier.
Speaker 3:And, like I said, it's one of our solutions no-transcript.
Speaker 1:Burbank police department yeah, we can hire event security, event staff, security, um. But then again you have to weigh the difference of armed, non-armed um you know what burbank pd gets paid versus a private. All those things. You need to waive again liability and that's a great example of.
Speaker 3:Also, our staff wants to work with you, our city staff. I've seen them really finagle things and try to make it as affordable as possible for events. There are sometimes when folks come to us with very grand ideas, like I'm gonna shut down all of mccambridge park, and we're like this is what it would cost you and us and the folks around in that area. You know why don't we do it here instead? And and really that's a conversation between the fire chief, pd chief, parks and rec, community development and all these folks are eager to really work with folks to make it easier, because we know it can be costly well, here's I'll throw some numbers out because I know quite well.
Speaker 1:The closed magnolia boulevard is 40 some odd thousand dollars, I mean, to make it safe. That doesn't count the police officers out there to work and for burt holiday in the Park last year for law enforcement, protection and everything they did $22,000. Now there you go $60,000. The event cost us $112,000 to put on. Think about it. That money just doesn't grow on a tree in Magnolia Park because I keep looking for that tree. Let me know when you find it. But you got to make stuff safe. And then when you bring that many, that many people together, do you have enough law enforcement and fire? God forbid, something happened that we can handle the situation. Those are all things you have to take into consideration. So that brings up the next thing on our list is July 4th. Now a lot of people don't understand that the storms that we had, first the windstorm that destroyed not only, I think, 19 trees I heard up at Starlight Bowl but also took off the roof. Literally the highest building in the city literally blew off the roof. And then a week later you have torrential rainstorm that the rain had no roof stopping it, so the water got into the dressing rooms. That building is very old.
Speaker 1:People go to the summer concert series every year. Well, that's why they're not having it. So they've gone to plan B. Burbank didn't say we're not doing anything, go pound sand. Our parks department came up with let's do something different. And I believe that's what they're planning is some community events in the different parks. You know people don't understand 5,000 people up at the bowl. You can't just put that into a neighborhood park and say people go, have fun. So I know they've taken that into consideration. I hear there's going to be a drone show that will be available to be seen from the Cambridge Park, the Burbank High Football and Baseball Fields, the parking structures at the mall. That's just one event. In the evening there's going to be other things at our Parks Department. Who is celebrating A hundred years? A hundred years of playing around?
Speaker 3:You know they're very excited and they have, if you're interested, they have a lot of merch celebrating 100 years of insurance policies, parks and rent um, but yeah, the fourth of july.
Speaker 3:listen, I, I get it. I've seen the comments on facebook. Folks are very sad that we're not having our firework show. If you ask me, thinking from a government and and you know, community standpoint, on the one hand there's nowhere to do it. We can give them the starlight bowl and really we rarely say in government there was substantial damage. This was substantial damage. Like it is, it is unusable and I'm glad our city manager and the council is very proactive in thinking listen, we already have a restoration plan down the road, let's just speed it up Instead of saying we're going to do some quick repairs, let's just make this really, really a state of the art.
Speaker 2:That's another thing that was kicked down the road for 30 years because the Starry Pool was antiquated and just absolutely. What do you think?
Speaker 1:of handy capable. How would you get up there?
Speaker 2:You'd carry me. Yeah, how would you get up there? You'd carry me, um, and you know, once again, though, we didn't do anything, get it up to standards, and then this happens. And now, oh, there we go. That thing that happened to all of all of park when they lost the grandstands right, never kept up. The earthquake happened. We didn't fix it and just tore it down.
Speaker 3:There was a piece of history again and and I'm glad we've decided like okay, instead of like oh, we're going to do some minor repairs here and there and see if we can have the shows in this like we're doing the whole thing. We're speeding it up, so we're doing it now.
Speaker 2:You know how I feel about it. I think it's a huge gem for our city. I think it's a great thing to have. And look at what the Greek Theater, all these theaters, have and we don't have it here because they're garage bands. It could be so much more here, and that's the goal.
Speaker 3:That's the goal, like, if we're going to renovate it, if we're going to bring it back to speed, let's really do a mass scale renovation here, I agree. And so that's one half of it. The other half is look, it's not lost on me, look at what we just had with these fires. Fireworks are really dangerous and I know Ross loves to remind people of this and I appreciate you for it, ross. Fireworks are illegal in the city of Burbank, folks.
Speaker 1:My next, item on my list here is going to take. I don't care if it says safe and sane. Being a photographer in this community for the last 50 years, I have people, pictures of people with fingers blown off, kids that have taken a sparkler and twirled it and got sparks in their eye. I have seen it personally. Safe and sane no, they're illegal in the city of Burbank and that means all fireworks. Even if they say safe and sane and you can buy them in Pacoima, don't bring them in the city because you can be cited. They're unsafe, they're insane.
Speaker 3:And let me tell you, like I can tell you, there are a few times when fire the fire chief's heart rate is through the roof. The 4th of July is one of those days and it is the most emergency room calls, it is the most fire calls and it's just detrimental to our health and safety, along with all the smoke that's left over. So it is something we have to really rethink.
Speaker 1:I know folks love I don't think people remember this might be before you were born, madam Mayor. That back I can't tell you the exact year. I was on the July 4th committee and because the humidity rate was so low they canceled having a fireworks show up at starlight bowl and they moved it to john burroughs high school. I'll say 20 years ago I was that low no no, I was around.
Speaker 1:I was a kid, but I was around I remember this, but I remember being on the committee and the problem was I remember they hired Pyro Spectacular, who does a show every year, and they shot him off from the baseball field. But still, you can't tell an Ember personally where to go and where not to go. And the neighbors, the dogs, the complaints. Yes, it was a great July 4 4th activity, but you know what fireworks is not meant to be put at a stadium like bernice, you know, not in a residential zone and so forth. So that's why, if people are thinking, well, why don't you just move it here or move it there? Nowadays, with the fires that we experienced, there's no show in pasadena this year. Folks, you want to know why?
Speaker 3:because they santa monica last year had their first drone show and I gotta tell you santa monica was one of the last like safe, quote-unquote places to do this, because they literally did it at the edge of the beach, like where are you gonna, where those numbers gonna fall? And even then for them it was an air quality issue. Folks were really breathing in the hazardous air. So I will say I don't have all the details for the event and the drone show, but our next show. Stay tuned because I will have more details then.
Speaker 2:Okay well, um, I will say this, but my neighbors here will kill me. I say this we want to watch a good fireworks show. I just go to my backyard and watch lakeside golf Course. They launch a huge show every year and so streets around here get crowded with people coming to watch the show here. But you can see it right here from the old Kluk Lake area at Lakeside. So sorry about that, neighbors.
Speaker 1:But if you want to see a July 4th parade, there is probably the top parade all over and it is gone down the media district area. Where's the parade that goes down this street every year, your July 4th parade?
Speaker 2:I'm not sure what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:The parade that you guys do down your street.
Speaker 2:Oh, our parade. Every year we do the. How many years 15 now we do a parade down our street from the corner to the end. They turn around, they go back to the corner. That's a parade every year. We've had. We've had the Howard Ron and Clint Howard, we've had the Howard Ron and Clint Howard Master Ceremonies or whatever you know. We've had all sorts of people on our one block parade. So you are more than welcome to come and participate if you'd like to, but you're going to be tied up this July 4th. I'll get you next year.
Speaker 3:Hopefully we're still running around on July 4th. She is, I'll get you next year, hopefully. Hopefully we're still running around on july 4th. I'm not ready yet, but, um, we can get your golf cart to come up and down back back. I would love that. I'd love to come down for the parade.
Speaker 2:My doctor says I should keep walking oh, there you go, it will be waddling.
Speaker 3:It's a full two blocks, one up, one down you know, if I can't make it two blocks by then, things are not looking good. So I'm hoping I'll be fully available to do that. It'll be fun.
Speaker 2:I didn't know I'll do it every year and put it on the saying.
Speaker 3:You give me a hot dog and I'm good to go. I am good to go and I got to tell you, Ross, when people talk about July 4th, I don't know. That's what I'm looking forward to. I want a good hamburger and a good hot dog. That's my July 4th.
Speaker 2:We used to have the JCs. Years ago we did that thing in McCambridge. Yes, I remember Cambridge Park Rides, everything Carnival. It was a great event every year.
Speaker 1:That's where the original people don't know. Many years after the war the World Bank Compere started out with Glen Oaks. The war, yeah, burbank comp parade started on glen oak. Then, uh, they moved it to third street and that's. They did it at the same time that, um, the circus was in town, circus vargas, as long as we got llamas and elephants and all sorts of animals and we went from um about cyprus to the park yep, and then the park was closed. Andover and Amherst we had city trucks set up. There was a big festival in McCambridge Park. We had a Burbank neighborhood radio watch. We were set up out there and giving crime prevention tips for many years.
Speaker 3:I got to tell you, ross, as a marching band kid, it was no easy feat. Marching behind the llamas and what they leave behind, it's worse than horses.
Speaker 1:I will keep that in mind when we're talking about Burbank on Parade People you've heard it from my mouth and I've seen the paperwork going through the city we are going to have a parade in 2026. We will, we will. You have the mayor and my commitment. Um, it's going to be a lot of planning. It might be a bit different. It won't be on all of. We're looking at different situations, but you know what we're going to bring burbank on parade back to burbank we are bringing him back, okay?
Speaker 2:well, you know there's been a long show, and so at the end of every show we have one thing and one thing only. We always say what is on the mayor's mind besides diapers. So we will give you the the floor and you anyone. Any subject you have want to talk about.
Speaker 3:The floor is yours let's see what is on my mind. They do have some announcements from things that are Don't. We have that announcement.
Speaker 1:There we go.
Speaker 2:Oh right.
Speaker 3:So I do have two fun resource things that are happening. So our downtown burbank summer arts festival, which we alluded to a little bit, is happening may 31st and june 1st from 11 am to 6 pm in downtown burbank. It'll be fun, a relaxing event for families goes down the street and talking about community. I think that those are the things right. And then the other thing we have is more of a resource fair. On Saturday, may 31st, from 9 am to 12 pm at Georgia's A Park, home Again, la is hosting the community resource fair. We'll have organizations from across the region that are going to provide essential resources about housing, financial literacy, employment and more. If you want more info you can go to homeagainlaorg or you can call them at 818-562-7778. And those are my two event things that are coming up. Let's see what else.
Speaker 1:I Well you know, know, while you're looking through your notes, or, mayor, I'll uh, do a little ad lib. Last week you and I attended a home la's gala and it was at ratford studios. They raised, uh, two hundred thousand dollars, I believe, for our homeless programs and so forth and it was a very, very great atmosphere. Little weather was. We weren't sure if it was going to rain or mist, but we were lucky. It was a great night. They had a great band, the food was plenty of food. They had ice cream, they had raffles you can do and they raised $200,000. This community fair that Albert Hernandez and Home LA is doing,000. This community fair that Albert Hernandez and Home LA is doing. Again, folks take advantage of Home LA. They are a great resource center. If you know somebody that's having problems, don't be embarrassed. They deal with this every single day. We're in a situation now with the studios and people not working. Hopefully that'll change real soon. But if you are having problems, stop by the park Olive Wreck, very convenient.
Speaker 3:And they have a lot of countywide resources too. So if you, even if you're not unhoused or you're not at risk of becoming unhoused, if money's tight, there's economic resources out there, financial literacy resources. A lot of times it's just learning how to how to save some money and, as somebody who used to work as a homeless services provider, that's one of the main main uh issues we see with homelessness. Sometimes you fall into debt and and one thing snowballs into another and it's really helpful to talk to some of these organizations and and resources and I do have to say home again, la is wonderful. I had the pleasure of working with them both in my capacity in the government side and also as as a provider, and they were great to work with. Fantastic.
Speaker 3:My last thing that's on my mind. Last thing, last thing, no problem is this room's more of a fun fact. We do have a couple of fun projects going on right now, I think there's. We always talk about capital improvements and our sidewalks and the reservoir and all these things. If you're driving around burbank, pardon our dust. We are working on a restoration of our city hall fountain so you will see that up and running soon with recycled water by the end of the summer. By the time I have a new addition to my family, that fountain should be ready to go.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what I'll buy the soap.
Speaker 2:No, I'm kidding. I was going to be careful because they went to fix the elevator on the Alleywater Pass. It was supposed to be done by April and now we're in June.
Speaker 3:I've been guaranteed and you know what I will say. I never say never until I see the fence come up and people out there. I've driven by city hall many, many times this last week and our staff is on it.
Speaker 1:I will say this is the first time I was driving up all of which I do 10 times a day. This is the first time I've seen a project like that, the fence around it, Andy Gump out there for the employees. The people don't understand. Thank you for watching our my Burbank video.
Speaker 2:Please consider a channel membership to support us, or head over to our merch store where you can pick up some great items. Also, make sure you subscribe to the channel so you don't miss the latest videos.
Speaker 3:It's a tricky one because you know it's a historical site, so we can't tamper too much, but also we can't use like it would be. Again, for all the reasons we talked about today, it would be irresponsible of us to use regular water. We have to use recycled water at this point. And then the other project we have going on is the plane F-106.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's right. That's for a guy in that plane. He sure needs a bathroom break. He's been in that plane for 30 years, hasn't?
Speaker 1:he, and again they've sanded it down. They have it masked off again. They put the fence around it to protect so they can work out there. We remember when that was put in, wasn't that a Dan Remy thing? Yeah, that was while lockheed and so forth, and people thought lockheed left, take your airplane with you, but people live still live here that worked on that plane and then let me tell you to craig's point man, that poor guy needs a break, and he's a break up there.
Speaker 3:Ross, if you think you didn't get time and makeup today, he certainly didn't get time and makeup. He needs his eyes restored to everything, so stay tuned to see this didn't look sharp, I think.
Speaker 1:Yes, I like I say I drive by there every day. You know these are things. Yes, it did cost 250 000 to restore it, but you're not going up there with, you know, putting just any type of coat of paint on it. It's got to last for years and it's out there in the sun, the light, everything. They're doing it right and, again, these are major projects which I will. I guess I saw your last council meeting.
Speaker 3:You were proud to have Ken Berkman get up and people can go online and look at all these major projects that the city's doing to keep the status of it and we will have a lot of part in our dust in the future, because and it's good right, it's good things that we see we see a restoration to the park itself, we see a restoration for our civic center. Those are all things for the community, for the benefit of our community, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, I think we've come to the end. So for Mayor Nikki Perez and, of course, for Ross Benson, there we go.
Speaker 1:When I said tally-ho we did go.
Speaker 2:There we go, craig Schroeder, once again saying thank you for watching. We'll catch you again next month and hopefully the mayor will be able to do one more show before the big day comes. So thank you everybody, thank you, thank you for watching.