Photo: FLLewis / Media City G — Burbank Mayor Bob Frutos at city council meeting November 16, 2015
Mayor Bob Frutos returned last Saturday from a trip to Burbank sister city Incheon, South Korea, and immediately jumped on the city manager issue. Frutos began laying the ground work for a special closed-door city council meeting. In a phone interview today, Frutos said the search is on for “a date as soon as possible to discuss the issue at hand without the city manager. ” He added, “you need all five members in the city council to get together .”
The only city staffer at the planned meeting will be City Attorney, Amy Albano, to make sure the council stays within legal bounds on all decisions. Frutos says the city manager’s contract”… clearly states Mark Scott and the council majority (jointly must) come up with date for his last day of work.” Since Scott has already indicated in emails and been quoted in the media as expressing a desire to leave sometime next February, it could be a matter of simply agreeing on a specific date.
Frutos is eager to get the matter resolved and to “move forward” with setting a course for the selection of a new city manager and interim city manager. Frutos would not comment on speculation about a City Hall candidate saying “all five (council members) intimately involved,” therefore, he wants to wait until the full council meets and discusses the options.
On the subject of Scott’s attempt to apparently blackmail the council into approving a job reclassification/promotion for a public works employee, Frutos insists “the council has the authority to support the city manager in the creation of that position or disapprove it.” Frutos says his scrutiny and questions were based on “fairness and transparency. ” He believes everyone in the same classification as that employee needed the opportunity “to compete for the newly reclassified job.”
