Politics & Issues

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

City Buzz: Burbank city manager threatens to resign

Last night’s city council meeting produced a bombshell and it had nothing to do with the council’s approval or so-called endorsement of the controversial Bob Hope Airport Replacement Terminal Conceptual Term Sheet. The Burbank Airport Authority overwhelmingly gave this framework for an airport replacement terminal agreement a thumbs up two weeks ago. At the council meeting Monday night, Mayor Bob […]
Sunday, November 1, 2015

City Buzz: Burbank Mayor Bob Frutos on the mend

A lot of chatter around B-town about the sudden illness and disappearance from public view of Burbank Mayor Bob Frutos. It was because of Frutos’ absence at last Tuesday’s city council meeting that the controversial discussion, and approval, ah, endorsement of the Bob Hope Airport Replacement Terminal Conceptual Term Sheet by council members had to be delayed. (that item was rescheduled […]
Tuesday, October 13, 2015

City Buzz: Burbank Police, oversight, and poopgate

Recently, the Burbank City Council renewed the three-year contract of consultant, Michael Gennaco, of the Office of Independent Review, as an independent monitor of the Burbank Police Department. The cost of Gennaco’s contract, $80,000.  In light of the growing tab for the notorious police cases and the BPD’s handling of that nasty incident involving Magnolia Park merchants last August, monitoring […]
Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Governor Brown signs into law the California Fair Pay Act

Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the California Fair Pay Act yesterday, one of the toughest equal pay laws in the country. Brown was surrounded by females, young and old, at the Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park in Richmond, for the signing ceremony. In a news release, the governor said the law is long overdue: “Sixty-six years after passage of […]
Sunday, September 27, 2015

Letter: Councilman Rogers speaks out on “Reporting Out”

When I took my seat on the Burbank City Council in May I said I wouldn’t engage in the council’s recent practice of using the “Reporting Out” period to announce events attended since the previous council session. Among other reasons, I said – and still believe – the often lengthy readings offer more benefit to the council members than to citizens waiting for the […]
Thursday, September 24, 2015

Talk of the Town: Sue Georgino’s consulting job

For months now, there has been chatter around B-town about former Burbank Airport Commissioner, Sue Georgino, and where her true loyalties lie. On the city council agenda tonight, a discussion regarding Georgino’s decision to take a consulting job with the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority less than a year, after resigning her position as a commissioner on that authority representing the interests […]
Friday, September 11, 2015

City Buzz:Burbank merchants’ feud escalates in Mag Park

That bitter merchants’ feud in the 3400 block of West Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank, once thought to be dying down,  has escalated with more nasty allegations, a police report, and a mystery videotape. I began covering the dispute back in August of 2014, when it centered on the fight for one-hour parking on the north side of the block. Most […]
Monday, September 7, 2015

Call-out : A Burbank school waters on Monday in the heat

Outdoor watering restrictions are in effect in Burbank, but apparently at David Starr Jordan Middle School on South Mariposa Street they’re not following city rules. As I walked by the school campus at around 11 a.m. today, I noticed some sprinklers spraying steady streams of water on a lawn section dotted with some young trees.The temperature at the time was […]