Burbank City Council - Financial

The campaign finance statements are due today, but it's unclear whether the Burbank City Clerk will post them online today. If so, you'll get the running tab here... Unless I'm required to do some work for my actual day job, of course.

In the meantime, here's a tidbit: most the candidates for City Council have spent far more to get the job than they would receive in annual pay. According to the municipal code, council members are paid $1,024 a month, or $12,288 a year. Now, I realize that most council members receive payment for serving on a myriad of other boards and commissions, but it strikes me as funny that people fight so hard for a job where they will likely lose money.

What power does a Burbank Councilman or Councilwoman have? Free meals at Chili John's?

The Burbank Follower, Vol. 2, No. 16

COOL THAI
The Daily News reviews the Ghani Thai on Riverside in Burbank. Good service, fairly good food. Stay away from the ribeye salad, though. Daily News.

NEW TRANSIT LINE THROUGH BURBANK STUDIED
The Metropolitan Transit Agency will be looking at an express bus line between North Hollywood and Pasadena, with stops in Burbank and Glendale. Seems like a good idea to me, since a bus trip from Pasadena City College to downtown Burbank takes more than two hours (scheduled!) Arcadia Weekly.

RENAISSANCE SHOP REVIEWED
A blogger, calling himself M2, gives a review of a medieval armor shop called Sword and Stone. Dorky fun! Travels West.

MORE ON THE WHOLE FOODS KIBOSH
Mayor Sam's Sister City weighs in on the the Burbank City Council's decision to quash development plans for Whole Foods. The quasi-anonymous blog posits that Sunland-Tujunga may get the store now. Mayor Sam.

Smell Memory

The tiled foyer outside Los Angeles Union Station is usually filled with smokers, dragging out a puff before making their way home. Yesterday, though, that smell was mixed with the sharp chemical smell of cleaner, Pine-Sol.

It smelled almost exactly like the main lobby of Wolf House, the Co-Op I lived at during my senior year at UC Berkeley. That smell took me back, almost immediately: a half-remembered crush on a faux-communist named Melissa, the fact the place was always out of cereal, It's Its, and a dozen other memories.

I passed into Union Station proper and the smell of cigarettes faded, leaving only the smell of the cleaner. This too, took me back, but this was much sadder. When I was young, my parents started a program at our church, where they would take food and supplies down to some of the poorer colonias in Tijuana. One of those places was an orphanage, and it reeked of Pine Sol. Heartbreaking to see, even at eight-years-old, and the smell has been associated with hopelessness ever since.

Interesting that a smell, altered ever so slightly, would cause such a different reaction in me, one that happened only minutes apart.

The Burbank Follower, Vol. 2, No. 15

Now, for a bit of catching up on all news Burbank...

WHOLE FOODS GIVEN THE WHOLE FOOT
The Burbank City Council voted 3-2 Tuesday (told ya I was catching up) to put the kibosh on the natural foods grocery. Sunland now wants a piece. I'm a bit disappointed, since I care more about food than horses, as the later only makes my butt sore. Oh well. Leader. LAist. Daily News. Curbed LA.

DAILY NEWS TRACKS CAMPAIGN FINANCE
Numbers, but not much in the way of analysis... Much like this blog. Eugene Tong, of the Daily News, also fails to note that Gary Bric is receiving a heck of a lot of independent expenditure support from the Working Californians PAC. C'mon guys. Daily News.

EMBATTLED COMMISSIONER DEFENDS SUPPORT OF FELON
Bob Hope airport Commissioner Don Brown, whose pre-sentencing testimony in support of Scott Schaffer reportedly helped the former Glendale official receive a lighter sentence, got verbally roughed up by four Burbank cops Tuesday. Schaffer was convicted earlier this month of trading guns for drugs to the Vineland Boyz, a gang implicated in the 2003 shooting death of Burbank Police Officer Matthew Pavelka. Leader.

WOMAN BITES DOG SHELTER
Kimi Peck, director of Chihuahua Rescue, filed suit against 10 of her former volunteers, claiming they forced her out of Burbank in 2005 with their slanderous lies of squalid conditions. (Peck was charged in June of that year of having unsanitary conditions, but was not convicted.) Leader.

Burbank Election Calendar - Remaining Dates

Since I've missed a couple of the important campaign finance dates, I figured it would be a good idea for me to post the remaining calendar for the upcoming election(s).

On that note, does anyone out there in Burbank-land think there's going to be a runoff? Will the best-funded candidates (Gary Bric & Anja Reinke) win outright? Will the Burbank Leaders endorsement of Anja Reinke and Carolyn Berlin make any difference? We shall see, my pretties. We shall see.

Here the remaining dates (via the Burbank City Clerk's website)

February 23, 2007
Additional Pre-Election Campaign Expenditure Report #3 due
(BMC 11-2506) (Period covered is 2/11/07 - 2/21/07)

February 24, 2007
Saturday Voting in City Clerk’s Office and Ballot Drop-Off Sites
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

February 27, 2007
PRIMARY NOMINATING ELECTION DAY
Ballot Drop-Off Sites open 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

-and-

File Late Contributions and Independent Expenditures of $1,000 or more
(Period covered is 2/22/07 - 2/26/07)

March 2, 2007
Post Canvass results

March 5 – March 9, 2007
5-day protest period

March 13, 2006
Council to declare Primary Election results

March 14, 2007, 10:00 a.m.
Drawing for Ballot Order for General Election

March 20, 2007
Last day to mail Sample Ballots for General Election

March 26, 2007
Last day to register to vote for General Election

March 29, 2007
1st Pre-General Election Campaign Expenditure Statement due
(Period covered: 2/22/07 - 3/24/07)

April 6, 2007
Additional Pre-Election Campaign Expenditure Statement #2 due
(Period covered: 3/25/07 - 4/4/07)

April 7, 2007
Saturday Voting in City Clerk’s Office and Ballot Drop-Off Sites
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

April 10, 2007
GENERAL ELECTION

-and-

Last day to receive voted ballots by 7:00 p.m.
File late contributions and independent expenditures of $1,000 or more
(Period covered: 4/5/07 - 4/9/07)

April 13, 2007
Post Election Results

April 16 - 20, 2007
5-day protest period for election results

April 24, 2007
Council to declare Election results

May 1, 2007 – 10:00 a.m.
Council Reorganization Meeting
Oath of Office for Newly-Elected Council and Board of Education Members

July 31, 2007
For candidates not successful in the Primary Nominating Election
Last day to file Campaign Expenditure Statements – Semi-Annual
(Period covered is 2/22/07 - 6/30/07)

July 31, 2007
Last day to file Campaign Expenditure Statements – Semi-Annual
(Period covered: 4/5/07 - 6/30/07)

Family Wagon - San Francisco

This was taken over the weekend. Good times had in that van. Good times. Click the photo to see what I'm talking about.

A Weekend in San Francisco

This has been an emotionally wrenching trip and weekend. I am lucky to be sitting at home, sipping coffee on my RDO, staring out the window. My mind is spinning from the happenings from the last few days.

One of my truly good friends - who I'll call D - is fast becoming an alcoholic, if he isn't one already. D graduated from Berkeley two years after I did, struggling to overcome a seizure disorder, abuse and a dozen other dark secrets of which I am only partially privy to. His life had become an After School Special, and I guess we were tired of watching.

Still, the decision on what to do was tough. Really tough. The first issue revolved around religion, since almost all of the rehab centers - and AA itself - require a belief in a "higher power."

I grew up Catholic. Though I have had my struggles with the church, I am not ready to call the whole thing a wash. Many of the others in our surreal planning group, however, are strongly anti-religious, almost, frankly, to the point of close-mindedness. Though D and I have had numerous talks about God (a hazard of my philosophy degree), it was always in the abstract, and I have no I idea what he believes or if, indeed, he believes in anything at all.

This discussion, as many do, came down to practicalities. The Salvation Army is free, residential and voluntary. And, furthermore, it was only a suggestion. We were not going to demand that D go to the Salvation Army, only that he consider it.

D is, after all, an adult, and if it does not fit him, he can move on. If he doesn't like the place, he can do his own research, and find a place that better suits him. But I'm hoping he stays. He needs a place to live, first off, and I can't imagine that a bit of God talk will turn his stomach too much, regardless of what his heart tells him is true.

I flew from Burbank to Oakland on Saturday night, my heart in knots. I had no idea how D was going to react. The six of us were, after all, jumping on him, feet-first, trying to overwhelm him with the idea that he has a problem. Would he be upset? Almost certainly. Would he listen? I did not know.

But he did. It worked out much better than expected. He acknowledged that he had been drinking far too much, that it was affecting his life. We asked him if he wanted to change things around, and he said he would. My buddy Joe checked him in to the Salvation Army in Oakland on Monday.

Though I'm concerned that he wilted too quickly, that he simply told us what we wanted to hear, I am heartened by the fact he is now in rehab. It will not be easy, and maybe not possible, to fake it there. I hope he makes it. He deserves a life, as we all do.

Burbank City Council - Campaign Finance Edition

Below is a listing of the money spent and raised by the various candidates for Burbank City Council, as of Jan. 13. The listing is in ballot order.

Carolyn Berlin
Raised: $2,876.90
Loaned self: $5,000
Total war chest: $7,876.90
Spent: ($5,899.41)
Left: $1,977.49

Anja Renike
Raised: $4,700
Loaned self: $900
Total war chest: $5,600
Spent: ($4,700)
Left: $900

Phil Berlin
Raised: $2,781.80
Loaned self $5,000
Total war chest: $7,781.80
Spent: ($5,899.41)
Left: $1,882.34

Margaret Sorthum
Raised: $0
Loaned Self: $0
Total war chest $0
Spent: $0
Left: $0

Vahe Hovanessian
Raised: $0
Loaned self $520
Total war chest: $520
Spent: ($495)
Left: $25

Whit Prouty
Raised: $5,500 (plus $250 in non-monetary contributions)
Loaned self: $2,500
Total war chest: $8,000
Spent: ($5431.35)
Left: $2,568.65

Gary Bric
Raised: $7,949 (plus $289 in non-monetary contributions)
Loaned self: $4,826.92
Total war chest: $12,775.92
Spent: ($3,723.51)
Left: $9,052.44

Working Californians
Independent Expenditure Committee
Supports Gary Bric and, to a lesser extent, Anja Renike
Spent in February: $13,023

The Burbank Muni Elections

Ye gods. I have now, at last count, received 14 separate pieces of campaign mail from five of the seven candidates for Burbank City Council. Either the other two candidates are not especially well funded, or figure everyone in the city is going to be so annoyed by the campaign flyers that voters will for the only two people who DIDN’T send them anything.

By way of background, there are two open seats on the council, the vote will be done via mail (no polling places), and ballots are due on Feb. 27. There is, believe it or not, an election for the Burbank School Board as well. However, since there are three open seats – and exactly three people running for them – there’s not much of a reason to campaign.

Not, mind you, that there appears to be much distinguishing the candidates. So far, candidates have staked out the following controversial positions (based, solely, on the literature I have received):

- Pro-police and fire
- Against parking meters
- Against a Los Angeles-based sewer line (aka ‘We ain’t taking LA’s crap!’)
- Want to fix traffic issues

Whoo! Then again, Burbank does not appear to have a lot of the issues affecting (and afflicting) larger, poorer, burgs. Still, can you imagine someone running for council on an anti-police, pro-sewer, do-nothing platform?

So, to ease the boredom, I hereby present an ill-informed, snarky and otherwise useless review of the campaign I have received. And, yes, I realize that most campaign mailers are to introduce a candidate to voters, not to present his or her position on substantive issues. Still, man, having someone say SOMETHING would be nice.

Gary Bric: Law Enforcement’s Choice
(large postcard; paid for by Committee to Elect Gary Bric)

This one is a bit odd, comprising of a longish letter from Mike Parinello, president of the Burbank Police Officers Foundation. The type is small, a bit hard to read, and says little of substance.

According to the piece, Bric is REALLY into public safety, Burbank cops are just super, and that rank and file officers trust him Bric because of his work on the Traffic and Transportation board. Huh? Do beat cops really care about the Traffic & Transportation board? Why?

In what I presume to be an amusing veiled dig at the BFD (one of my favorite local abbreviations), the end of the card notes “P.S. Gary Bric for City Council is also endorsed by the BURBANK FIREFIGHTERS ASSOCIATION”

Vote Whit Prouty – Burbank City Council
(large postcard; paid for by Committee to Elect Whit Prouty)

Prouty presents himself, among other traits, as a “positive leader,” a “fiscal conservative,” and “solution-oriented.” That’s nice. What of it? Additionally, next to a photo of his family, Prouty states that “I don’t come to City Hall with an agenda. I’m open to consider all sides.”

Take a stand, man! What do you like?

Burbank Firefighters Say Vote for Gary Bric and Anja Reinke
(flyer, paid for by Working Californians)

Ah, nice. Someone who seems to have a stand on some issues. Reinke and Bric seem to have made improving traffic flow on Burbank streets, and working with Cal-Trans to make the freeways that bisect our burg better. (Say that three times fast.)

But, who the hell is “Working Californians?” Well, looking at the California Secretary of State website, it appears that it is a political action committee, made up of a conglomeration of labor, teacher, and public safety unions. They made very large independent expenditures (that is, spending not controlled by the candidate) for Phil Angelides, the Democrat’s nominee for governor.

The group has spent a fair amount supporting Gary Bric, spending more than $12,000 advertising his candidacy. Check out the info here. Interestingly, the form does not state that Working Californians also supported Anja Reinke, which I believe they should have.

Moving on…

Vote for Change on your ballot – Carolyn Berlin and Phil Berlin
(flyer, paid for by Committees to Elect Carolyn Berlin and Phil Berlin)

This is also a kinda weird one. This husband and wife team spend a lot of their flyer’s real estate “busting rumors” stated about them. Apparently people have stated that the Berlins plan on: firing a bunch of Burbank city employees, eliminate local charities, sell Burbank Water & Power, and sell the airport. These are all vicious, vicious lies, say the Berlins.

Denial is one way to go about it, I suppose, but wouldn’t it be more effective to just ignore it? I mean, I consider myself a fairly informed citizen, and I had no idea that the Berlins were accused of these things. Now I do, and now I wonder WHY they were accused of such things. Good on ya, foolios.

Another issue I have an issue with: the Q&A. One of the questions – reasonably enough – asks whether a husband and wife can really run for two open seats. They answer – correctly enough – that no law would prohibit this. It goes on to explain that the state’s open meeting law, the Brown Act, prohibits a majority of the City Council from meeting privately to build consensus. Assuming the Berlins are both elected, they would constitute only two of the five council members, not a majority.

“Currently,” the flyer states, “there are many Council subcommittees with 2 members discussing issues and building consensus, and situations when 2 members meet with others.” Uhhh. Hmm. If by the word “others” they are referring to “other council members” this would constitute a “serial meeting” which is specifically PROHIBITED by the Brown Act. Jeez. If “others” means “any human being other than a Burbank Council member” than it would be OK.

And, finally, the Berlins note, at the very end of their piece, that they have experience in land use, legal issues and airport issues. They know what they’re talking about, say the Berlins. Good.

Found Art, Downtown LA

The Burbank Follower, Vol. 2, No. 14

LUCIDNA WILLIAMS INSPIRED BY BURBANK HOTEL
The singer – who always stays in the same room – uses the Safari Inn on Olive Avenue as her muse. Trip out. I figured the neon was good for more than just 50s revivalism. Daily News

MURPHY’S BOYFRIEND SENTENCED
Former Glendale utilities commissioner Scott Scaffer was sentenced Monday to 13 months in prison. Scaffer, boyfriend of disgraced Burbank Councilwoman Stacey Jo Murphy, was convicted of giving guns to members of the Vineland Boyz gang in exchange for cocaine. AP

Photo Essay on Valley Roads

Khristian Garay, a photographer for CSUN's Daily Sundial, has a fascinating photo essay about San Fernando Road. She follows the street through several cities, showing how the road changes as it winds through Sylmar, San Fernando, Pacoima, Arleta and finally, Burbank. Daily Sundial.

Burbank Eateries - Defined

Now, normally, I would have included this little posting in the last issue - so to speak - of The Burbank Follower. However, since it's so damned useful, I figured I'd give it a link of its own.

A poster by the name of "EliseT" on Chowhound has given a fairly comprehensive rundown of the local Burbank eateries and her (I assume it's a her) takes on each. There are tons of replies, some useful, some not. However, I believe this is probably the most useful page out there for review of restaurants in our beloved Burbank.

Check it out here.

The Burbank Follower, Vol. 2, No. 13

CITY COUNCIL PLOWS THE MIDDLE
The Burbank City Council postpones a decision on the controversial Whole Foods Market issue, voting 4-1 to have the developer submit an amended plan to address traffic issues. Residents of the Rancho, the neighborhood where the natural food grocer wants to build, complain the store's traffic will spook the horses and destroy the 'hood's quirky charm. Daily News. Leader.

NBC GETS NEW CHIEF
Bob Wright gets booted from NBC Universal's big chair, perhaps in response to falling ratings in the post "Friends" and "Seinfeld" years. New boss is Jeff Zucker, a 20-year vet. Leader.

FORMER MAYOR PICKS UP KEYBOARD
Ex-Mayor David Laurell, who also worked at the Burbank Leader in the 1990s, picks up the pen again to write about local politics and society (does that mean gossip?). Leader.

PROFILE OF A NON-CAMPAIGNER
Ted Bunch, running for a seat on the Burbank Unified School District board, is putting up no signs, making no calls and slinging no mud. Refreshing, unless this is due to voter apathy. Leader.

POLICE BLOTTER
Sex, drugs, rock-n-roll. Leader.

Breaking Up with My Drycleaner

I swear, this whole thing feels like a Seinfeld episode. I love my dry cleaner, but he's got to go.

Our relationship started about a year ago, shortly after he opened up his new place about a mile from my front door. The cleaner shop had been there for years, maybe since the Paleolithic, and I had been using it since I arrived in Burbank some six months prior to that.

I refused to use the dry cleaner that my fiancee uses, not out of any disgust with their service or prices, but because it happens to be on the other side of the I-5. Traveling to her cleaner requires a trip across the bridge, and an inevitably pointless wait at the corner of Burbank and Victory boulevards. (On a related note, if anyone has any idea WHY that stupid light takes so long to change, please let me know. Really.)

So, to keep my blood pressure down and my happiness up, I stay firmly in the flats. My cleaner's predecessor got my business because of geography, my cleaner - who I shall call "Mike" - kept it because of his generally sunny disposition. But our relationship has soured. At least on my end.

My shirts keep getting holes, tearing in places where they should not, and fading much faster than they ought. Now, some of this may be due to hard use by yours truly, and part of it may simply be bad advice. Cleaners constantly - and Mike is no exception - berate you into dry cleaning your favorite shirts as a way to keep them as long as possible. However, I'm thinking this may have had the opposite effect.

Donna suggested that I perform a scientific experiment: take my dry cleaning to another place for a time and see if my clothes receive the same amount of wear. Of course, this would require abandoning Mike for the next year, which sorta makes me feel like a schmuck. But, then again, they are my clothes, and if I have an inkling that it's Mike's fault, I shouldn't go back.

The whole thing puts an amusing question in my head: do I have to tell him. Do I walk into Mike's shop, sans clothes, and inform him that we have to start seeing other cleaners? Do I do it by phone? Brother, I'd feel like an ass if I just stopped using his shop, but I'd almost feel like ass if I didn't tell him why.

See, Seinfeld episode, LA-style.

The Burbank Follower, Vol. 2, No. 12

KAREN KNOTT ONE-WOMAN SHOW PREMIERES
OK, so it's at a theater in North Hollywood, but Karen Knott, daughter of Don, is a Burbank resident. It opens up on Feb. 17, so if anyone knows anything about the show (and/or why & what the Gracie Wruck Fund is), please let me know. Web Entities.

STEVE LOPEZ HOMELESS SOLUTION
Involves, in part, returning downtown LA's street dwellers "back to where they came from, particularly the places that have shunned them, such as Burbank, West Covina, Santa Clarita and Kagel Canyon." (Via LA Homeless Blog). Huh. Fair or not, people? I have only lived here a bit more than a year, so I don't know the history on this one. Here's the entire LA Times column here.

Mail-In Balloting

According to the Santa Barbara Independent - which I've been reading voraciously ever since the News-Press imploded - Burbank is the only city in California to use all mail-in balloting.

Huh. I didn't know that. This, of course, would affect the upcoming municipal elections. Now, as I'm sure y'all remember, we all voted via the regular way, but that was for state and federal elected office, not city-only.

According to the news reports around that time, the mail-in madness cost the city more and failed to stem the ever-depressing turnout decline. Why are we doing this?

The Burbank Follower, Vol. 2, No. 11

THE CASE OF THE SUPER-SIZED BARF BAG
A 73-year-old Manhattan woman is suing Jet Blue after she was refused a request for a jumbo air sickness bag. The woman was flying from Burbank to New York City, and was removed from the flight after arguing with flight attendants. The site, Aero-News Network, looks legitimate, but is it a gag? Aero-News.