B-6 terminal plan may appear on November ballot

The fate of a proposed 14-gate replacement terminal at Hollywood Burbank Airport might be decided by Burbank voters in November.

The City Council voted 4-1, with Councilman David Gordon dissenting, to direct staff to draft the paperwork required to call a Measure B election on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.

Under Measure B, voters must approve any project to construct a replacement terminal on a site northeast of the airfield known as the B-6 parcel — where the city holds an easement on the property.

The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority plans to build a 355,000-square-foot, 14-gate terminal on the B-6 site. Should the ballot measure fail, airport officials plan to build either a similarly sized or a 232,000-square-foot, 14-gate terminal on the southwest corner of the airfield, which airport officials have said does not require voter approval because the airport owns that property.

All options were reviewed in the environmental-impact report for the project, which awaits final approval by the City Council that is expected on Monday night. A development agreement and a zone amendment allowing the airport authority to use the easement for the proposed terminal are also slated for a final vote on Monday as well.

Gordon, who also voted against the first approval of the documents, said that the procedure for approving the replacement terminal project has been conducted incorrectly. The councilman claimed that council members should not be voting or approving any agreements with the airport authority until the project has been approved by voters.

However, in a memorandum written by City Atty. Amy Albano in June 2015, she said the measure states that “a discretionary act or agreement by the city for a relocated or expanded airport terminal project must be approved by the voters before the discretionary act or agreement is valid and effective.”

However, she continued that “this does not mean that the City Council cannot take any action until the voters vote. If that were true, that the voters must act before the council, then what would they be voting on?” Albano wrote. “Rather, the council must define the scope of the agreements or other discretionary acts subject to the Measure B vote.”

Albano added that if the City Council approves the agreements and the Measure B vote fails, the agreements will be considered void.

Gordon also disagreed with his colleagues for choosing the Nov. 8 ballot because it requires a special election. He argued that the April 2017 municipal election would be the more appropriate time to have Burbank residents decide on whether they want a new terminal.

“There’s absolutely no rush for this to go on the November election,” he said. “The earliest estimates I’ve seen about this terminal realistically taking form, wherever it’s placed on the property, is four to seven years.”

Gordon said that having the ballot measure on the Nov. 8 ballot is too expensive.

City Clerk Zizette Mullins estimated the cost for the special election to be about $119,000. However, she recommended that the city also mail a 10-page supplemental booklet to voters to inform them of the project. The supplemental mailers would cost an additional $74,200 to mail to each registered voter in the city — about $57,000 for the book itself and about $17,200 for the postage.

The total cost would be roughly $193,200.

Mullins said the entire cost of the April 2017 municipal election, including the ballot measure, is estimated at about $133,000.

Vice Mayor Will Rogers argued that having voters decide on the measure in April would not be fair to the project, pointing out that City Council candidates might send out misinformation about the project as they campaigned.

“The way to get all the facts out to the greatest number of people, I don’t think, is to have candidates picking sides and putting out their version of whatever the case may be,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the best way to get the truth out to the most voters.”

Councilman Bob Frutos, who supported placing the measure on the November ballot, said that there are about double the number of residents voting in a general election than in a municipal election.

Frutos added that he recognizes that there are numerous political races and measures that voters will be deciding in November, and he thinks Burbank residents will have developed voter fatigue when the municipal election comes around.

Then there was the discussion of who will pay for the election. Mayor Jess Talamantes read a letter written this past July 20 by airport authority members, stating that they are in favor of reimbursing the city for all the costs associated with the special election.

The airport authority will be deciding whether to affirm that statement during a board meeting on Monday.