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Editorial: A case of conjecture in the dark

In a meeting of the Burbank City Council that stretched past midnight, City Manager Mark Scott said he would resign if the City Council did not vote in favor of a staffing change he supported. The council voted 3-2 against that change.

In a meeting of the Burbank City Council that stretched past midnight, City Manager Mark Scott said he would resign if the City Council did not vote in favor of a staffing change he supported. The council voted 3-2 against that change.

(Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)
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The saga of Mark Scott, scarcely two years into his job at Burbank City Hall, took another strange turn this week.

During the wee hours of Tuesday morning, the city manager quietly told Mayor Bob Frutos he would submit his resignation if a City Council vote regarding a personnel classification issue did not go his way. It did not. Now Scott is in the process of packing his office, with a likely February depature.

What led to this? To the casual observer, it must look like the most inside of inside baseball. Scott requests a reclassification of a particular job, stating the person doing the work was taking on responsibilities far beyond her title.

She would need a title change and a raise, he said, or her duties would need to be reduced. Council members pounced, asking whether the person really deserved the raise, and whether the raise was appropriate. Is this a case of the council micromanaging or just good oversight? Scott felt the former.

Because this is Burbank, nothing can be without some intrigue. Wags note Scott’s wife took a job in Rancho Mirage after the couple moved from Fresno, indicating the city manager never intended to stay in the Media City for long.

Also, given his decades of work in public service, Scott’s pension must be large enough that dealing with the irascible and occasionally cranky bunch that make up the City Council must have been seen as not worth the aggravation.

To this end, our recommendation to the council when it starts interviewing for the next city manager is this: Decades of experience does not mean a good fit. Deep knowledge of Burbank and an understanding of its various constituencies — and the patience of Job — are much more important.

— The opinion of the Leader

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