Burbank Vows to Videotape Meetings of Airport Board

The Burbank City Council has voted to authorize the videotaping and delayed broadcast of Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority meetings--whether the “cast” likes it or not.

Mayor Robert R. Bowne said on Tuesday that he will send a letter from the council to the nine-member board asking its cooperation in the taping of the morning meetings. The letter will stipulate that the city will tape the meetings even if the authority does not cooperate. Several members of the panel, which oversees operation of Burbank Airport, have said they are opposed to the idea.

The action was taken because the authority has refused repeatedly to bow to council requests to switch meetings to the evenings so that more people could attend. Bowne said broadcasting the meetings would be another way for citizens to see the board in action.

The authority meets at 9 a.m. on the first and third Mondays of each month.

‘Informing the Citizens’

“We want the authority to know that the council is committed to informing the citizens,” said Councilwoman Mary Lou Howard, who represents Burbank on the authority board. “The airport is in our city, and people want to know what’s going on there. We are going to do this.”

Bowne will ask the authority to consider the taping at its next meeting, July 24.

City Atty. Douglas C. Holland said any public meeting of a legislative body such as the airport authority can be filmed, as long as the filming does not interrupt the meeting. He said city personnel would go into the meeting room and set up cameras before the meeting so the proceedings would not be disturbed.

Authority President Robert Garcin, who has opposed the taping in the past, said, “My job as chairman is to make sure the business of the authority is conducted in an efficient and prompt manner. I will not allow anything that will cause an interruption. I have no objection to filming if there is no disruption, but I don’t know how the other members feel.”

Encourage Disruptions

Some authority members say the taping of the meetings would encourage more disruptions by gadflies who regularly attend and berate board members.

City officials said the meetings could be taped with stationary cameras and then fed from a control room in Burbank City Hall to the Sammons Communications cable system. The meetings then could be broadcast over the public access channel.

Officials said the meetings also could be broadcast over other Valley and Los Angeles cable systems.

The cost of the taping could be as high as $33,084 annually, officials said. It has not yet been determined who would pay the costs.

Sammons provides live weekly broadcasts of Burbank City Council and planning board meetings.