Burbank City Council to Reconsider Proposal on Limiting Public Comment : Meetings: A plan to curb residents’ remarks on non-agenda items is greeted with protests.

The Burbank City Council, bombarded with protests from residents and homeowner groups, has agreed to reconsider a proposal to restrict public comment on topics not on the agenda.

“We want to have our voices heard,” Wally Berns, president of the Burbank Flatlanders Home Protection League, told the council at an emotionally charged meeting Tuesday night. “You people have been elected to listen to our concerns. We citizens may be a pain in the neck, but that’s the nature of the democratic process.”

Berns was one of about 20 people who spoke against the restrictions.

Councilman Thomas Flavin recently suggested setting aside time at the beginning of the first council meeting every month for citizens to speak out on non-agenda items. The public was previously allowed to speak on any issue at the end of weekly meetings, but under that format speakers would frequently have to wait until after midnight.

Flavin said he wanted people to have the opportunity to speak earlier in the evening.

Carolyn Berlin, a member of the Verdugo-Magnolia Park Homeowners Assn., however, said she thought the council had other intentions. “I think they keep changing the format to discourage people from coming to meetings, to get things pushed through” without the public’s input, she said.

Only one person spoke in favor of the proposed restrictions.

“I personally feel that this is not a platform for the freedom of speech,” said Dick Messer, president of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce. “This is a platform to get the business done for the city of Burbank. If the people have concerns, there are other ways to express those concerns. Whatever happened to the telephone?”

After more than two hours of public comments, Flavin told the council that he would prefer going back to the old system.

The council agreed to take up the issue again at its next meeting.