Burbank Workers Keep Moonlighting Secret, for Now

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has temporarily forbidden the city of Burbank to require municipal employees to disclose moonlighting jobs to city supervisors.

Judge Ronald Sohigian issued a temporary restraining order Thursday, granting at least an initial victory to the Burbank City Employees Assn., which filed a lawsuit against the city last week.

Association officials, who argue that the city’s outside employment policy is unconstitutional, are seeking to have it rescinded. Sohigian scheduled another hearing on the policy for Jan. 30.

The conflict was set off by a city attempt to enforce the 18-year-old policy by requiring employees to submit disclosure forms by Jan. 31.

“The union considers this policy an invasion of privacy,” said John Rubin, an attorney for the union. “The primary motivating factor behind our action is that our employees be able to conduct their private lives in private.”

The employees union represents about 650 city workers other than police officers, firefighters and electricians.

Union officials speculated that about 10% of the city’s 1,200 workers have other jobs.

The policy requires that city employees receive permission from their department heads to hold moonlighting jobs.

Senior Assistant City Atty. Terry Stevenson said the policy allows a department head to bar an employee from taking another job if it would reduce the employee’s efficiency in the city job or subject the employee to injury.

In addition, the policy says that workers cannot take outside jobs that provide no workers’ compensation insurance, or that reflect poorly on the city or conflict with the employee’s primary job.

“We would prefer our employees not to have second jobs, but we realize how difficult it is in the real world,” Stevenson said.

Under revisions in the policy, employees would have been required to fill out forms detailing their outside jobs. “We have a right to know if the outside job could lead to embarrassment for the city,” and city officials cannot make such judgments without knowing what their employees are doing, he said.

But union President Neil Hancock said the policy was too broad. “If you do baby-sitting on the side, you’ll need to fill out the form. That, to us, is unreasonable.

“The private lives of public employees should be protected,” he said. “We’re not robots. We do show good judgment.”