Council Takes Its Prime-Time Viewers to the Limit

Live from Burbank, it’s . . . Tuesday Night Live!

Well, OK, nobody would wind up such show-biz fanfare to introduce the weekly cable television broadcast of Burbank City Council sessions.

Sometimes the broadcasts are more like “Tuesday Night Dead.” Watching the village eccentrics pester the elected for hours at a time can even tax the show’s loyal and most knowledgeable observers, like Ginger Bremberg, veteran City Council member in neighboring Glendale.

For all that Glendale and Burbank may be Tweedledum and Tweedledee to trendy Westside folk, they differ in many respects. When it comes to city council meetings they may as well be on different planets.

In this Tale of Two Cities, Glendale goes for swift efficiency. No TV coverage. Few openings for semi-pro busybodies.

Burbank’s meetings are world record contenders for killing time by nibbling it to death.

On this particular evening, perennial gadfly Melvin Perlitsh, looking disheveled and weary in a faded plaid shirt, was making his fourth appearance, droning on about alleged corruption in government.

Even for Bremberg, watching in her home only a few miles away, it was obvious this would be yet another of those Burbank marathons.

Bremberg tunes in every week, resisting lighter fare such as “The Wonder Years” or “Rosanne.”

“It’s the Tuesday night comedy show,” she chuckled.

Burbank council meetings start at 7 p.m. so the public can attend. There have been about 10 times in the last eight months when a viewer could have watched “thirtysomething” at 10, the 11 p.m. news, Johnny Carson’s monologue and maybe even David Letterman’s Top 10 list before switching back to catch the Burbank council’s closing votes.

On several occasions, important issues were still being debated so late in the evening that council members complained of feeling too punchy to make sensible decisions.

Frustrating for Bremberg the TV fan is that so many important Burbank agenda items are dealt with so late at night that she can’t stay up to watch.

Bremberg the politician has a different reaction: Why do Burbank council meetings last so long, when most Glendale council meetings, held on Tuesday afternoons, are over in a few hours?

“We conduct the meetings with dignity and decorum,” said Bremberg, laying blame for Burbank’s problems on the volatile combo of TV cameras and human nature.

“They play to the camera, all these people who go up there every chance they get just to complain and complain. And then there’s the council members when they’re discussing something. They have to be sure they topped the man or woman who spoke before them. They have to be assured of their nobility.”

Many observers of Burbank council meetings agree that they changed in October, 1987, when Sammons Communications began live broadcasts on the cable system’s public access channel.

Speeches by council members became longer, wardrobes spiffier.

There are two specific times when the public can address the Burbank council, on matters both on and off the agenda. Then there are public hearings on development matters which offer still more opportunities. It’s possible for the same person to address the council many times a meeting, for as long as five minutes an appearance.

Some citizens use the council meetings for running campaigns, to attack individual council members or as a forum for personal problems. On occasion, activists have sung protest songs, strumming guitars.

By contrast, Glendale council meetings begin at 2 p.m. and are considered long if they go more than an hour or two. Gadflies are few. Discussions are short and to the point.

During one recent meeting, only one person rose to address the council in a critical tone--and he sat down after about 30 seconds. The meeting ended shortly after 3.

Burbank council members insist that theirs are “people-friendly” meetings.

Important decisions take time, they say, and they are more comfortable than their Glendale counterparts with citizen input.

“We have the courage to hold our meetings at night, and we have the double courage to televise them,” Councilman Michael Hastings said.

Fellow council member Mary Lou Howard put it this way: “We’re elected officials who have a responsibility to be accessible to the public. This is how we do it.”

There’s a chance, slim for now, that Glendale too may enter the television age.

Eileen Givens, who won a Glendale City Council seat last week, had suggested during her campaign that the council meetings be televised, or at least taped for later broadcast.

But to some of her colleagues, Burbank is an example of how not to do it.

“I can’t stand to watch those meetings,” said Glendale Councilman Richard Jutra. “They just go on and on and on. There doesn’t seem to be a time-value consideration. I’ll watch it for a minute, then I get bored and move on. There are more pleasant ways to spend time.”

Mayor Larry Zarian, reelected last week, is vehemently opposed. Moving the meeting along efficiently and quickly will remain a Glendale priority, he said.

“We don’t allow for personal attacks. We’re conducting very serious business and we handle it that way.”

But no matter how boring or long the Burbank meetings get, Bremberg said she will watch every Tuesday night, in fascinated amusement. She wouldn’t dream of switching the station, even if the meeting gets too tedious.

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that,” she said, feigning shock at the very idea. “That would be rude.”