City Hall Looks More Like the City : Burbank Takes Tentative Steps to Bring Latinos Into Government

The demographic portrait of the city of Burbank has changed dramatically in recent years. It has been transformed from its roots as an overwhelmingly Anglo suburb to an increasingly multiethnic city. Latinos, the city’s largest minority group, for example, now account for nearly one-fourth of Burbank’s population and nearly 39% of the enrollment in the Burbank Unified School District.

But as recently as May of this year, as a story by Times reporter Jocelyn Stewart pointed out, the new Burbank was difficult to find within the city’s government. That was most obvious upon review of the membership of the city’s appointed boards, commissions and committees. At that time, fewer than 1% of the members of such bodies had Spanish surnames.

The dichotomy here existed on two levels. On one hand, city officials and those most involved with the process of seeking out, reviewing and selecting members to serve on the appointed bodies had failed to reach out to a burgeoning Latino community.

On the other hand, there was not exactly an overwhelming show of interest on the part of the Latinos. The same, unfortunately, was true politically. Latinos, who represented 22.6% of the population, accounted for just 8.6% of the city’s registered voters.

Now, we are pleased to note movement in both directions that should do much to enrich relations and add new perspectives to the city’s appointed bodies.

Burbank city officials, for example, are doing more to attract interest among minorities, and Latinos made up about 9% of the most recent appointees. That includes new Latino members on the city’s Police and Landlord-Tenant commissions and its Park and Recreation Board.

John Dominguez is one who didn’t need much encouragement.

Dominguez, 30, whose parents hailed from Mexico, attended junior high and high school in Burbank. He earned an undergraduate degree from USC, served as a Capitol Hill intern and obtained a law degree from UCLA. He now serves as an attorney for the U. S. subsidiary of a major Latin American bank.

Dominguez read the story about the dearth of Latino representation on Burbank’s boards and commissions and was soon passing out his resume and contacting various City Council members.

“I owed it to my community more than anything else. I also thought it was a good opportunity to get involved in local government,” Dominguez says. “Maybe this is just a first step for me.”

It was too late in the year for Dominguez to be considered for some of the more influential bodies, but he now serves on the Traffic and Transportation Committee. We hope that others will follow his lead.