BURBANK : Council OKs Club Near City Hall

Surprising a group of residents who had spent two hours berating the Burbank City Council for its seeming opposition to a proposed restaurant/nightclub in the city’s downtown, the council granted a permit for the Australian Beach Club to open two doors away from City Hall.

“I’m going to apologize to Mr. Sherbondy because the process has been long, but we have been following the rules,” Councilman Dave Golonski said shortly before the council voted 4 to 0 to allow Dan Sherbondy to open the business on Olive Avenue.

Councilman Bob Bowne, a local lawyer who has an office in the building the Australian Beach Club is to move into, abstained from the vote.

Sherbondy, a former firefighter who said his three-month battle to get the club approved has inspired him to pursue law school, said he will now try to open the club within 90 days with 35 to 40 employees and a capacity for 200 diners, plus a dance floor and pool tables. He owns two other Australian Beach Clubs, in Orange and San Bernardino.

“I did what I had to do to open my place,” said Sherbondy, who three weeks ago accepted 15 additional requirements as a condition of granting a permit to open, including added security, paying for taxis for inebriated customers, and a prohibition on advertising drink specials.

But the council balked at approving the permit three weeks ago, saying time was needed to study the compatibility of the club so close to the City Hall complex. The hearing during that meeting had been marked with cries from Sherbondy’s supporters that the process was unfair to him.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Sherbondy’s lawyer, Vincent Stephano, a former Burbank mayor, contended that there had been attempts to defeat the club with “the big lie,” that the club was to be a “sleazy dive with wet T-shirt contests and string bikinis.”

Council members had said they were concerned about the compatibility of the restaurant with City Hall because of city and civic groups that meet there. Another one of the restrictions placed on Sherbondy is that he pay for any police calls to the restaurant that exceed three per month, and that his liquor license could be revoked if there are more than 30 police calls to the business within any 90-day period.

Sherbondy told the council he had no problems with the condition because, “I’m paying for it. So if I get that many (police calls), I’ll be out of business.”