Burbank in Hot Water Over Mailers

The California Fair Political Practices Commission has accused the Burbank City Council of three possible violations of the state political reform act for using $29,000 in public funds to pay for mailers advocating the council’s position in the long-running Burbank Airport dispute.

Mayor David Golonski and Councilmen Bob Kramer, Ted McConkey and Bill Wiggins, as well as Vice Mayor Stacey Murphy and former Councilwoman Susan Spanos, signed their names to three mailers that went to 45,873 residents of Glendale and Pasadena.

The letters urged residents to persuade their elected representatives to meet with the city of Burbank in an effort to resolve the dispute over the airport. In mailings to Pasadena, the letter requested that residents show their support for “direct talks” by signing and returning an enclosed postcard.

The commission contended this week that those actions may have violated prohibitions against mass mailings at public expense featuring any political figures. If an administrative law judge rules in favor of the commission on all counts, the city of Burbank and the council members could be fined up to a total of $6,000.

The date for the hearing has not been set.

“State rules require that in such cases officials’ names only show up in the letterhead for identification purposes only,” said commission spokesman Gary Huckaby. “The law prohibits any other reference to the public officials in the letter, or signatures or photographs.”

Burbank officials expressed disappointment with the commission’s decision and said its action, formally called an “accusation,” found there was probable cause to conduct a hearing, not that a violation occurred.

“We don’t believe we did anything wrong,” said Burbank City Manager Bud Ovrom. “We don’t believe we violated the spirit of the law. If anything, it’s a technicality. If they had signed it ‘the Burbank City Council’ instead of their individual names, there would not have been any question.”

Ovrom said the code at issue was enacted to prevent incumbents from gaining an unfair advantage in elections by sending mass mailings to voters in their jurisdiction at government expense. But the rules were never intended to apply to mailings directed to those outside an elected official’s jurisdiction, he said.

Critics of Burbank charged last year that council members were trying to influence elections outside their jurisdiction with the mailers. In addition, they criticized the city for its efforts to sway public opinion on the airport, a heated topic for years among the cities that run the facility under a joint powers authority, the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority.

The authority wants to build a larger terminal, which Burbank has been vigorously resisting, contending that its residents will be subjected to increased aircraft noise.