Annual State of the City attracts Burbank government and business leaders

Burbank Mayor Bob Frutos was absent from the annual State of the City address Wednesday, due to illness, but he still made an appearance via a video where a black-and-white photo of him as a Los Angeles Police Department rookie appeared as the theme from “Dragnet” played.

“He was a young man,” a deep bass voice intoned, mocking the “Dragnet” opening, as the image transitioned to more recent photos. “He’s no longer a young man.”

Later in the video, the Looney Tunes character Daffy Duck pulls Frutos into a black-and-white cartoon. Topics such as age, health and drawing — both metaphorical and literal — played recurring themes during the presentation.

The event, hosted by the Burbank Chamber of Commerce, drew local government and business leaders to the Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel, where Vice Mayor Jess Talamantes, aided by the mayor’s video, touted the city’s economic health and its “power to draw people in” with business opportunities, quality of life and tourism.

The overall message was that Burbank, while healthy, still faces fiscal challenges arising from aging infrastructure, streets, bridges and municipal buildings.

The City Council this year passed a $650 million balanced budget unanimously for the first time in many years, and annual budgets are projected to remain balanced for the next five years, Talamantes said. He also said the city’s revenues are expected to grow by 2.9% through 2019.

However, “the pressure builds to address our unfunded needs,” Talamantes said. “We’re just getting old — it’s just like my shoulder’s bothering me ... it just gets old and it needs repair.”

Talamantes said the city’s economic indicators are promising. The city’s 2014-15 office vacancy rate at 11.1% is lower than the rate in Los Angeles by more than a percentage point. Home values in Burbank are 26% higher than the Los Angeles County average and employment is up 10% for the year to date compared to 2014, he said.

The full video of the State of the City address can be viewed on YouTube here.

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Chad Garland, chad.garland@latimes.com

Twitter: @chadgarland