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Former mayor accepts youth post

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Laura Sturza

Less than a week after stepping down from the City Council dais,

former Burbank mayor David Laurell has been hired as development

director for the Boys & Girls Club of Burbank.

Laurell, who started work Tuesday, accepted the post Monday. He

will oversee fund-raising for the club and be responsible for

attracting major donors, club officials said.

“They felt that maybe because of my connections with the community

that I’ve established a lot of good rapport in the city with

businesses and individuals,” said Laurell, whose last day as mayor

was Thursday.

Club officials said they are excited by the prospect of attracting

major donors and increasing programming with the addition of

Laurell’s newly created position. The nonprofit organization opened

in 1995.

“David should be a great ambassador for the club,” said Tom

Jamentz, president of the Boys & Girls Club board of directors.

As recently as April 22, Laurell voted to approve a $24,000 city

grant to expand the club’s soccer program. But the former councilman

said he did not see the vote as a conflict of interest, even though

he was considering the Boys & Girls Club position.

“I thought about whether it would be the appropriate thing to

recuse myself, but [grant] funding had absolutely nothing to do with

me being [hired] or not,” Laurell said.

The club’s executive director, Alex Fey, has traditionally made

presentations to the city for funds, and will continue to do so,

Laurell said.

Laurell’s successor as mayor, Stacey Murphy, said she would have

liked to have known he was being considered for the job ahead of

time.

“I think for full disclosure purposes, it would have been nice to

say ‘I’m negotiating for this position,’ ” Murphy said.

The club, which began advertising the position internally in July,

attracted a handful of applicants from within the organization, Fey

said. Laurell was the only candidate interviewed from outside the

national nonprofit’s network, according to Jamentz.

“There was a unique opportunity with David,” Jamentz said. “People

know him, and that hopefully will open a lot of doors.”

Salary details were not released by the organization.

Laurell, whose council term expired April 30, did not seek

reelection because he accepted a marketing job in November, which did

not pan out.

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