Airport a valuable city asset Why should...

Airport a valuable city asset

Why should the city be made to return the money for the people

with the “leave-us-alone-we-don’t- want-to-grow-up-like-the-

rest-of-the-world” attitude? They use short-term thinking and are

often in the city only a short time. The airport has long been a

producer of income in many ways to our city.

Wake up! Don’t be a loser of a Burbank citizen. Dreams can only

become reality when a decision to change is made. Time is the most

precious thing we have and so much has been wasted in not going

ahead.

Now is the time to prepare for the future in the city of our

children and grandchildren. Accessibility is an important as

communication, because it is people who we must access and

communicate with, not bygones!

John Whittet

Burbank

Proposed fees

could hurt business

Dear Members of the City Council:

On behalf of the membership of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce, I

must disagree with the recommended changes to the Community

Development Department fee schedule. Although the recommendation is

an attempt to increase the conformity of fees, the result, in most

cases, is an increase in fees, and in the case of developers, a

significant increase.

These are very challenging times for business with respect to

economic viability. Skyrocketing workers’- compensation insurance and

onerous health-insurance costs have made profitability significantly

more difficult for business. Additionally, we are faced with the

prospect of many new proposed taxes from Sacramento, which include

everything from a one-penny-per-foot tax on board lumber to sales tax

on services.

With respect to the largest increases -- fees paid by developers

-- we run the risk of making it less likely that a developer will

invest in our community because proposed projects are not profitable

enough.

Business contributes a significant amount of revenue to the city

of Burbank. Please help business be as profitable as possible so it

can continue to do that.

Susan Bowers

Executive Director

Burbank Chamber

of Commerce

Good luck, Carolyn

I first met Carolyn Berlin in 1998, when she was chairman of the

Planning Board. I had gone before her with an application for a

conditional-use permit and a variance.

Political forces unknown to me at the time led planning staff to

recommend that the board deny my application. Carolyn and her

colleages listened carefully to my application, and after public

comment and staff response, they upheld my property rights over the

staff recommendation and granted my permit and variance by a 4-1

vote.

Since then, I have seen the continuing downturn of planning

decisions made throughout the city, and have applauded Carolyn for

standing up for her convictions in past decisions.

Good luck, Carolyn. I would be proud to be a member of any

organization you may be associated with in the future.

Kevin Muldoon

Burbank

Laurell should have come clean

Regarding the article, “Former mayor accepts youth post” (May 7),

I have to agree with Mayor Stacey Murphy. She wrote: “It would have

been nice to say, ‘I’m negotiating for this position.’”

However, I will go one step further. While former Mayor David

Laurell doesn’t think he did anything wrong voting to approve a city

grant for $24,000 while he was considering his new position, I

believe there are a number of people who believe that he should have

either recused himself from voting or made full disclosure.

Perhaps grant funding had absolutely nothing to do with Laurell

being hired, but the major question remains: Was it a conflict of

interest? I believe it was, and he should have come clean on this

matter.

Eden Rosen

Burbank