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