Mailbag: Reflecting on work with the late Rupee

The notice of Don Rupee’s passing took me back to our work together on a drivers safety program for the city of Burbank in the late 1950s. Don was on loan from the Police Department, and I was the administrative assistant in the city manager’s three-man office from 1954 to 1961. Using results of vision and reaction-time tests, Don could counsel employees on the importance of safe driving.

The city manager, Harmon R. Bennett, had assigned me to implement a general accident prevention program to counter rising insurance costs, and driver safety was one part as we also bought safety equipment and initiated safety training for employees and supervisors.

There was a refreshing air of trying new things under the impetus of a reform City Council, which was vigorously striving to restore citizen confidence in their local government after the disastrous scandals of racketeering, bribery and other evils that had brought national shame to Burbank. Getting rid of the failed council members, bringing in new top managers and thorough revamping of several departments showed results.

The spirit of the movement resulted in the huge infrastructure endeavor, the Capital Improvement Program, with the building of bridges at Olive, Magnolia and Burbank, new police and fire headquarters, a new main library, improvements at McCambridge Park and others.

I played a small part in the reforms, making important “study and report” assignments, including transferring of the health sanitation staff to Los Angeles County, removing department heads from civil service, and others, as well as handling public information, budget requests and personnel matters.

It was an exciting time in city government, made more productive through the efforts of co-workers such as Don Rupee.

PAUL H. WANGSNESS

Burbank

Is poor parking hurting local businesses?

I strongly encourage the City Council to revisit charging for parking in the downtown shopping district as a way to earn revenue to offset the budget shortfall.

By now, I’m sure that Chamber of Commerce members who have read that sentence are already writing their letters to the Leader for next week’s edition, sounding the alarm that charging for parking will stifle business, which would be a horrible thing to do in this economy.

But consider this: About 10 days before Christmas, I headed downtown one evening intending to shop at Urban Outfitters and Sky Blue Pink. I spent a half-hour looking for a parking space somewhere within four to five blocks of San Fernando Boulevard before giving up in frustration. I drove to Studio City and spent my money there.

As I was driving out of Burbank, I realized that my husband and I avoid the downtown movie theaters for the same reason — we can never find parking and end up spending our money at the Arclight in Hollywood instead. We’d like to eat at Chadaka Thai more often too . . . but . . . 

I wonder how many other residents are taking their business elsewhere? In this economy, the lots still are full. Clearly, the demand for goods and services is there, and can support a combination of parking structure fees and metered parking. I’d gladly pay, just for the opportunity to find a space and do errands and eat within our city limits.

The fees don’t need to be high, just reasonable. I believe that there’s also either state or federal incentive for municipalities to charge for parking and encourage more public transportation. Burbank is leaving money on the table, twice. But maybe we should study it more, see what other cities are doing, while the residents’ discretionary dollars trickle over the Cahuenga Pass and the “pro business” special-interest dollars trickle into the reelection funds.

JULIE D’ANGELO

Burbank

Health-care reform cannot wait

America has always stood for competition and freedom of choice. But the health insurance industry has monopoly protection and can refuse coverage for preexisting conditions based on arbitrary factors.

And now, thanks to the obstructionists in Congress, the companies are allowed to continue these practices — even as my insurance premium has increased 50% since the start of last year.

Congress needs to override the obstructionists and pass health-insurance reform, and they need to do it this year!

ANDREW RUSINAK

Glendale

GOP not practicing what it preaches

The Republicans tend to push the moral issues more than the Democrats. They put themselves on a higher plane, but is that valid?

The California Republican Party has agreed to pay $18,000 in fines to the state’s political ethics agency for campaign violations that included failure to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses. Eight violations were found in a routine audit. The GOP committee admitted that it failed to properly report $758,000 in expenses in 2004, as reported in the Los Angeles Times.

The committee also overstated its cash balance and did not provide required information about vendors it paid for services, according to the report from the California Fair Political Practices Commission. Now what happened to that higher form of morality the Republican Party preaches about?

WESLEY GREENE

Burbank