Interesting nuggets from around town

The mind travels in mysterious ways…

Don’t go away mad, just go away: We can now add one more to our unemployment roll. Burbank resident Suzy Jacobs, who has worked in the 43rd Assembly District office for years, was laid off.

Jacobs, who you would always see behind the scenes, or many times at the microphone when the public official was too “busy” to be at an event, was given notice by Assemblyman Mike Gatto.

It seems that not only did she do her job for Assemblyman Paul Krikorian, she also maintained the office and kept things as normal as possible when the seat was vacant. She was good enough to be around to help Gatto get elected to a full term with her ties to both the Burbank and Glendale communities.

Now that he is in for a full term, she is out. I suddenly see a huge red flag about what Gatto might actually stand for, or that he is more politician than person.

Job posting: Listening to the joint meeting between the Police Commission and the City Council last week, it looks like they are thinking of hiring an auditor to oversee the Police Department and filter information to the Police Commission.

What’s interesting is that we just paid a lot of money to two people to come up with a report that appears we are not following. So my question is, if we are going to spend all of this money on Debra Wong Yang and Merrick Bobb and not follow their recommendations, what makes you think that after hiring an auditor, we are going to follow that person’s recommendations?

If we do decide to hire someone, make it a two-year appointment that the City Council must revisit each cycle. Let’s not keep someone on the books down the line who is not needed in 20 years and no one will remember why we even hired him. If you are convinced the Police Commission is not capable of doing the job, then give them some temporary help, but when that help is not needed, let them do their job.

Most people cannot remember that we had a serious police problem 60 years ago and measures were put in place to fix the problems, which worked fine for generations. Once these current problems have been fixed, we can hopefully get on to the next problem that pops up somewhere else in the city.

Commissioner McMillan: While we are not looking for Police Commissioner Stewart ‘Mac’ McMillan from the TV series “McMillan & Wife” to drive around town and solve murders, it is important for our commissioners to be visible to the public.

Police Commissioner Jim Etter is a bit of a wild card on the commission. Councilman Dave Golonski brought up at the meeting that he did not like the fact that Etter displayed his commission business card in the window of his car, and some of the actions that he is taking around town.

Yes, Etter is a bit unconventional, but in reality don’t we want that? We want someone who might think and act a little differently, someone who is not afraid to question things that others are content to let pass by. While I hate bringing up the city of Bell, one wonders if there were some wild cards involved in their government, maybe some of those problems might never have happened.

If everyone is just a wink and a nod at each level, what do you ultimately get? Do you think for a second if Councilman David Gordon was on the Bell City Council that questions would not have been asked and fraud brought out? Luckily, we have a number of council members here who stay on the ball.

Yes, there are rules out there, and Etter must adhere to them. I also challenge Etter to find and bring up issues that others won’t, because if you don’t, are you really a wild card or just the other joker in the deck that is tossed out? There is no doubt that a wild card can keep all the players in the game on their toes.

CRAIG SHERWOOD is the executive editor of BurbankNBeyond.com and a baseball coach at Burbank High School. He can be reached at csherwood@burbanknbeyond.com.

FOR THE RECORD: This corrects an earlier version that incorrectly gave the length of time Suzy Jacobs worked for Assemblyman Mike Gatto. She was hired after the June special election.