Leader Editorial: Election could change everything

Although more voters participated in Burbank’s primary election this week than turned out in 2011, it still drew yawns from most. Some of those who sat back and let the others decide the outcome may wish now that they had been paying more attention and gotten in on the action.

When the dust settled on Tuesday’s vote, Robert Frutos was the sole City Council candidate out of six who secured more than 50% of the votes cast. His seat is secure, but incumbents David Gordon, Jess Talamantes and David Golonski — not to mention solid challenger David Nos — will be battling it out for the two remaining seats when the general election is held April 9.

This means one of our sitting council members will be out when the votes are tallied next month; maybe we’ll be showing the door to two.

Perhaps, as Frutos suggests, those who voted in this week’s election would prefer that the money the city has spent on lawsuits defending itself (some $7.1 million in recent cases), would have been better put to use maintaining programs or repairing infrastructure.

In any case, Burbank residents who cared enough to cast votes Tuesday are clearly itching for some changes in City Hall. Things are getting interesting; it might be a good time to sit up and take notice.