2015 in Review: Ten stories top the news in Burbank

The future site of the Talaria project in Burbank.

By TCN Staff

Dec. 29, 2015 10:15 PM PT

Walmart wins legal case, plans opening

An exterior shot of the former Great Indoors store, where Walmart may be located in the future. (Roger Wilson / Staff Photographer)

After a court battle ended in April, crews this summer began work to convert the former Great Indoors store at the Empire Center into a Walmart Supercenter.

The 143,000-square foot store is slated to open sometime this summer, roughly five years after the retailer purchased the building and three years after the store was originally expected to open, back before three residents sued to stop it.

They had sought to block the Walmart project until traffic mitigations outlined in an ordinance approved by the Burbank City Council more than 15 years ago were completed and another environmental impact review was conducted.

A lower court sided with the Burbank residents in 2013 and rescinded Walmart’s building permits. However, in response to an appeal by Walmart, the Second District Court of Appeal reversed the lower-court ruling, finding that the city’s failure to implement the traffic measures was not a reason to prevent the issuance of routine building permits for renovation of the building.

The mitigation measures, which were partially implemented, include adding more turn lanes at key intersections on Buena Vista Street at Victory Boulevard and Empire Avenue.

The appeals court also directed the lower court to order Burbank, which was named in the original suit but did not appeal, to make the street improvements or to follow the process for changing the requirements by conducting a new environmental study of the traffic impacts.

The city last week released a draft of an update to the shopping center’s original environmental study, examining whether 14-year-old requirements to complete certain street improvements should be amended or eliminated.

The public will have until Feb. 4 to submit written comments about the draft study, which can be found on the city’s website, along with details about how to comment at bit.ly/EmpireSEIR.

Matt Hill hired as superintendent

New Burbank Unified School District Superintendent Matt Hill at the unveiling of the new kitchen at the Burbank Community Day School in Burbank on Sept. 8, 2015. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

In April, when Burbank school board members closed in on their superintendent finalist, Matt Hill, they shared the news with Burbank teachers.

A former Los Angeles Unified employee, Hill, 38, had no prior teaching or superintendent experience. During a three-hour town hall forum, dozens of Burbank teachers spoke against hiring Hill, mainly because of his lack of teaching experience.

On April 16, two nights after the town hall meeting, the Burbank school board voted to hire Hill.

Before the vote, longtime school board member Dave Kemp scolded Burbank teachers for their “mob mentality” against Hill’s hiring. Kemp then announced his immediate resignation and left the meeting.

The four remaining board members voted to hire Hill, then asked him to offer remarks at the podium. Many teachers abruptly left City Hall chambers before Hill spoke.

In July, Hill began in his new role, replacing former Supt. Jan Britz, who retired.

During a school board meeting on Dec. 17, longtime school board gadfly Mike Nolan said that in his own observation of district staff, Hill “has made a difference.” School board member Larry Applebaum, who was first elected to the school board in 2005, agreed.

“My holiday season is much brighter because we have Matt Hill sitting in that chair,” Applebaum said.

Former police cadet killed while on duty

The casket is lead between hundreds of officers at attention at the funeral for Bakersfield police officer David Nelson at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale on July 1, 2015. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

Police officers from throughout the state gathered in Glendale in July to remember a fallen Bakersfield police officer with strong ties to Burbank.

David Nelson, a former Burbank police cadet, died after his patrol car crashed during a vehicle pursuit two years and two days after he joined the Bakersfield force.

Nelson, a 2007 graduate of Burbank High School, was remembered as a hard worker who was involved in community events organized by the Burbank Police Department.

An anonymous tip led authorities to the man suspected of leading Nelson on the pursuit.

LGBTQ community in the headlines

BUSD school board member Steve Ferguson. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

When Steve Ferguson was elected to the Burbank school board during the February primary election, he became Burbank’s first openly gay elected official.

Three months later, the California State PTA passed a resolution created by the Burbank Council PTA to include the LGBTQ perspective in health education. Burbank parents formed a committee to write the resolution at the beginning of the school year, following the lead of former John Burroughs High School student Brian Kaplun, now a student at Stanford University.

Kaplan wrote a bill while he was part of Burroughs’ Junior State of America Club, advocating for health standards on gender expression and identity. The PTA resolution will go before voters at the National PTA convention in Orlando next year, potentially paving the way for it to provide guidelines and support for school districts across the country, aiming to adopt health curriculum that is inclusive of the LGBTQ community.

Talaria displaces residents, church

The future site of the Talaria project in Burbank. (Roger Wilson / Burbank Leader)

This year, buildings at the site of the future “Talaria at Burbank” project were vacated and later demolished to make way for the 241-unit luxury apartment complex on top of a 43,000-square-foot Whole Foods in the city’s Media District.

The work brought the demise of Dimples, a karaoke bar that opened in 1982 and was billed as “America’s first.” It also forced the dislocation of other tenants, including the former Victory Baptist Church, which has been rechristened CityLight Baptist Church.

In a 4-1 vote, the City Council last year approved the Talaria project, including the $1.2-million sale of city-owned “remnant” properties to the developer, Cusumano Real Estate Group, despite many residents in the nearby neighborhood who protested the development and the increased traffic they expect it will bring, as well as existing traffic that they said the city had not done enough to address.

Since then, the city has installed temporary cul-de-sacs on four streets and an alley in the city’s Media District to allow officials to analyze the impacts of the closures on traffic in the area, where a decade-old neighborhood protection plan was only partially implemented.

The city erected temporary barriers at the beginning of the year to keep drivers on Cordova, Avon, Lima and California streets from cutting through to Alameda Avenue, a test of an attempt to restore “peace” to the neighborhood. The city is continuing analysis and outreach efforts regarding the barriers’ effectiveness.

After moving out of its former home on West Alameda Avenue home, the Baptist church began holding services at Pickwick Gardens Conference Center. In July, church officials received city approval to remodel the interior of a 12,000-square-foot warehouse at South Victory Boulevard and West Elm Avenue.

Second graduation for one classmate

Standing with her diploma in hand, graduate Olivia Menke receives a minutes-long standing ovation from her fellow graduating classmates at a Providence High School graduation ceremony recreated just for her at the Hall of Liberty at Forest Lawn in Los Angeles on Aug. 6, 2015. (Tim Berger / Staff Photographer)

As her classmates walked across the stage to accept their high school diplomas in June, Providence High School senior Olivia Menke was sedated at the UCLA Medical Center, where doctors were monitoring the swelling of her brain, the result of a car accident she was in three days before the graduation ceremony.

Menke’s absence inspired her classmates to organize a second ceremony, which they did, two months later, in August. Her classmates wore the same green caps and gowns and returned to the Hall of Liberty at Forest Lawn for the event.

The same programs were handed out, the same speeches were delivered and “Pomp and Circumstance” played for the students as they entered the hall.

That’s when family and friends gave an emotional standing ovation when Menke walked on stage.

City Manager Mark Scott retires

Burbank City Manager Mark Scott will retire Feb. 5, the city announced this week. Scott announced his decision to retire following a disagreement with the City Council on the reclassification of a city employee's job title and salary. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

In a surprising late-night development during a November City Council meeting, City Manager Mark Scott indicated to Mayor Bob Frutos that he would tender his resignation. Later that week, he announced plans to retire and in early December he and the council agreed his last day would be Feb. 5.

Then, in another unexpected turn of events, the San Bernardino City Council last week gave the go-ahead for a contract that would make Scott interim city manager of the beleaguered city for one year beginning Feb. 8. Scott said he had contacted the city about the position days before the Dec. 2 terrorist attack there.

The local saga began Nov. 16, when Frutos said Scott had threatened to resign after a three-member majority of the council declined to approve a measure the city manager had brought forward three times before and which had been funded in the city’s annual budget.

The measure would have created a new title, job description and higher salary for a Public Works Department employee to better reflect her level of responsibility, according to city staff.

Frutos had previously locked horns with Scott over the employee’s reclassification, mostly over concerns about the cost of the salary adjustment — about $14,000 a year — and the employee who would be appointed to the new position.

Scott has said he thinks Frutos has some incorrect information about the employee.

The third time before the council, the measure passed by a single vote, but Councilman David Gordon called for a revote so he could change his support to opposition, claiming he miscast his vote. He also expressed concerns about the proposed salary level.

Council members Emily Gabel-Luddy and Will Rogers had supported it.

Employees at BUSD schools accused

Several incidents were reported this year involving employees at Burbank schools who allegedly had inappropriate relationships with students or teenagers.

A former Burbank High School varsity girls volleyball coach was accused in July of having a sexual relationship with a former student five years ago and soliciting nude photos from players this year, while a former John Burroughs High School employee was charged with having sexual relationships with two female students.

Meanwhile, a Glendale man accused of soliciting an undercover police officer who was posing as a 13-year-old girl online was a substitute teacher at John Burroughs High School in Burbank for two months last year.

Three-year-old killed in tragic accident

McKaylee Grampp, 3, was remembered as an energetic girl who loved Frozen, ballet dancing and singing. She died Wednesday in a car accident in the parking garage of her Burbank home. (Courtesy of the Grampp family)

Local residents came together in August to support the family of the 3-year-old girl who died in a tragic car accident.

McKaylee Belle Gramp was remembered by loved ones as a bubbly child who loved dressing up as a princess, watching her mom put on makeup and singing “Let It Go,” from Disney’s “Frozen.”

In a heart-breaking accident, McKaylee was struck by a car driven by her father, who had been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor three months after her birth. The accident occurred in the parking garage of their small multifamily building in Burbank.

Paramedics treated her for serious injuries at the scene before transporting her to the hospital, where she died.

An online crowd-funding campaign — the donors to which included loved ones, strangers and fellow congregants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Burbank — raised more than $54,000 for the family.

Man killed in freeway collision

Southbound traffic on The Golden State (5) Freeway was diverted to the 134 freeway while Los Angeles City Fire Dept. personnel removed a body from a freeway sign in Glendale on Friday, Oct. 30, 2015. The body of the male driver was ejected from his vehicle during a traffic accident and thrown up onto the freeway sign. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

The day before Halloween, a 20-year-old Burbank man was killed in a freeway collision after he was ejected from his car and landed on an overhead freeway sign.

In an incident that spread widely on social media, Richard Pananian was speeding down the Golden State (5) freeway approaching the Ventura (134) Freeway transition when his Ford Fiesta rear-ended a pickup truck.

The impact caused his vehicle to flip multiple times up an embankment, while he was thrown out of the vehicle and landed on the overhang sign. A car enthusiast, Pananian had a five-point seat-belt harness installed in his driver’s seat, but he wasn’t wearing it at the time of the crash.

After the incident, donors contributed nearly $20,000 to an online crowd-funding campaign launched by Pananian’s cousin to help the man’s family through the loss.

Just five days before Pananian’s death, his family had hosted an Armenian matagh, or offering, to protect him from harm after he had overcome a serious health issue.

The family used salt that was blessed at a church to later cook a lamb meal, which was shared with several families.