Burbank police commissioner to resign

A Burbank police commissioner who had come under scrutiny after suggesting a speaker in November be “slapped around a bit” announced plans to resign Wednesday.

Police Commissioner Jim Etter, who made the comment about a speaker during the public comment portion of a joint meeting with the City Council, issued a statement Wednesday saying he was resigning his city post to fulfill a commission appointment from Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

In his resignation letter, Etter did not elaborate on his county commission appointment, except to say that its demands would “circumvent my attentiveness to Burbank police Commission business.”

The City Council on Tuesday had been scheduled to take up censuring Etter over his comments after the Police Commission declined to take up the matter in February, but the discussion was postponed.

Etter said in his letter that he believed the commission had made “great advances in the nearly three-years I have served,” adding that he prayed his resignation “is accepted in the spirit and intent as a positive step in the right direction…”