Burbank Files Civil Action to Disconnect Power and Padlock Doors of Tinhorn Flats

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Photo By: Edward Tovmassian

After getting direction from the Burbank City Council in a closed session on February 23, 2021, City Attorney Amy Albano has filed a civil action on behalf of the City against Tinhorn Flats that asks for the power to be disconnected and the doors padlocked.

The complaint list three causes for action which include operating without a County Health Permit, second, operating after their Conditional Use Permit (CUP) was revoked by the City of Burbank and, third, according to the complaint, “Burbank Municipal Code section 10-1-409 provides: ‘Any property, building or structure used, erected, constructed, moved or altered in violation of the Zoning Ordinance is declared to be a public nuisance.’ Each and every Defendant’s continued operation of Tin Horn Flats without a CUP violates the Zoning Ordinance and is a public nuisance per se.”

A City Council public hearing on February 22, 2021 ruled that Tinhorn Flats was in violation of their CUP  by a unanimous vote.

Facts that were brought up in the hearing gave a timeline of the different violations Tinhorn Flats was accused of after the County Issued a Health Order that only let restaurants run a pick-up/take-out business and did not allow for any dining inside or outdoors at the restaurants. Health Inspectors also claimed to be threatened by customers during their visits.

According to the City’s action, it documented where Tinhorn Flats openly disregarded the Orders and used social media to document their actions.

The City has asked for the court to grant the following:

1. For injunctive relief prohibiting Defendants, as well as all of their agents, officers,and employees, from operating or allowing the operation of Tin Horn Flats without the necessary use permit and public health permit and/or in a manner that violates the Burbank Municipal Code;

 

  1. For injunctive relief to permit the City to disconnect the electric power at Tin Horn Flats until Defendants obtain all valid and legally required permits to operate Tin Horn Flats;

 

  1. For injunctive relief to permit the City to padlock the doors to Tin Horn Flats until Defendants obtain all valid and legally required permits to operate Tin Horn Flats.

 

  1. That Defendants’ conduct at Tin Horn Flats, as alleged above, be declared a continuing public nuisance pursuant to Civil Code sections 3479 and 3480 and Burbank Municipal Code sections 1-1-108 and 10-1-409;

 

  1. For an abatement order requiring Defendants, as well as all of their agents, officers, and employees, to undertake the necessary remedial measures to bring Tin Horn Flats into compliance with California law and the Burbank Municipal Code with respect to permitted restaurant operations;

 

  1. That Defendants, each jointly and separately, be ordered to pay attorney’s fees and costs of suit; and

  2. For any other relief that the Court sees as just and proper.

It is not known when the court will rule on the complaint.

    Zonta

    19 COMMENTS

    1. You forgot to mention that the restaurant closures were based on nonsense: no science or statistics were offered to that could connect outdoor dining, while wearing masks, with tables over 6ft apart, to increased spread of covid. This is Burbank government over-reach plain and simple. A better question is: What has the city of Burbank done for Tin Horn to help them? Nothing.

    2. Sounds like Burbank is anti-business, anti-science and is being overrun with tattle tells, crybabies, snitches, Karens and weinies. You drive around the city only to see faceless drones, being obedient little sheep with their masks up to their eyeballs, even when walking alone an empty sidewalks. Even the poor little kids are being forced to have their faces covered even when actual science and actual data show that children aren’t the ones spreading nor do they fall terribly ill. But that’s a totally different issue altogether. The sweet, friendly little town I grew up in has turned rotten. This is no longer about your health, this is about control.

      • Wow! How many and who here leaving comments in defense of this establishment is a biology expert / professor or an epidemiology expert? While you are so staunch with your “opinions” you may want to first engage your brain with some much needed critical thinking skills and do some research first. How much do you actually know about Successful Infection = Exposure to Virus x Time

        If a person coughs or sneezes, those 200,000,000 viral particles go everywhere. Some virus hangs in the air, some falls into surfaces, most falls to the ground. So if you are face-to-face with a person, having a conversation, and that person sneezes or coughs straight at you, it’s pretty easy to see how it is possible to inhale 1,000 virus particles and become infected.

        But even if that cough or sneeze was not directed at you, some infected droplets–the smallest of small–can hang in the air for a few minutes, filling every corner of a modest sized room with infectious viral particles. All you have to do is enter that room within a few minutes of the cough/sneeze and take a few breaths and you have potentially received enough virus to establish an infection.

        But with general breathing, 20 viral particles minute into the environment, even if every virus ended up in your lungs (which is very unlikely), you would need 1000 viral particles divided by 20 per minute = 50 minutes.

        Speaking increases the release of respiratory droplets about 10 fold; ~200 virus particles per minute. Again, assuming every virus is inhaled, it would take ~5 minutes of speaking face-to-face to receive the required dose.

        The exposure to virus x time formula is the basis of contact tracing. Anyone you spend greater than 10 minutes with in a face-to-face situation is potentially infected. Anyone who shares a space with you (say an office) for an extended period is potentially infected. This is also why it is critical for people who are symptomatic to stay home. Your sneezes and your coughs expel so much virus that you can infect a whole room of people.

        • Just wondering…your qualifications and published scientific evidence backup on all the claims?

      • If you truly grew up in Burbank you would realize that Burbank is anything but anti-business. This owner continually broke the law. Never once approached the city about a compromise. He never even appeared at the hearing. In fact, he hasn’t even been in the country for over 6 months.

        As for your insults…you are one of the many that are tearing our city apart. If you don’t believe in science that is your prerogative. If you have a problem with the city you should try to find a way to rectify it. Complaining about it and insulting people lowers your stand point.

        The next time you see me running on Chandler give me a wave….I’ll be the one wearing a mask until we’re safely out of this pandemic.

    3. Hopefully the Burbank bioterrorists who are drunk with power, will go down with the NY, Pa, NJ, Mich, and rest of the willing and emboldened psychopaths. You can tell who they are because those who developed and deployed the bioweapon are NEVER attacked, only children, families, and businesses.

    4. The city of Burbank is absolutely doing the right thing. The owners of Tin Horn Flats refused to follow the law and pandemic safety guidelines. They flaunted their open business at a time when merely going out to eat could cost you your life.

      Let’s also remember the abhorrent images splashed across the media of outraged customers of THF yelling at and abusing an inspector sent to investigate what was happening during this crisis. They tried to intimidate her because she was doing her job and these images, above all else, spelled the end for THF.

      Our leaders are trying to save our lives. They’re following common sense guidelines put forth by the government and scientists. While I’m sorry to see Burbank lose another business, the owners of THF are most deserving of these actions.

    5. The tyrannical, dictatorial overreach of government is on full display as hysterical, anti-science dictates destroy this business for no reason. A shameful day for Burbank.

      • You may want to read the evidence attachments to the case that the Burbank City Council posted, or even view the videos of people eating indoors because the owner said he “has nothing to lose,” before making a clearly uninformed statement like this. There is definitely reason…in fact, lots of reasons. You simply need to take the time to research and learn for yourself first-hand. Here is the video of the actual hearing – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3HcYoT-v5A As stated by the council members, they do not wish to shut anyone down in Burbank, but they do need for business owners to comply with local orders and laws. THF is in trouble because they flagrantly flout the law and aim to do what they please no matter what. Somehow they view themselves as above the law. The City Council has a duty to its citizens to care and protect them as they feel is necessary.

        This is also not the first time by any means that THF has broken the law or created trouble for the community. The last few years for them have been an utter shitshow. The owner should take his money and walk away instead of wasting it on a celebrity attorney who is cashing in on this fool’s errand.

    6. THF is now taking up a legal defense fund. They actually have fools giving money to a restaurant owner that is a rich property owner throughout Los Angeles as well. His Hollywood THF restaurant was shut down and subsequently blew up under suspicious circumstances (insurance fraud). Shortly after that, the owner moved to Thailand where his brother and business partner lives. He has never lived in the US while we’ve been going through this pandemic but seems to think he is an expert on it. He’s getting the usual anti-maskers and anti-science idiots on his side to support him when he doesn’t even need financial support. He has a long list of failed businesses and seems hell-bent on making this another one to try and push his foolish agenda. If anyone read the charges against him or saw the videos of people eating inside, you would agree with shutting him down. Baret Lepejian has had every opportunity to embrace and engage with the local community in a positive way to make the best of a bad situation but has chosen to take the wrong path instead. As stated during his hearing (that he could not be bothered to show up at), he is the only restaurant in Burbank that has done this and is now suffering the consequences. He could have survived easily (especially with his money) if he had offered take-out orders, delivery, and stuck with outdoor dining while allowed. Instead, he puts his poor son Lucas in front of the Burbank City Council to attempt to parrot his talking points and ends up looking like a fool. This is a mess that he caused and is now crying foul.

      • The most basic function of the government is to manage emergencies. Laws take time to pass. Emergencies come and go. We don’t need permanent mask and dining laws, we need temporary mask and dining rules. Literally every other restaurant in Burbank has followed the rules. The burden was simply not undue especially considering the government loans available. If the court decides the government has can’t enforce rules to prevent deaths in a deadly pandemic, you literally have anarchy.

    7. Thanks William for giving us a character reference of the owner. I didn’t know anything about who owned the place. He’s doing business based on some old, embedded values that American’s still hold dear. The fact that he didn’t even show up for the hearing says volumes. He probably deserves everything the Burbank City Council will shoulder him with.

    8. Tyrants emerge when a government is too weak to enforce the law. For all the talk about big bad government, the problem throughout most of history and throughout the world now is weak, corrupt government. Take Mexico – cartels control mass swaths of geography because the government is not powerful enough to stop them. What happens when a country like the US refuses to enforce laws is “strong men” emerge and promise to bring order. They identify an enemy (communists, immigrants, etc) and use it to distract the citizenry while they set up the system so it benefits solely themselves. The US is at a very dangerous point. Our inability to hold murders like the Sackler family, rapists like Jefferey Epstein, money launderers and insurrectionists like Donald Trump, fraudsters like Rick Scott, kidnappers like Stephen Miller, scammers like Jon Corzine and yes deadly disease spreading scofflaws like Baret Lepijian accountable is destroying the rule of law. It is turning us into corrupt 2nd world hole where people will start begging for tyranny. It wasn’t the Germans that suffered under Hitler. It was everybody else. Bootlicking? I’ll take the rule of law over the rule of “The Barets” anyway. Laws, not Men. Shut it down. The family should never be able to own a business in Burbank again.

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