Letter to the Editor:
Why is the Burbank City Council Voting to Diminish Public Oversight?
On August 12, the Burbank City Council will vote on a new ordinance to eliminate 18 City Commissioner positions. City Commissioners are volunteers appointed by the City Council who meet once a month to consider issues of importance to our community. City commissions hold public hearings, review staff plans and make recommendations to City Council. There are presently 22 commissions, that include Planning, Police, Transportation, Airport Authority, Infrastructure, and Arts and Culture.
The stated reason for this reduction is to make commissions more efficient by reducing the number of members on many of the commissions. Seemingly taking their cue from President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, City Council is in fact acting to remove vital public oversight that improves our community. Eliminating Commissioner positions will diminish the effectiveness of these commissions by eliminating the perspective and viewpoint these commissioners bring to the table.
I currently serve on the Burbank Transportation Commission, which is one of the commissions slated to lose two members. I was recently reappointed to my position, so my position is not at stake. What is at stake is the quality of our work. With two less voices in our deliberations there will be less opportunity to make well-reasoned recommendations to the City Council.
For example, before implementing paid parking in downtown, our commission raised important questions about protecting the privacy of residents and visitors (a private company is collecting license plate numbers and time stamps in order to enforce the paid parking) and cost efficiencies (the entire program is being outsourced, our commission recommended looking for ways to eventually bring this “in house” to reduce overhead costs). Similarly, our commission has been looking at ways to improve our BurbankBus to better serve our community, made recommendations about how to prioritize safe street improvements, and raised issues related to Taxi drivers harassing Burbank residents arriving at the airport. In each instance, it was different Commissioners who raised these issues. With two less members on the committee, perhaps these important issues would have been missed.
Additionally, our commission serves as an opportunity for staff to preview their reports before they are presented to the City Council. Often we will make suggestions that improve the clarity of these presentations such as changing the color coding on a map to make it more intelligible. This easy change most likely eliminated questions and confusion that the first iteration raised.
If you are concerned about transparency and accountability in Burbank government, please email your concerns to our City Council and, if you can, make public comment at the August 12th City Council meeting where this ordinance is scheduled to be approved. At a recent City Council meeting, one of our Council Members said that they had only received three comments on this issue and therefore the community must agree with this change. I believe there were few comments because most residents and serving Commissioners were unaware this change was happening.
As former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis sagely said, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” in regard to keeping our elected officials and paid staff honest and responsive to the public. Let’s keep that sunlight shining.
Eddy Polon
Burbank Transportation Commissioner
