Letter to the Editor:
To my friends and neighbors, something very troubling at the Burbank City Council meeting last night occurred around 10:00 PM (07/15/2025) the council heard an appeal from Marine Bezhanyan regarding the trimming of a parkway tree and a penalty assessed against her.
I do not know this person and have never met her. What I witnessed was completely unjust. The council took turns asking her to prove she DIDN’T do something. The burden of proof is always on the accuser and in this case the ‘proof’ was almost non existent. It is true and the appellant agrees she had called to report multiple trees that were in need of trimming or were sickly. This in and of itself is not conclusive proof that she in fact trimmed the tree in question or had it done. It should be noted that the tree in question was closest to her house.
The appellant stated she was out of town when the tree was trimmed, Anthony asked for proof that she was in fact out of town and when she went to retrieve the requested proof, the other council members kept asking her questions that distracted her from providing the very proof that was requested of her.
First the city stated they call each person back reporting a tree problem, then when they called the city employee to the podium to confirm, he stated he had no recollection or had not in fact done so in this case. Proof the council was acting on misinformation.
The city had originally sent her a bill for just over $12,000.00. Later, they reduced the bill to $9,600.00. This amount itself is grossly unfair for anybody.
The Burbank City Council is not the place to be hearing these kinds of appeals as the city stands to directly benefit from any money judgement/fine. Additionally, the council is friendly with the department heads and various employees and is most likely going to take the word of their friends. This puts regular citizens like you and I at a disadvantage. This is an additional clear conflict of interest.
I hope there is a mechanism for Ms. Bezhanyan to appeal to a court of law. There was no direct proof Ms. Bezhanyan did anything other than express her concerns for sickly, dangerous, and unsightly trees.
Additionally concerning was Anthony’s warning to all “let this be a lesson”. Since when do we make a lesson with non conclusive proof (at the expense of a potentially innocent person) to scare others? It is clear the Anthony’s motivations to fine the appellant were wrong. Anthony and the other other members of the council acted as if $9,600.00 was no big deal.
Also, no witness, city employee, or Ms. Bezhanyan was asked to raise a hand and affirm to tell the truth and this fact is also very troubling.
This case in my opinion was a miscarriage of justice and is no way to run a city.
Joel Schlossman
Burbank
Burbank
