Letter to the Editor:
This November, Burbank voters have an opportunity to meaningfully change the direction of our City Council. We have three votes, and I believe those votes should go to Nolan Southerland, Mike Van Gorder, and Nikki Perez. But my support for each comes for different reasons, and in Nikki’s case, with an important condition.
My strongest support is for Nolan Southerland.
Nolan represents the kind of unapologetically pro-working-class politics that I want to see more of in Burbank. In a majority-renter city where housing costs continue to push working people out, Nolan understands that housing policy is not simply about development or economics. It is about whether the people who work here, raise families here, and have built lives here are actually able to stay.
He supports stronger tenant protections, rent stabilization, and treating housing as a human right. Just as importantly, he understands that a progressive city should protect its residents from mass surveillance, stand with our immigrant neighbors, invest in public services, and make decisions based on the needs of working people rather than the interests of those with the most money and influence.
My second vote is for Mike Van Gorder.
My support for Mike is tied to how I believe he would push the Council. Mike has consistently engaged with renters, housing advocates, and other progressive voices in Burbank. He understands that our affordability crisis cannot simply be left to the market to solve and that local government has a responsibility to protect people who are struggling to remain here.
I think Mike would bring another needed progressive voice to a Council that too often approaches transformative policy cautiously. Having both Nolan and Mike on the Council would significantly change what policies are possible and which conversations are taken seriously.
That brings me to my third vote: Nikki Perez.
There is a lot about Nikki’s record and values that I appreciate, and among the choices in this election, I believe she should receive the third progressive vote. But progressives should also be willing to hold the politicians we generally agree with accountable when they get something wrong.
For me, Flock is that issue.
Burbank is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a network of automated license plate readers that records the movements of ordinary people throughout our city. And serious questions have been raised about access to this data, its use by outside law enforcement agencies, cybersecurity, privacy, and immigration enforcement. Los Angeles recently suspended its own use of Flock amid concerns over data ownership, privacy, security, and sharing.
Burbank should not be in the business of building infrastructure for mass surveillance.
Nikki has an opportunity to demonstrate real leadership on this issue. I want to see her unequivocally commit to ending Burbank’s contract with Flock and dismantling this surveillance network, not simply reforming it or replacing it with a different vendor.
That commitment matters to my support.
We shouldn’t have to choose between protecting tenants, defending immigrants, fighting for working people, and protecting civil liberties. Those values are interconnected. A progressive Burbank should do all of them.
So my three votes are Nolan Southerland, Mike Van Gorder, and Nikki Perez.
Nolan and Mike have earned my support because I believe they can help move Burbank substantially to the left. Nikki can be an important part of that coalition, but I want to see her join them in taking a clear stand against mass surveillance and commit to getting Flock out of Burbank.
Three seats are up. We should use all three votes to build the most progressive City Council Burbank has ever had, while continuing to demand that the people we elect live up to the values we elected them to represent.
Kyle Anderson
Burbank
