After a 3 month delay, City Council to appoint one new member to the Planning Board
Time: Tuesday, October 25, 2022, 6:00 pm
Council meetings are now open to the public if you can attend in person, you can speak either during public comment or before the appointment vote.
IF YOU CANNOT ATTEND IN PERSON, CALL DURING GENERAL PUBLIC comment. This is usually within the first 20 to 30 minutes of the meeting AFTER CALL-TO-ORDER. You are allowed to speak about any topic.
How to View the Meeting:
Local Cable: Spectrum Channel 6 or AT&T Uverse Channel 99.
YouTube Live Streaming Channel: Click here.
City Website Live Streaming: Click here.
Public Comment:
1. To speak during the Public Comment period during the meeting, call (818) 238-3335.
a. City staff will be submitting comments in real time to the Mayor during the Meeting.
2. eComment will remain open until 3:15 pm. the afternoon of the meeting.
3. Email the City Council directly citycouncil@burbankca.gov Emails received on or before 3:15 p.m. on City Council Meeting day will be distributed to the City Council in advance of the meeting. Any correspondence received after this time will be distributed the following business day.
YOU HAVE 3 MINUTES TO SAY WHATEVER YOU WANT - Please consider some/ all of the following to talk about.
A little background...
Simon Hammel was one of three people volunteering to serve on the Planning Board. He filed before the original deadline in July along with two other candidates. Before the scheduled August City Council meeting, one of the volunteers dropped out leaving only two people pursuing the position.
During the August meeting, Vice Mayor Anthony was away on vacation and the Council unanimously voted to delay the appointment until all members were present, due to the importance of the position. At that meeting, a member proposed re-opening the application period because only two eligible applicants remained in the process. Sharon Springer voted against this idea, and the pool remained the same consisting of two residents.
Over a month later on Sept 13th, 2022 they tried again. However, this time Sharon Springer changed her vote without explanation to re-open the application process again delaying another month. During this meeting a small number of people called in to disparage Simon and the Mayor did nothing to stop it. One of the callers was a disgruntled neighbor of Simon's whose house project was appealed because of a long list of violations, not the least of which was the illegal cutting down of one of Burbank's iconic palm trees on Bel Aire Drive, simply to widen his driveway to a ridiculous degree.
Long story, short, Simon Hammel is a hard working, extremely detailed person who is very concerned about the quality of life in Burbank and maintaining property values as the State attempts to destroy our neighborhoods with high density projects, especially in light of our 20+ year drought. Simon is not afraid to ruffle feathers.
I asked him to summarize his motivation to serve in this UNPAID position:
"Key issues for me are making sure that the City of Burbank is able to retain its small town feel as much as possible as we add needed housing across income levels, seeking ways to incentivize buildings that prioritize entry level ownership, and help small businesses grow. I also hope during the course of learning more about our permitting and land use process, public discourse will occur to focus attention on the long term quality-of-life concerns and values that have made Burbank a city apart from other cities.
It is my strong belief that this diversity between cities and outcomes has been ignored by our own State representatives and I hope that our work will lead them to recognize the importance of direct democratic input by the residents of a place on the most immediate and local concerns. This privilege of self-determination has been increasingly degraded over the last seven or eight years, unfortunately by our own representatives. I hope that there will be projects that facilitate some of the discussions of things like parking/ transit and how they relate to people’s precious time to spend with their family."
I hope some of you will take the time to either attend the City Council meeting in person, call in, or send an email in support of Simon Hammel.
Please refrain from any negative comments about other candidates, but I think it would be appropriate to mention the unfairness of making Simon and the other original volunteer to wait months for a decision and then opening up the application process to people who did not bother to apply on-time for the position.
I am out of state, but will be calling in to support Simon Hammel, but it would really help if some new voices called in or emailed council. They get tired of hearing me all the time! ;)
The whole Burbank City Council can be emailed at one time: CCityCouncil@burbankca.gov
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As always, please direct questions or comments to info@preserveburbank.com or call Jim Casey at 818-641-9050 with any questions or concerns.
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