The Burbank Leader Editorials

Leader Editorial: After-school programs are critical and expensive

Burbank city and school officials have found themselves this month with the unenviable tasks of determining how far they can stretch their respective budgets to help subsidize after-school activities for local children.

Editorial: It's fire season so let's be extra careful

It is June, and despite the morning low clouds so typical of the month, our mountain vegetation remains parched. A scant amount of rain has fallen on this area so far in 2013 and as history has demonstrated, that scenario is unlikely to change before November.

Leader Editorial: Voters should share the pain of cuts

The first blow to Burbank's low-income seniors came in early April, when voters rejected a measure that would have kept in place funding that allowed the city to subsidize trash-hauling and sewer bills for this vulnerable segment of the population.

Leader Editorial: Will the long wade soon be over?

Assuming we can trust estimations coming out of City Hall this week, swimmers will be able to test the water at the renovated Verdugo Park pool in early June. Or maybe it will be July, August or sometime next year.

Leader Editorial: Colony show's success is a boon for the city

With the Colony Theatre teetering on the edge of insolvency, many feared its latest production, "Falling For Make Believe," might very well be its last.

Leader Editorial: Hospital can take pride in its progress

Already well-regarded by many local residents, Providence St. Joseph Hospital got a shot in the arm this week when an annual report card issued by the Leapfrog Group gave it an "A" rating in patient safety.

Leader Editorial: It's Gordon's chance to show what he can do

David Gordon, a man with seven years under his belt as a member of the Burbank City Council, was this week selected by his colleagues to serve the coming year as vice mayor. And, unless his peers lose faith in his leadership abilities within the coming 12 months, it is highly likely they will...

Leader Editorial: Lack of genocide recognition is a disgrace

On a Saturday night some 98 years ago this week, more than 200 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders living in Constantinople, today's Istanbul, were rounded up by the government. The political party in power, the "Young Turks," did not want their kind in the country, breathing the same air,...

Leader Editorial: Disowning nepotism in Burbank

At long last, the city of Burbank has put the kibosh on nepotism within City Hall, with the City Council acting this week to put into place strict changes to existing policies. Division heads will no longer be allowed to hire family members into their departments. Nor will relatives of council...

Leader Editorial: LaChasse in charge

Cleaning up a mess left behind by predecessor is difficult under any circumstances, but it's especially challenging when members of the department you're overseeing don't always have your back.

Leader Editorial: Burbank council should listen to city's attorney

Every week many private and public entities across the state welcome new employees to the job. These workers are knowledgeable about the broad scope of the tasks ahead, or they wouldn't have been hired in the first place. Nonetheless, their employers understand they will face a learning curve....

Leader Editorial: Fight to keep "The Tonight Show" in Burbank

Tell us it isn't true. We cannot believe NBC is on the brink of moving "The Tonight Show" to the East Coast.

Leader endorsements for Burbank City Council: Nos, Talamantes

With the election of Bob Frutos to the City Council last month, Burbank stated that it wants change on the dais. With the general election fast approaching, voters should continue that trend.

Leader endorsement for Burbank Unified school board: Applebaum, Ferguson

As voters go to the polls, they should remember two qualities that are equally important as they decide who will be sitting on the Burbank Unified school board the next four years — experience and passion.

Leader Editorial: Salvaging an Easter tradition

The City Council gave Peter Cottontail awfully short notice this year, but he will still be expected to make an appearance — or at least drop off thousands of colorful Easter eggs — at McCambridge Park March 30.

Leader Editorial: Mobile ads are driven out of Burbank

Whether they are an eyebrow-raising push for “Hot Topless Maids” or a pitch for more socially acceptable businesses such as a car wash, signs attached to vans, trucks or trailers that are used solely for the purpose of advertising have been banned by the City Council.

Leader Editorial: Election could change everything

Although more voters participated in Burbank's primary election this week than turned out in 2011, it still drew yawns from most. Some of those who sat back and let the others decide the outcome may wish now that they had been paying more attention and gotten in on the action.

Op-Ed: Managing a bond's risk

Recent articles in the L.A. Times have exposed alarming financial abuses resulting from the passage of Capital Appreciation Bonds (CABs) by some school districts. Please note, Burbank Unified's name is not on the L.A. Times list.

Editorial: Unsettling presence of PACs

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that money was speech, and any limit on independent campaign spending was improper, most observers correctly foresaw the imminent creation of massive and secretive political action committees weaseling their way into races large and small.

Editorial: Measuring a bond's risk

How good are you at predicting the future? Or, more to the point, what do you think it will cost to borrow money in 2023?

Editorial: We have reached an S in the road

Burbank voters are weighing two distinctly different proposals this election season that carry the same name, “Measure S.” How could such a confusing turn of events come about?

Editorial: City has the right stance on pet sales

Under a ban adopted Tuesday by the City Council, cats or dogs sold at Burbank pet stores must be obtained only from animal shelters or rescue organizations.

Editorial: District makes a secure decision

In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre last month, school officials across the nation have been taking hard looks at security on their campuses. Burbank Unified School District leaders, aware that Emerson Elementary School was the only one of the district's 11 elementary sites without a buzz-in...

Editorial: Leave schools off the bill for cleanup

The Glendale and Burbank school districts won a reprieve this week when the county Board of Supervisors delayed voting on a plan to place a storm-water cleanup proposition on the ballot, a move that could cost the districts thousands.

Editorial: Let's hear it for foresight in terms of land preservation

The substantial outpouring of support for a proposal to add almost 500,000 acres to the national parks system shows that residents who live in Los Angeles’ dense urban areas value the natural resources around them and want to preserve them for years to come.

There's still hope amid loss of state money

Burbank took a huge hit this week when state officials in charge of winding down local redevelopment stripped the city of roughly $30.5 million that had previously been earmarked for affordable housing projects.

Connecticut tragedy affects us all

Like a punch to the gut, the reaction to the shooting massacre of 20 elementary school children in Newtown, Conn., was wrenching.

Nominees have made a courageous decision to serve

Despite all the trials and travails our service men and women go through, it’s heartening that the spirit of service still runs strong among the generations coming up through the ranks.

Editorial: Battle for marriage rights began at local level

Perhaps it was inevitable that the U.S. Supreme Court would confront the issue of same-sex marriage. But in the history of great civil rights advances in this country, key players rarely wait for Fate to make her move. Instead, they forge ahead and provoke a decision to be felt for decades.

Take pride in the city's open doors

Where else in the greater Los Angeles metro area do residents get a one-on-one session with their city council to voice concerns over everything from the local hookah bar to a neighbor's brown hillside? Burbank, of course.

Bilingual education speaks to the future

Public education has changed drastically. Technology, specialized magnet campuses, charter schools, the importance of Advanced Placement courses and standardized student tests — if you graduated even 10 years ago, odds are, you wouldn't recognize your alma mater today.

IKEA stakes a bold future in Burbank

IKEA’s surprise announcement this week that it was moving ahead with plans to expand in a huge way must have sent a collective sigh of relief through City Hall, where just days before a complicated, redevelopment-related land deal to hold on to the retailer was frosted by the state.

Veterans need more than a holiday

Veterans Day is upon us, that time of year in which we all pause to remember the sacrifices of our armed forces. But this reflection should take place every day, not just Nov. 11.

A secret financial disaster

News this past weekend that the Colony Theatre faced imminent closure amid a sea of red ink took Burbank by surprise — and that in no small part is what's so troubling.

Haunted house creates a sense of community

The Haunted Wilsley Manor on North California Street is more than just an annual place to get your heart thumping, scream your voice away or collect fodder for future nightmares. It is part of what makes Burbank, Burbank.

Editor's Note: Upcoming changes

Beginning next month, the Glendale News-Press, Burbank Leader, La Cañada Valley Sun and Pasadena Sun will be undergoing some changes. Here's a preview of what to expect.

It's the humane thing to do

With Burbank moving to ban retail pet sales, it looks to be on track for joining a growing list of cities that have, or plan to, thwart the flow of puppies and kittens from mills and other large-scale breeding operations into local display windows.

Stakeholders need to step up

Twenty-five bucks here, 100 bucks there — multiply that by thousands and it can add up to one big problem for Burbank Unified.

Corridor plan is looking beautiful

Most people who drive through the San Fernando Boulevard corridor probably never stop, and why would they? The area doesn't exactly scream “Take a stroll and enjoy.”

Pension overhaul is long overdue

Gov. Jerry Brown’s pension overhaul for public employees — one of the most significant rollbacks of its kind in state history — is a huge victory for hundreds of municipalities across the state that, until now, have had to labor through exhaustive negotiations with local unions...

Nothing to lose, everything to gain

The federal Race to the Top funding program is competitive and exhaustive. But given the potentially huge pay-off, in this game Burbank Unified has nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Walmart delay is probably for the best

After a judge this week issued an injunction effectively halting progress on a planned Walmart adjacent to the Empire Center, a spokeswoman for the retailer called it a “shortsighted” stall tactic.

Getting out the vote in March

In choosing to put a proposed $110-million bond extension to voters on March 5, Burbank Unified will face the challenge of getting out the vote for what is otherwise a snoozer of an election.

A protocol for student safety

As a player, Hoover High School football Coach Andrew Policky shrugged off headaches and injuries to become a stalwart wide receiver. A graduate of Arcadia High in 1998, he never once thought to go over to a trainer when he “got his bell rung” on the field.

A time to be there for each other

The hopes of a family were dashed this week with the discovery of the body of FBI Special Agent Stephen Ivens in the foothills above St. Francis Xavier. Ivens' wife, Thea, bravely refused to give up hope that her husband of eight years would return to her and their 2-year-old son, but it was not...

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