City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

From Burbank, the media capital of the world.

To participate in a public comment period, please join via Zoom using the link on the agenda. Or call now at 238-3335. Speaking times will be determined by the total number of public comment cards and remote participants in the queue at the start of each public comment period. For 1 to 20 total speakers, each speaker will receive up to 3 minutes. For 21 to 39 total speakers, each speaker will receive up to 2 minutes. And for 40 plus total speakers, each speaker will receive up to 1 minute. No additional commenters will be accepted once a public comment period begins.

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Good evening and welcome to a regular meeting of the Burbank City Council on Tuesday, August 11th, 2026. Please join me for a moment of reflection. This moment is intended to begin our meeting with the positive and collective support for our beloved community. The City Council welcomes everyone joining us this evening. We encourage you to take a moment to reflect on our community and the work we will be doing tonight. Although each of us has our own unique reasons for being here, we are united in our passion for our wonderful city. As we pause, let us consider our individual contributions and what they mean to those around us. Let us find solace in knowing that by working together with a shared spirit of community and partnership, we will always act responsibly for the betterment of Burbank.

Thank you.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Ready, begin.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Good evening, Madam City Clerk. Good to see you. Good evening, Madam Mayor. Please conduct the roll call.

Council Member Anthony. Here. Council Member Perez. Here. Council Member Rosati.

I am here.

Vice Mayor Mullins. Here. And Mayor Tagahashi.

Here.

Thank you.

There will be three periods of public comment tonight. Members of the public may comment in person or remotely for all comment periods. In-person commenters must submit cards before the public comment period begins and remote commenters must be in the queue with their hands raised before the public comment period begins. The first public comment period is for general public comment on any matter concerning city business and or any agenda item. If you are here in person and wish to speak during general public comment, please submit a yellow public comment card to address the council to our city clerk here in the front. If you'd like to participate in the general public comment remotely, please join via Zoom using the link in the agenda or by calling 818-238-3335. If you are already participating remotely and would like to speak during general public comment, please join the speaker queue now by using the raise hand feature in Zoom or by dialing star nine on your phone. Once the general public comment period begins, no additional comments will be taken. If you are experiencing any issues with joining remotely, please feel free to call 818-238-5752 for technical assistance. Additional public comment periods will be available following each report to Council this evening. Interpreters are also available for assistance with public comment. We have an Armenian interpreter with us tonight, and please connect with her if you are in need of services. Feel free to walk over to her and ask for services. We now have four announcements this evening.

following our announcements for August 11th, 2026. Owners of qualifying soft story apartments may be eligible for a new California grant program that can help reduce the cost of required seismic retrofits. The earthquake multi-unit retrofit grant program offers reimbursement for up to 70% of eligible engineering permit and retrofit construction costs. This includes up to $7,000 for engineering and permits and up to $4,260 per each residential unit for construction costs. Amounts cover qualifying five to 10 unit wood frame apartment buildings. Eligible property owners may qualify for a substantial grant of up to $49,600 per qualifying apartment building. Registration opens on August 19th, 2026, but funding is limited. Property owners must be approved by the program before retrofit construction begins qualify for reimbursement. To learn more, check your eligibility, or sign up for updates, visit crmp.org forward slash EMR. The Burbank Animal Shelter is participating in NBC4 and Telemundo 52's annual Clear the Shelters pet adoption campaign from August 1st through August 31st. To help clear our shelter, the Burbank Animal Shelter will be offering half-off adoption fees for all animals all month long. Visit our pets in person or see them online at burbankanimalshelter.org. Find information and support for individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness, including outreach services, housing assistance, local service providers, ways to help, and answers to frequently asked questions at burbankca.gov slash resources. For the latest information on the city's point in time homeless count, visit burbankca.gov slash homelessness. The City of Burbank is launching a new three-part Media Industry Expo series, building on the success of the 2024 and 2025 Media Industry Expo and Job Fair. Developed in response to feedback from attendees, exhibitors, and industry partners, The new format will feature smaller, specialized events designed to foster more meaningful networking, in-depth discussions, and targeted career development opportunities. The first event in the series, the Career Transitions Expo, will take place on September 18, 2026 at the University of Redlands, Los Angeles. Future expos will focus on writers in January 2027 and production and design in May 2027. For more information, visit burbankmediaexpo.org. This concludes the announcements for the evening. Thank you.

All right. Our one presentation this evening is a presentation of certificates to the Burbank student sister city delegates returning from Incheon, Korea. Did you all just fly in? No, it's been a while. Okay. I wonder if you're tired. All right. I'm inviting Dante Gutierrez and Megan Lee to join me at the podium. Would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your experience?

Yes. Sure, if you'd like to. Sure.

Good evening, Mayor Takahashi, Vice Mayor Mullins, and council members. My name is Danto Gutierrez, and this is my fellow delegate, Megan Lee. We are two of the delegates chosen from Burbank's sister city committee to travel to South Korea. Just over three weeks ago, my nine other fellow delegates and I landed in LAX, and it's safe to say I was heartbroken to have our journey end. During our 11 days, I was able to absorb so much cultural knowledge, and what really blew me away was their forward-thinking mindset that was in the form of IFES, or Incheon Free Economic Zone. We were able to get our own tour of the Central Operations Center, which is connected to over 1,000 cameras and 7,000 sensors throughout the three districts. Their use is one data collector that can not only be used for security, but can monitor traffic flow, air quality, energy usage, and public safety. Songdo, the Incheon district that we stayed in, is built on 1,500 acres of reclaimed land from the LLC, a project that began in 1994 and is still expanding today. And beyond the forward thinking, we got to see how it directly impacted education when we visited Inchonara High School for two days. From the moment we arrived until the time we left, the students and staff of Inchonara High School welcomed us with incredible warmth and hospitality. I received so much insight on school life and culture, including four classes that we were able to attend alongside second and third year high schoolers. One of my favorites being a computer science class where we integrated everyday AI like Google Gemini and created our own applications to solve everyday problems in Korea as well as the US. On a cultural level, we joined a traditional drumming class that learned the Jonggu, an hourglass shaped drum. What made the experience truly special was that the music teacher didn't speak any English at all. The language barrier instantly turned into an opportunity and the local students stepped in to teach us directly. forcing us to communicate through their second language, body language, and music. That hands-on connection that made our bond far stronger than any typical classroom lesson ever could have. We carried those connections right into Seoul, where we spent an unforgettable and really hot day exploring Gyeongbokgung Palace as well as the vibrant neighborhood of Seongsu-dong. Dressing up in traditional hanboks made the experience in the palace much more authentic and fun, and being able to walk through Seongsu-dong's crowded, bustling streets and visit local stores gave us the true taste of everyday Korean youth culture. But what made the day truly special was being rejoined by the Korean exchange students who had previously visited us in Burbank. Having our past exchange partners walk us through their home city with us made the experience deeply personal and truly seemed to bring our sister city connections. And this trip showed me that the sister city connection is way more than just a formal agreement. It's the high-tech innovations that we learned from, the classroom barriers that we were able to break through, and the lifelong friendships that were built between Burbank and Inchon. I want to thank the Burbank Sister City Committee, the City Council, Vice Mayor Mullins, and Mayor Takahashi for making this life-changing exchange possible. We return to Burbank not only as travelers, but as global citizens. And I'm ready to keep building these global bonds for the time to come. Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Takahashi, Vice Mayor Mullins, and council members. My name is Megan Lee, and I had the opportunity to host two students from Ota during this year's student exchange. Being able to host these students was an unforgettable experience. Even though we came from different countries and cultures, it didn't take long for us to become friends. At first, I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure if there would be any language barriers. But after spending time together, I realized that we could connect through simple conversations and shared experiences. It was exciting to be able to share some of my everyday life in Burbank while also being able to hear about their life in Oda. Some of my favorite memories were having meals together at Porto's in In-N-Out. It was fun introducing them to foods that are popular here in California and seeing their reactions as they try them for the first time. Even something as simple as eating together gave us a chance to talk about our different cultures, favorite foods, and daily lives. I also loved playing card games at home like Uno because it brought everyone together. Even though we spoke different languages, we could still joke around and laugh together. Another highlight of this trip was taking them shopping at the Grove and the Americana. I enjoyed showing them some of my favorite places to shop and hearing what they thought about them. It was interesting to see which stores caught their attention and compare what shopping is like in Japan versus here. Hosting has taught me that friendship doesn't depend on speaking the same language perfectly or having the exact same background. What matters most is being open-minded and making an effort to understand one another. This hosting experience gave me memories and friendships that I will always cherish, and I hope to stay in touch with the students I hosted for many years to come. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your stories and your sharing your experiences with us. At this time, I would like to present each of the student delegates a certificate of participation for your involvement in the Burbank Sister City program. And thank you again for representing our city.

Oh, you're going to help me? Oh, good. Yay. So do you want to go ahead and? I'll go.

First one is Adara Chee. And I think we're gonna do a group photo at the end, so if you can stand there and we'll do everybody together.

Okay.

Dante Miller Gutierrez. Next up is Avery Halucic.

Megan Lee.

Kiera Mazurek. Everly Quil. Camila Roldan. Mateo Roldan. And Silverina Santora. Congratulations to all. Please come in for a photo.

Do you want to open your certificate?

There you go.

OK, looking right here. One, two, three.

So this is an exciting opportunity for our high schoolers. And for those of you who think you might have aged out of the program, know that every year two chaperones have to go with them. So they're always looking for chaperones. So you could participate too. Congratulations all. Mr. City Manager, do we have any reports tonight?

Yes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have a couple of items for tonight, a couple of brief items. The first item, I'd like to bring up our Public Works Director, and he's going to talk about our new electric trash truck.

May I have the presentation, please? Good evening, Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. I am Damian Skinner, your Public Works Director. And I have some very exciting news to share about the city's refuse collection operation. But before I do, let me provide a bit of context. So in the past, trash was collected manually using diesel-powered vehicles. Don't they look happy? Today, trash is collected hydraulically with a hydraulic arm with vehicles powered by compressed natural gas, which is about 20% cleaner burning than diesel. While this is now the industry standard, we are Burbank. We don't do standard, we set it. So allow me to introduce you to the city's first electric trash truck. It is 100% electrically powered, zero emissions, has a range of 225 miles, and is able to complete an entire route on 19% charge. So very excited about this. We are working with the city manager's office to schedule a demonstration and a ride-along, so more information is forthcoming. Thank you.

Okay, so talking trash. That one's going to be hard to beat, but I do have one more. I'm going to call up our community development director, Patrick Prescott. He's got some exciting news.

Good evening, Mayor Takahashi and members of the City Council. I'm very pleased to share some exciting news about Burbank's continued leadership and commitment to the film and television industry. The city has officially been recognized as a regional film partner of the California Film Commission, and this is an important designation for Burbank as it formalizes our relationship with the state agency responsible for supporting and reporting and retaining film, television, and commercial production in California. As regional film partner, Burbank will be part of a statewide network of film-friendly communities. The California Film Commission can direct production companies and location inquiries to the city, promote Burbank's filming locations through its statewide resources, and assist with permitting and production issues. The partnership will also allow us to exchange information and best practices from film offices throughout California. In addition, the city is pursuing associate membership in FLIX, which stands for Film Liaisons in California Statewide. FLIX is the professional association of local film commissions, film offices, and government film liaisons. Membership will provide valuable opportunities for networking, industry education, collaboration, and the sharing of production leads and information. The recognition is especially meaningful at a time when California faces significant competition for film and television production. Burbank is already home to some of the world's most important entertainment companies, and this partnership helps us build on that remarkable legacy. It sends a clear message that Burbank is committed to remaining responsive, collaborative, and enthusiastically film friendly. Ultimately, this designation will help us support our studios, production companies, crews, small businesses, and the thousands of jobs connected to Burbank's creative economy. It is a great recognition for the media capital of the world and another positive step in strengthening Burbank's position at the heart of the entertainment industry. I want to thank our economic development staff and the police department film office for their work in securing this important relationship. In the next month or so, we will be bringing to council the recommendations from the Creative Industry Task Force, some of which involve film permits, for your consideration. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Excellent news indeed. Excellent news indeed. All right, thank you for both of those reports. Our next item is a presentation of a federal legislative update from the United States Congress member, Laura Friedman. I welcome Congress member Laura Friedman to begin the presentation. Welcome. Good to see you. And I applaud your color choices for your address this evening.

I'm very glad that we coordinated earlier today. I want to thank all of you for having me here today. It's wonderful to be back. As you know, when I came into office, I made a pledge to continue to go to all of my cities to present my work every year. I represent five different cities. And I'm not going to tell you which one's my favorite, but I don't wear everyone's sticker. So I'm really happy to be here and to share some updates. Since the last time I was here, talking about the things that I'm working on, what I've been able to deliver for Burbank and for the district. Great, we've got the PowerPoint. This last year has been a rough year for our community in many ways, but there have been some silver linings that I'd like to talk about in terms of what I've been focusing on. I led the call early on for a thorough and robust review of the Paramount-Warner Brothers merger, leading a letter that 32 of my colleagues here in California signed onto, and asking Attorney General Rob Bonta to do a thorough review of the merger, to look at the impacts that it's going to have on workers and on consumers. And because we have not been able to trust the Trump administration's agencies to review corporate consolidations and mergers. And we have seen a lot of negative impacts over the years from large corporate consolidations. And the fear is that this merger, which impacts Burbank very directly, could have the same kind of negative results. We are still tracking this merger as it goes forward, but I remain committed to fighting for the people of Burbank and for all of the workers here in Los Angeles. My Don't Penalize Victims Act, which prevents disaster victims like the ones in the fires here in Los Angeles from being penalized for accepting charity from friends and neighbors, is now in the Bipartisan Fixing Emergency Management for Americans, or FEMA, Act. So really happy to see that move forward. And this was the result of hearing from a lot of folks in particularly the Altadena area that when their synagogues or their friends were setting up GoFundMe pages, FEMA was actually deducting that charity amount from the small amount that they get from FEMA. So people weren't really raising money for victims. They were raising money for FEMA. So I was able to find bipartisan partners to work with me on this. And this now is moving forward. And assuming that that larger bill passes, We will once and for all make it clear that if you receive outside charity care, that's on top of any small amount of money that you get from the federal government. When the Trump administration and the FCC tried to chill free speech, as they continue to do, and pulled Jimmy Kimmel's show off the air over a joke that he made on late night television, I led a rally with union members, local elected officials, and a veteran to defend the First Amendment, and we won. They did pull back on the Kimmel show, and the show was reinstated, but we do see the Trump administration right now going after ABC. and demanding that their television stations do early renewal applications for their license. Just out of pure vindictiveness and because Trump doesn't like the way that they are covering him, particularly he doesn't like jokes on television, he's doing this vindictively and illegally and we are leading efforts to try to put a stop to that as well right now. And lastly, I have been named the co-convener of the House Democratic Housing Affordability Working Group by Leader Hakeem Jeffries. This is a group that's bringing members together to lower the cost of living for hardworking families. So the leader has put together five different working groups in five areas. And one of them is housing costs. And that's a huge cost driver here in our region. We see people when they leave Los Angeles often point to the high cost of housing. And that, coupled with the high cost of consumer goods because of the Trump tariffs and lots of other reasons, has led to a lot of pain with our constituents. So I am happy to be co-leading the working group to try to bring stability to the housing market, make sure we have the housing that we need, and to lower costs so that people can afford housing costs, grocery bills, and to save for a rainy day. Now, in terms of my legislative focus, my focus on Congress has centered not just on combating the Trump administration, which, by the way, we do a lot of. And there's a lot of co-authorship that we've entered into around just that, but also to build a platform to support our positive priorities here in California. And that's what I'd like to talk about tonight. That includes supporting wildfire victims, protecting health care, and defending our community members from ICE raids that make our communities less safe. I'm also making significant progress on a national film tax credit because so many businesses here in our region and across Los Angeles depend on that industry. I'm helping to lead the No Mask for ICE Act, which would prohibit ICE agents from concealing their identities during enforcement actions so that if there is a civil rights violation, if someone believes their civil rights have been violated, and we have unfortunately seen a lot of examples of these rogue agents violating people's civil rights, we will know who did it. We'll have a record. People will be able to get justice. We'll be able to have accountability. And right now, that's something that's sorely lacking with ICE. Because if we don't have transparency and we don't have accountability, we don't have a trustworthy government. And that's a fundamental tenet of government is being able to have a transparent government. And particularly people that are carrying guns and badges need to make sure that they are accountable to the public that they are supposed to be serving. That's part of the reason why I am committed to continuing to vote against giving a cent more to ICE as they assault and kill innocent Americans and community members across our nation and right here in our backyard. I have also authored the bipartisan Safe and Affordable Transit Act, which provides safety improvements on public transit without putting the burden on local taxpayers or on riders. I have also introduced the bipartisan Next Gen Road Safety Act, which seeks to stop high-speed car races before they become dangerous. This is by unlocking, for the first time, federal investments for local law enforcement to access cutting-edge de-escalation tools. Right now there's no grants for that. This would open up the ability for local law enforcement, like here in Burbank, to work on the next generation of de-escalation tools. And there's a lot of really cool ones being developed. So I have a lot of... faith that we're going to hopefully put an end to that carnage. I talked about the Don't Penalize Victims Act. And I'm co-leading the Build Hubs Act, which is bipartisan and bicameral, meaning it's also got bipartisan offers in the Senate. This would spur housing production by unlocking federal programs that right now are being held back by red tape for transit-oriented development. This would be something that cities would be able to enter into with the federal government through some federal programs that right now are existing, but extremely hard for local governments to access. So this would be something that would allow Burbank to access federal money to do things like upgrade the sewer, upgrade public transportation, and invest directly in low-income housing in the places that we need it the most, which is near transit. And then in terms of the specific promises for Burbank, I'm proud to have secured millions of dollars in federal investments for this city, working hand in hand with all of you. And I want to thank you for your hard work and your requests for money and your partnership with us. So you may have seen these in the news recently, but I was able to secure $1,092,000 for the replacement of the Burbank Water and Power potable water reservoir to ensure that this community has access to clean and reliable water, and certainly more water in case of an emergency. $250,000 to update and install customer information signs and monitors at the Burbank and Glendale Metrolink stations so that when you're there, you'll know when your train is coming or know if it's not coming and how to catch the bus. $250,000 for shade structures, seating, and real-time arrival information at Metro bus stops, where right now there currently are none. Because no one wants to be standing in the hot sun when you're waiting for a bus. And no one wants to be mystified about when that bus is going to come. And I'm working on more investments for Burbank. I'm happy to give you a little spoiler alert on a few things that I'm working on securing for next year. An expansion of the Burbank Water and Powers Development Training Facility that will help train up skilled journeymen and linemen to support our region's energy needs. Good jobs where we need them, right here in Burbank working on infrastructure. A seed investment to create a real-time intelligence center so that Burbank's first responders have the tools they need to prevent and solve crimes and improve public safety. an investment to replace the fire department's existing drill tower with a modular facility allowing our firefighters to do live fire training. Now, my office has been busy at work for the district in so many ways this year. By the numbers, our casework team, and we're a small but mighty office, we have solved almost 1,325 constituent cases this year, returning more than $17 million directly to taxpayers in cases ranging from Social Security issues to immigration. And to remind people, if you have questions or problems with federal agencies and you live in the 30th Congressional District, don't hesitate. Reach out to my team through our website or by phone. We will do our very best to help you. I have attended and held more than 15 town halls, rallies, and roundtables where I have got to meet directly with constituents and stakeholders, answer their questions, and work on a path forward. And we go out into the community, into pockets of the community that don't always come to city council meetings. We want to make sure that we're meeting people where they are at. I have answered more than 197, 718,000 constituent questions from folks who call or write to my office. I have also joined over 100 community events all across this large district. I've joined on to more than 902 letters to various federal agencies, championed 315 pieces of legislation. So I've co-authored 315 pieces of legislation, too many to read here tonight. and authored 11 bills of my own, as you heard, and I am just getting started. It's been a very tumultuous year and a half in Congress and in the world, but these are my guiding lights as we close out the other half of the year. I remain committed to making people's life more affordable in these difficult times. The price of everything has gone up. Groceries and essentials grow more out of reach. Families are struggling to pay their rent or their mortgage. My constituents need relief now, and I have been fighting every day to find ways of doing that from the federal level. I'll continue to stand up for our democracy. That means pushing back against the Trump administration's ongoing attack against our communities and against our state. I'm committed to defending healthcare access, especially as constituents see their healthcare premiums rise exponentially. and as their subsidies from the federal government to pay for the ACA has been slashed. Our wildfire victims are still looking for help and answers. I am prioritizing them and all disaster survivors in my legislative work because when fellow Americans need our help, this should not be a partisan issue. The government should help everyone equally regardless of whether or not they voted a certain way. regardless of what state they reside in. We're now two years away from the 2028 Olympic Games, and I am working hard to not only prepare our region to welcome visitors from all over, but to land investments in infrastructure, transit, and security that will stay and benefit Angelenos long after the closing ceremony. And we have four Olympic locations in the 30th Congressional District, so it's going to be pretty exciting around here. As a former film producer and someone who's seen how LA suffers when the film and television industry goes elsewhere, bringing back production has been one of my top priorities. And we are making tremendous progress on a national film tax credit. It's something I work on every single day. And I will tell you that this is not pie in the sky. We are seeing real progress. And we have an incredible large coalition that is working together, from the studios to the independent producers to the small businesses to the talent to the unions. We're all on the same page, and this is a huge and national nationwide effort. You can contact me or my staff through my office in Washington, DC or in Burbank. The information to call is on the screen. Hopefully you can see that at home. My website URL is there. It's a great way for members of the community to share their thoughts. or to request help from the office. And again, don't hesitate. If it's a federal agency, not a state agency, not a local agency, we can help. If it's not something that's under our purview, like if it is a state agency, we will do our best to give you a handoff directly to a staff member that we know so that your work doesn't get lost along the way. So we can't always help, but we will always try our best to help. I want to thank you again for having me. Representing this community is a true joy and a privilege every single day, one that I take very, very seriously. And I want to also just thank you for being great representatives for Burbank. I know what you do is hard. I have done it myself. It is a very tough job, but extremely rewarding. I want to especially thank those of you who maybe aren't up for reelection, who aren't running again for your service. Zizette, you've been a longtime friend, and you're an amazing, amazing council member. So thank you for everything you've done. I'm sure I'll be back to thank you again, but just want to throw that in there now. And with that, I'll stop and see if any of you have any questions. Thank you for the update.

Yes, questions, comments?

Since she's already got me teared up here, thank you. I appreciate you coming here tonight. I appreciate the comments. And yes, you and I go back from back in the 90s or somewhere around that time.

Not quite that.

I had it in 2000. It's been a long career, a long history. So I appreciate all the work you do, and it really makes me proud to see everything that you've done for our city. I have a couple of requests from you, and you're wearing green, and I want to talk money. Yeah, yeah. Perfect timing. I know you always looked out for funding from the federal to be coming to Burbank for our needs. Recently with the passing of SB 79 implementation as of July, this is definitely going to put a huge impact on our infrastructure. And you did talk about infrastructure here. And my ask is, our staff, they did a really quick estimate to let us know what does that mean for Burbank and what the cost could be for Burbank. And they came up with close to $1 billion in upgrade in our infrastructure. That number can be a little bit up or down. We're talking about sewer, water. There's going to be a lot of changes. And this is in addition to our... specific plans that we're working on currently. So any funding that would be available. I mean, I would really appreciate if you can guide our staff or let us know how much and where we can maybe get some grants, some additional money in the event that we need to move forward with upgrade of our infrastructure because this will have a huge impact. As you know, the state always passes housing bills, and they put a lot of restrictions on us without asking the consequences and how is that going to affect our city. So I appreciate any funding that you see that would help us in the future. The two other areas, and you mentioned, and I do appreciate the reservoir, that you've given us some money for that, but anything out there that you see again that would help us, I would appreciate it. And the last thing is our McCambridge Park, our pool. Everybody uses it. They enjoy it. And I'd like to have it get done sooner than later. So it's asking for money. And I know everybody asks for money, but whatever you can see and you can carve out for Burbank, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you. And thank you for those comments. I actually was able to secure money for the pool in the park when I was a legislator So definitely aware that there's a need there and it's a very important community amenity. So the build hubs bill that I'm working on is intended to try to unlock more federal money for infrastructure for communities that are experiencing growth. That's exactly why we introduced the legislation. The programs that it's going to extend and expand our current programs. They're the TIFIA program and the RIF program. So I do suggest that staff look into those federal programs now because it's possible that those are programs that you might be able to apply for funding through. We are looking to expand them and to reauthorize them. But they're existing programs that are in existence today. And just so that the public understands the way that the community grant program works is that it's a very limited amount of money that we have access to. We don't always get it. And we work with your staff to talk about what kind of projects would be most likely to get that funding. because we kind of have a sense of what they look for to fund. And certain programs or certain projects are eligible, and other projects are not eligible under House rules. So we work very closely with your staff to see what the priorities are for Burbank. We go off of your priorities, and we work to make sure that your applications are going to get us there. And then we put them in, and it has to go through the whole budget and appropriations process, which is out of our control. It goes, you know, to these bipartisan committees. And then they pop out, and either things get funding or they don't, and often the amounts are reduced. But I will say Burbank's done pretty well. I'm happy to say we've gotten the majority of projects that we have submitted, we've gotten funding for, and usually at a pretty high amount percentage-wise. So good job to your staff as well.

They're taking additional notes, I know that.

Thank you. All right.

Yes, Council Member Rosati.

Congresswoman, thank you for being here. I'm not asking for any money. I just wanted to give you some ideas to incentivize home sales. There are many seniors that own their homes outright. They receive a maximum benefit from Social Security. That puts them in the very low income bracket. Many of them own their homes, and there's federal disincentives that work against them towards their financial future. They pay out 20% capital gains if they sell, and there's only a $250,000 exemption. So a senior really doesn't have a real path forward to a sustainable financial future. I was thinking, what if a qualified low-income senior was able to get their capital gains reduced and raise the 250 exemption, which would help turn over their home so younger people can move in and they would have a better financial future. So I was asking, I'm thinking if you could put that on your list of things to think about. Same thing with properties that have been sitting, like commercial and industrial properties. If you reduce the capital gains, you can hopefully have that property turn over into housing. So I think if we incentivize these things, we can probably supply more housing that's already built, but people are just sitting on the asset.

Thank you for the suggestion, and we'll absolutely take a look at that.

Thank you. Yes, Council Member Anthony.

Thank you for being here. I wanted to piggyback off of that. If someone is also collecting disability assets, or SSDI, their home value, now that it's skyrocketed because of inflation, could tip them over the total asset value that you're allowed to keep, and you get fewer benefits on disability. So finding an exemption for seniors who've paid off their mortgage, I think, that's a great way to look at it. I wanted to ask you two things. One, there was chatter coming from Congress and the President about exempting or banning corporate ownership of homes, and then suddenly everything got thrown to the wayside as trying to pass the SAVE Act. Once the election gets closer and the SAVE Act is no longer viable, do you feel that there's more opportunity to get these kinds of bipartisan bills, like limiting the amount of homes that a corporation can own? Is that something that we're sort of in a wait-and-see lockdown period right now? And can we bring that back later?

So I don't have a crystal ball to tell you what the landscape is going to look like in the next year or two. I will tell you that there was a very important bill called the Road to Housing Act that did pass the House and Congress. President Trump did refuse to sign it because it didn't have the SAVE Act, but he didn't veto it, so it became law. And it does have a prohibition of a certain amount of corporate ownership of existing single-family homes. with an exemption for single-family homes that were built by corporations to rent. Because in many parts of the country, instead of building apartment buildings, there are single-family homes that are built as rental. And there is a desire to keep that model going for those communities. So there is now some guardrails around the purchasing up of single-family homes by corporations. and I suggest you can take a look at the Road to Housing Act to see exactly what that looks like.

Okay, excellent. And then last topic, I think I know what the answer is going to be. Has there been any forward movement on hearings or proceedings to investigate anyone who's on this Epstein file at all?

So there is a law that the Epstein files were supposed to be released, and that certainly Congress and even members of the public were supposed to be able to see material that did not reveal victims' identities. I can tell you, I went myself to read the Epstein files. Just in their pure form, they were supposed to be completely unredacted. These were not released to the public. This was, I had to go to the FBI and go. I couldn't bring anything in to take any photos. I couldn't bring in my phone. I couldn't bring a staff. It was only me. I had to make an appointment for a window of time. I was not given any way of navigating the thousands of pages of documents. Literally, it was like a blank screen. And you had to know the number of each file you wanted to look up. And they gave me a legal pad and a pencil. They did not make it easy. So I went in working with the oversight committee with a list of files that they thought would be interesting to look at. I did see some files that were interesting that had been talked about, but no one had seen who had written them. And I was able to provide that information, which was subsequently released to the press. I will also tell you I saw hundreds of pages that were still redacted, hundreds. And I'm talking about the entire page was nothing but black lines, not one word on any page for hundreds of pages. So there's a lot of, and that's not compliant with the federal law that passed. It's not compliant. So we are actually suing the Justice Department to try to receive that material. So this is an ongoing, this is, there's a lot of people that are in there clearly that they are protecting right up to the very highest levels. And the public has a right, I believe, to see what's in there so that people that are rich and famous are not protected who deserve to be publicly revealed. At the same time, there are a lot of people in there, quite honestly, who probably didn't have any idea what was going on. So, you know, again, there's thousands and thousands of pages of material.

And a lot of the victims, too.

But it was fascinating and in a really ugly way, I would say. The way that... people can act with impunity, being above the law, the way that networks were put together. It was very revealing and I'm sure will be the subject of many books in the future. But it is still ongoing because the material has not been made available to Congress despite congressional law saying it needs to be.

Okay.

Thank you. Appreciate that.

Council Member Perez. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you for the update. I concur with what my colleagues have said and asked for, and I won't ask for much because I bother you in D.C. consistently. I will say thank you. I have to thank you for very much being a leading voice with the No Masks for Ice Act. I know that was very early into the horrific ice raids that have been happening in our communities. So thank you for being early on with that. And I think my only ask would be please continue to support anything and everything that leads to the abolition of ICE because they are acting in absolutely bad faith.

Yeah, it's really awful. I will tell you that the majority of casework that my office does is immigration casework. And it is very, very difficult because the people that are being picked up and deported or taken into custody, these are not people who stormed the border. These are people who went to immigration checkpoints. asked for asylum, were allowed into the country, given a plan to have their cases adjudicated, given monitors sometimes. They've been here not causing crime. Some of these people have been waiting years to have their cases adjudicated. They're being picked up in courthouses as they're trying to go through the process legally. A lot of our work is around trying to get people to be able to see their representation. And I have visited people who are in custody. I've gone myself to visit them because we couldn't get lawyers in to see them. We spend a lot of time trying to get people together with their attorneys. People are often sent out of state or they're sent far away. And when they are deported, many times we can't help them. Because if a judge adjudicates and says that they should be deported, they should be deported. And I'll tell you, another class of people that's not getting enough notice is people who are here on temporary protective status. We're talking people who come from Haiti, where being in that country is incredibly dangerous. People who have come from parts of South America and Central America, where it's been too dangerous for them to remain where they are, where judges have said, if you go home, you'll get murdered. And they were here on a protective status. The Trump administration has been revoking those protections. Ukrainian immigrants is another large group in our district, in the West Hollywood district, that have had their status revoked, who now can't work. These are people who were working. And if they take away the status, they can no longer work, which means they can't put food on the table and pay rent. What's supposed to happen to these people? What's supposed to happen to them? So this is something that we are working every day to fight at the federal level. We take this very seriously. I work with a legal response task force that works to bring lawsuits against this administration for their cruel policies. It may not be as satisfying to some people as, you know, chaining myself to the front of a building, but I'll tell you something, it's a lot more effective because we have now won in court against this administration They're the losingest administration in this nation's history. The courts have overwhelmingly found against them when they have overstepped their boundaries. Everything from tariffs to First Amendment cases, we have been winning in the courts. And so the strategy works, but sometimes it takes a while. But it is the most effective way to actually help people outside of a change in leadership and a change in the desires of this country to be a beacon for the rest of the world to show what kindness and compassion looks like. which to me is still the vision of the United States of America and one that I think is worth fighting for.

Thank you. And thank you for what your office has done as well. I know I've sent many, many of our constituents here in Burbank your way who have been impacted. Either their family members have been taken. I know one of our former mayors, Marsha Ramos, found a case that was very heartbreaking of somebody who's affected by the TPS status issues that change overnight for folks.

And I want to thank you for standing up next to me when we introduced the No Mask for ICE Act. I was the West Coast lead on that legislation, and you were right there at the press conference. I called you. I said, I need you to come right now. And you did, because I know how important this is to you as well.

And I was eight months pregnant.

And you were eight months present. You kind of made your way across the park. So thank you for that.

Thank you for everything you've done. And I won't ask you for money, because I just want to thank you for Having put on here the training facility expansion, I think we've gone with BWP in Washington and talked your ear off for that. And for the Burbank, the Olive Bridge, I want to thank you for leading on that and putting that earmark forward. When we talk to Senator Padilla's office and Senator Schiff's office, they really highlight your leadership on this. So thank you for bringing the money back to Burbank, and please continue doing so.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, I concur with my colleagues. Thank you for the update and for how much you have brought to our community and fought for us. Thank you especially for finding funding in creative ways sometimes to get access to it. Appreciate that. Fighting for free speech and for folks during disasters, it's so important. And for federal transparency, absolutely important. So much more. And in addition to what's already been said, please continue fighting for Medicaid and Medicare and health care, especially around reproductive rights and health care and mental health and how that's changing and evolving to avoid to have to care for people at the federal level. And fighting for food assistance programs as well as social security and continue to make sure that that stays in place for us. So thank you for doing that work you've already done and please continue to do that. Because all of those things, while we don't have, well, some of them we do maybe have direct applications here in Burbank, that if the federal government does not take its responsibility to do those things, as you know, then it falls onto the backs of the cities to take care of those things. And so we don't have the resources to do it as well. So thank you. And thank you for the spoiler alerts. Looking forward to the incoming funding. And if there's anything that we can do to help with that, please let us know what we can do to encourage that funding to come our way. So that would be great. So thank you for being here tonight for coming out and giving us this update and to do that consistently. We appreciate everything you're doing.

Thanks to all of you. Have a great night.

All right, next up, Mr. City Attorney, will you please report on closed session?

Yes, Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the City Council, and for the benefit of the public, the City Council met on one item in closed session at 5 p.m. this evening, a conference with the city's real property negotiator pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9 concerning Assessor Parcel Number 2453007917. It is a property, a parking lot without an address on the southerly side of Glen Oaks Boulevard between Palm Avenue and Orange Grove on the backside of the police fire block. The city is negotiating with Burbank Unified School District. The city's negotiator is Kimberly Montes, senior administrative analyst, and city council discussed all of the terms relevant to property acquisition from the school district. The city council took no reportable action on this item this evening.

Thank you. All right, now is the time for general public comment. I will be calling out the speaker's name as well as the person who is next in line to speak. In order to keep public comment moving in a timely fashion, we have a designated seat in the front row for speakers who are next up at the podium. Remote participants wishing to speak during general public comment who have not yet joined the speaker queue may do so now by dialing star nine by phone or using the raise hand feature in Zoom. Please note if you are calling from a blocked or private number, you will be introduced as anonymous. Please be ready to unmute when prompted to speak. This is also the last call for anyone who needs an interpreter or those staff will be asked to be released for the evening in a few minutes. The general public comment period is now beginning and no additional cards or remote participants will be accepted. For in-person speakers, a timer is available on the podium, and please speak directly into the microphone and adjust it up or down if needed. For both in-person and remote participants, please state your name for the record. Have our interpreters had any requests for assistance? No. All right. Well, thank you for being here, and enjoy your evening. Madam City Clerk, how many public comment cards do we have, and how many remote commenters do we have?

We have 24 in-person speakers and six Zoom participants.

30. So that's 30 total speakers. So you will have two minutes each. Will you please pass the comment cards over? You have two minutes each. All right. First up, we have Ron Bax followed by Rufus Choi.

Good evening, City Council, Ron Bax. Council Member Perez, I owe you an apology. I was certain you said home. I reviewed the meeting and you did say pump. In my defense, I was here for the study session before the previous meeting, the last meeting, and I understood hardly any word that the speaker spoke. And then when Council Member Anthony began to speak, it was also garbled or hard to understand. So please fix the audio system. I've spent three and a half years of giving you examples of costs, et cetera, for housing providers. You apparently don't believe me or other housing providers or even yourselves because you approved an 8% increase in utilities, and that was half-truth in itself because the tiers changed at the same time. That was hidden from the public. Mine, because I can do the calculations, but I had nearly the exact same usage from one year to the next, and it was up 25%, not 8%, okay? What you have in front of you is information compiled. You can see that the references are the Bureau of Labor Statistics and CoStar, which should be reputable sources. You can see, that inflation, CPI, is up 36.2%, and wages are a little bit behind at 35.4, but housing, shelter cost, is up 41.5%, so we're falling behind. Now, if you look at transacted rents, that is housing providers' wages. They're way behind. Their margins are being reduced. So if you want to help accelerate many housing providers from having to stop the business or go bankrupt, then pass punitive measures against housing providers. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Rufus Choi, followed by Julie D'Angelo.

I'll speak fast. Good evening, Mayor Takahashi, council members. My name is Rufus Choi. I'm a pianist, teacher, educator, and president of the Salit Foundation. Before anything else, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the City of Burbank for supporting the Salih Foundation through three grants. The first helped us launch our Encore Concert Series in 2025, bringing world-class artists such as Robert DeMaine, principal cellist of the LA Phil, Oksana Yablonskaya, legendary pianist of the Russian tradition, and faculty at the Juilliard School for 30 years. Another support the Burbank Creative Collective and the third grant will help us reach our youngest community members through an instrument petting zoo in collaboration with the Burbank Library where children can discover instruments firsthand and perhaps find one that speaks to them. Sharing my love for music has always been my life's purpose and I deeply wish for everyone to experience music as I do. I believe music has extraordinary ability to bring beauty into our lives and connect us beyond language, background, or age. But a meaningful musical experience requires excellence. We need high level music education and great artists in our communities because when we raise the level of artistry, we open the ears of our audiences, especially our young people, to what is possible. Excellence inspires excellence. In 2025, the Salih Foundation presented Sinsong Carnival of the Animals as a free children's concert, and this year we've expanded that to two free performances of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, one at Salih Conservatory and another at the Burbank Public Library. We want every child to have access to a meaningful musical experience. And I'm very proud of our foundation board, Vice President Martin Carlson, and board members Karen Bogart, Rebecca Newcomer, Cindy Peace, Alejandro Sanchez, and Sharon Townsend. Thank you for having me.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Julie D'Angelo followed by Sharon Townsend.

Welcome. Hi, Council. I'm Julie, 20-some-odd-year resident of Burbank. I'm here tonight just to talk about flock and flock cameras. I believe I was on at least six cameras just to get down to the meeting today. And this feels like a big priority. Just in the past few days we've had VARIETY OF NATIONAL NEWS OUTLETS ADDRESS FLOCK AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS THAT ARE HAPPENING THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS TECHNOLOGY. A LOT OF CITIES OF ALL SIZES, ALL TYPES ARE CHOOSING TO END THEIR CONTRACTS. THEY'RE CHOOSING TO DEACTIVATE THEIR CAMERAS. I READ RECENTLY, I KNOW WE HAVE A PROCESS, OF COURSE, AND POLICE COMMISSION IS ADDRESSING. I read recently that a commissioner felt like if we just had a better contract, we'd be in a better situation. I'm just here to say I disagree wholeheartedly. But what brought me here tonight was straight to my inbox came two press releases back to back from the city and from the Burbank Police Department talking about how Flock was PART OF SOLVING TWO CRIMES. ONE WAS INDICTING EXPOSURE. THE VICTIM HAD THE PLATE NUMBER AND THE PREPARATOR HAD PRIORS. SO I'M NOT CLEAR HOW THIS PERSON WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN CAUGHT WITHOUT FLOCK. I REMEMBER A TIME LIVING BEFORE FLOCK AND PEOPLE WERE CAUGHT FOR CRIMES. IT WAS A CONFUSING PRESS RELEASE AND THEN THE NEXT DAY CAME ANOTHER ONE TALKING ABOUT A PICKPOCKET AT WHOLE FOODS WHICH I'M PRETTY SURE HAS A VERY ROBUST SURVEILLANCE SITUATION. I SHOP THERE OFTEN AND SEE THEIR CAMERAS. SO THAT WAS FOLLOWED BY THE BURBANK LEADER PICKING UP THE PRESS RELEASE VERBATIM. AND IT JUST IS FEELING TO ME Why this? Why now? This feels like a concerted effort. Do we have a budget where we are allocating time to marketing and writing press releases in support of a third-party contractor that is a very controversial third-party contractor? Where did this come from? Why the push? And that's a rhetorical question tonight, but I appreciate your time and prioritizing. Thank you. Thank you for your comment.

Next up is Sharon Townsend, followed by Mark Scroggs. Welcome.

Thank you, Mayor Takahashi, Vice Mayor and friend Suzette, City Council and staff, thank you. There's a little gift going around for you. But I'm here mostly just to thank you for your journey with me over the last three years as Woodbury University journeyed through a merger. It's certainly a journey. In merging with the University of Redlands, Woodbury's creativity, entrepreneur spirit, close relationships, and nationally recognized programs are now helping to shape the university with three distinct campuses across California, Redlands Marin, also known as the San Francisco Theological Seminary, and now right here in your backyard. Students are going to have the opportunities to learn across more disciplines, connect with the industry, study abroad, conduct research, learn about GIS, and gain experiences that prepare them for what's next. But most importantly, I'm here to tell you we have not lost the Woodbury name, and I'm really proud of that. Though the campus is going to be named the University of Redlands Los Angeles, the Woodbury's name stays. The Woodbury Business Institute and the College of Architect Design and Media that will house the Woodbury School of Architecture, the Woodbury School of Design and Media Arts. That is something our alumni fought for, and they won, proud of them. Our campus leadership is under the direction of Heather Flood, the former dean of the School of Architecture and Media Culture Design, who is now our senior officer, and I plan to bring her here to counsel and also plan on meetings with you individually. Woodbury has a proud and distinct place in Southern California, and we're not going to lose that. We are not going to lose that. That I promise you. I want to thank you personally for being part of this journey with me personally and with the university, and know that you always have a home at Woodbury. And I want to thank you as your support and your work in the community. I know you work and get hours that you'll never get back from your families, holidays, birthdays. Thank you for having a servant's heart. and just doing what you do. Thank you. Thank you for your comment.

Next up is Mark Scroggs followed by Diana Pulver.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Mark Scroggs. This is more for our YouTube audience tonight. AB2319, Nick Schultz's post-production tax incentive, needs more voices in order to get out of the Senate committees this week on Thursday it'll help this bill helps local businesses like photo cam which do post-production on the Odyssey anything that doesn't shoot here because a lot of these things can't shoot here it'll help these guys out SB 122 a signed bill targeting software and big retail has a side effect it caps incentives for film and television it really screws up the whole incentive process legislators are now working on this um to do a new bill or change it. Local shows like The Pit, The Rookie, Abbott Elementary are all going to be affected if this happens. Email your state reps saying exempt film and TV from SB 122. Both bills have deadlines this week. Also, On the Parabros front, take everything that NEPO baby David Ellison and all the others say with a grain of salt. I've never seen such an obnoxious NEPO baby and I've worked with them for 40 years. Paramount had just received $38 million in tax credits. The threat of them today saying they're going to move to Tennessee or Texas are just threats. I recommend reading Rob Bonta's editorial in Deadline.com yesterday, which explains everything that's involved. And just like I said, don't believe him. Also, know that with all the film and everything we're talking about, we've got to think a little differently with film. There are still big blockbusters, but if you look at the top ten films this week, Hadestown, which is a film stage play, is doing really well. And I hope I don't get cut off for this. Cat Video Fest 2026, a 70-minute YouTube film. I'm not going to finish this. Oh, my gosh. It's in the top ten, and it's hilarious.

Thank you for your comment. I love that you ended your comment on Cat Video Fest. All right, next up is Diana Pulver, followed by Cynthia Pease.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and council members. My name is Diana Pulver. I'm a housing provider and a lifelong Burbanker. A recent article in the Los Angeles Times compared and contrasted Burbank's downtown revitalization with the struggles of downtown Los Angeles. As someone who remembers the golden mall days of downtown Burbank, I found this article quite interesting. What stood out most was Burbank's business-friendly environment. The article highlighted Burbank's embrace of business and how this has played a part in making downtown Burbank a go-to destination. I appreciate this business-friendly environment and ask that it also be extended to the small business, mom-and-pop housing providers like me by remembering that AB 1482 is sufficient and additional controls are not necessary. So as always, don't LA my Burbank. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Cynthia Pease, followed by Joe Pimienta.

Cynthia Pease Good evening, Mayor Takahashi, Vice Mayor Mullins, and all you wonderful people on city council and staff. We so appreciate you. And just based on the last comment with I have to, I was going to read perfectly, but city codes with arts and small businesses. take a look at the recommendations that you all have and that were passed on to you and what other cities are doing because it's really impossible for them with the fees and then the inspections to really do stuff with the arts in all these small businesses. And I wanted to say on behalf of the city of Burbank to tell you just how much we appreciate you recognizing the importance of including funding for the arts in all the ways that you do. Both the creation of the city cultural arts director position and funding for ongoing grants program makes the city shine as an arts destination and has the equally important consequence of returning your investment at a minimum of threefold into the Burbank businesses. Just take a look at the Otis report. Okay. Arts bring the community together and install a sense of pride and belonging. Please continue to support the cultural arts in all forms as we renew, develop, and cultivate the next generation of artists and art-related endeavors as we move forward. New startups, such as the Salik Conservatory, ongoing ones like the Colony Theater, Icons such as the Victory Theater and the Colony will be part of this foundation for the future, and we need venues. That doesn't mean we need new places. It means we have plenty of buildings that we could allow to have arts in those communities. Think about this. Think about that this building here is part of the registry for historic because of the way the architecture is built in this building. and also that Hugo Baolin did that painting of the four freedoms on the wall behind you. Thank you. Thank you for your comment.

Next up, Joe Pimienta, followed by Karen Bogart. Welcome.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members, staff, and everybody present in the chamber. I mean, Parks and Rec revival, right? I mean, that's what we're all thinking. So what I want to talk about this evening is the word community keeps coming up constantly whenever we're talking about this, especially when we're talking about housing. I keep wondering about that because eventually, what community will be left when the cost of living keeps rising? So eventually, we have to ask ourselves, who is really the city for? It's not for the families that get it priced out, and it's not for the service workers that eventually can't afford to live here after a couple of years when they keep seeing a rent increase of the maximum allowed, which may I remind you is 5% plus the CPI on top of each year. So eventually, what city are we going to have left? And this is something that has come up a few times. People have commented on this, where they say, if there's so much displacement, where are they? They're gone. You know that. People have come up to this podium imploring you that they're about to lose their housing only for the next meeting to not be here. Those people are gone. They are in other states. They are in other countries. They are in different employment. So I keep thinking about that. And that's why I keep thinking that, aside from all the remedies that keeps tossed around, and I'm not saying this is a simple issue. We all know this is a very complicated issue. However, one of the tools that has been shown to work on various degrees is a hard rent cap. That makes it sustainable for a lot of people. That makes it reasonable for a lot of people to be able to save money or to be able to afford it, at least for a while longer. That's why I urge you to contemplate on that and to actually use that tool. We have talked about this numerous times. So I have very little time, so I will not finish the rest of that. I have more than left. But I keep coming back and talking about this because, once again, I am tired of seeing communities disrupted because they can no longer afford to live in the city they love. Thank you for your service.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Karen Bogart, followed by Ernest Dellinger. Karen Bogart? Okay. Oh, I think she left with the rest of the group. Okay. Ernest Delliger followed by Cameron Tennyson. Welcome.

Madam Chairman, members of the council, my name is Ernest Nelliener. I'm here because you're considering my application to become, for another term, I'm a member of the Board of Building and Fire Code Appeals. I just wanted to let you know that I've been on the board for 13 years and have served as chair for numerous years. I feel I can still contribute to the council, to the board, and so I just wanted to give you the opportunity to have a face and associate it with the application. Have a good evening.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Cameron Tennyson, followed by Dan Kay.

Hello. You're honestly probably tired of me talking about the Moms for Liberty protest. But at this point, I'll keep bringing it up until the city of Burbank drops its charges against the Burbank citizen who is simply there practicing their First Amendment right. I want to remind you the stat I brought up a few weeks ago. 82% of transgender kids have considered suicide and over 40% of them have attempted it. These attempts are a result of bullying from their peers and anti-trans rhetoric that spreads throughout communities. We all know where council members Mullins and Rosati stand on the BAOR protests in April, but last council meeting I wanted to give them one last chance to Because maybe something got lost in translation. Maybe they misunderstood what so many people had come up here and asked. And it wasn't about the protest. It was about what we were protesting for. I just wanted you to tell the trans and queer youth of Burbank that they have a right to exist and that this council will fight to make sure that those people are not discriminated against. Unfortunately, you both stayed quiet. Thank you for letting us know where you stand. for the LGBT youth of Burbank. You too tried to blame and discipline Mike Van Gorder and Constantine for being at the Moms for Liberty protests when an alleged assault happened, because according to you, they stood by and did nothing. So let's apply your standard to them to you. You both sit in a position that allows you to create policies and push rhetoric that uplift the youth of Burbank, especially marginalized groups like queer and trans kids, but instead You sit there and you protect bullies and you harass those who don't tolerate intolerance, including the 40 Burbank citizens who stood up against the hate at B-A-O-R. In the meantime, the empathetic people of this town, including the people who protested the Moms of Liberty, will pick up your slack to make sure that no child in Burbank ever feels like they have no other options. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Dan Kay, followed by Susan O'Carroll.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you, Joe. Thank you, Cameron. Beautifully said. City Council, tonight you'll be looking at a report regarding childcare in Burbank. I have a proposal. Please request a new needs assessment and feasibility study on implementing childcare for all in Burbank. Universal childcare is an amazing policy that would immeasurably help working families across this city. Children will be properly looked after while the city creates high quality jobs and parents can work their jobs to afford Burbank's high rent. Is this even possible? Isn't anything possible with the city council determined to take bold action and help working families and just get stuff done? Is that the type of city council we have in Burbank? I don't know. We've supposedly had a progressive majority since 2022, but what do we have to show for it? We've been asking for rent stabilization for three and a half years, but that's stalled because of a swing vote. Mayor Takahashi, City Council is prioritizing the profits of out of town corporate landlords over the needs of Burbank's renter majority. Is it controversial to care about human displacement over business displacement? The tiny fraction of actual local mom and pop landlords have more say over housing policy than the 60% tenant majority in Burbank. We've spoken up against flock mass surveillance in this time of raging right-wing fascism, yet this progressive majority voted to continue the flock contract, a contract signed and implemented behind closed doors without public knowledge or consent. We want transit options besides cars. We want the electrified BRT bus system, paid for and operated by Metro, that will help alleviate the 100,000 daily commuters into the city. Yet you waste this city's time and money fighting a lawsuit rather than welcoming accessible Burbank residents are ready for change, and we're ready for bold, meaningful policy. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Susan O'Carroll, followed by Samantha Lau.

bus lane will help the transit flow but it's simply not worth the heavy price that all of us will own it's not worth losing the neighbors that we've known for all our lives just to build an empty bus lane while the real estate speculators thrive a dedicated lane It's an eviction by construction No matter if you want We have to stand together To protect our small town home The BRT is just the spark That brings this to our door Making everything unaffordable While we pay for more and more We have to protect our neighbors We have to protect our streets The dedicated lanes Are the start of our defeat So stand up at the council. Let your voices lead the way. We have to fight the BRT and stop SB7 today.

SB 1361 is the latest effort by our legislators to take power away from cities. It basically tells cities to shut up and take it. Metro wants to spend $429 million of our tax money for a slower bus, just so rich developers have permission to destroy our neighborhoods. Please contact your legislators and just say no to SB 1361.

The assembly will be voting on Thursday.

It's very important that all of you reach out and ask for a no vote. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Samantha Lau, followed by Kevin Morris. Welcome.

Thank you. Hello, Mayor Takahashi, Vice Mayor Mullins, council members, city manager, and city staff. My name is Samantha, and I am an organizer for Plant-Based Treaty. Thank you to each of you for your thoughtful conversations over the past weeks, and to Public Works Director Skinner and commissioners from Sustainable Burbank Commission for your work on this initiative. I also want to thank Mayor Takahashi for the warm welcome into the Burbank community to Friday Night Magnolia and Holiday in the Park. It means a great deal to us. I'm here in support of Councilmember Anthony's first step to agendize plant-based treaty endorsement from the July 28th meeting. Thank you, Councilmember Anthony, for bringing plant-based treaty to Burbank. The scope of this ask is modest and works with the system the city already has in place. Los Angeles, West Hollywood, and Culver City each implemented policies at their own scale and pace, and they have all endorsed plant-based treaty. This is not a one-size-fits-all initiative, and we would welcome the chance to work with staff in a collaborative way to shape an approach that fits Burbank specifically. I also want to stress that a big part of our campaign is public information. Education and information about our current food system helps everyone understand the benefits of shifting towards plant-based for planetary health and for human health. Plant-based treaty can offer support with staff research and implementation templates using examples from West Hollywood, Culver City. With our support, we expect this to be a lower lift for city staff, and we're very cognizant of city resources. If council directs this item to a future agenda tonight, we would appreciate hearing an anticipated timeline for its return and so the community can plan to be here for that day. Thank you very much for your time and your support.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Kevin Morris followed by Madeline Ocampo.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and City Council. My name is Kevin Morris, and I'm here today to support Councilmember Anthony's introduced agenda item for the request for a first-step report to formally endorse the Plant-Based Treaty and direct staff to work with the Sustainable Burbank Commission to create a list of actual policies that align with the treaty as well as city's goals. And I want to say I'm on the Sustainable Burbank Commission, so I've got to hear several presentations from the Plant-Based treaty as well as from Samantha, who's just up here. on how they can support our city's goal. Additionally, as a Burbank resident, I've seen their visibility in the community already. They've already had tabling and booths at our Earth Day where patrons can go up and speak to them and learn about plant-based eating, as well as going to the Veggie Grill restaurant in Burbank several times to have informal sessions where people can come up to learn how plant-based eating can support combating climate change. Now, I must admit, I do eat chicken and I do eat turkey, but I like that the plant-based treaties language is rather inclusive opposed to being exclusionary. People decide to not eat meat for several reasons, whether that's religion, dietary needs, whatever it may be. But by endorsing plant-based treaty and taking that first step to have a report, this allows for policy to have better support of everyone's dietary needs, but also more importantly, help combat climate change. So please take that next step in the first step report, and I appreciate your guys' time. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Madeline Ocampo, followed by Chinmayee Nayak.

Okay, hello, good afternoon. My name is Madeline. I'm a utilities engineer and I'm a volunteer with Plant-Based Treaty LA. I've had the pleasure of speaking here before and it's encouraging that the Sustainable Workbank Commission is receptive to the Plant-Based Treaty and is taking the initiative to recommend this on the city level. I volunteer with plant-based treaty because we must take care of our environment, and I believe the proposals of the plant-based treaty will lead us toward a more sustainable future. In the news, it's heavy to hear that this will be the coldest summer for the rest of our lives. It's heartbreaking to know that there is now such a thing as a wildfire season and that we are in a global water bankruptcy. Aside from fossil fuels, scientists point out that we cannot tackle climate issues without addressing what's on our plate. According to a May 2026 scienceinsights.org article, shifting to a vegan diet reduces your environmental footprint across nearly every measurable category. Greenhouse gas emissions, water use, land use, deforestation, and water pollution. The scale of impact is significant because animal agriculture is one of the most resource-intensive systems on the planet, and food choices are one of the few areas where individual decisions translate directly into reduced demand. What's encouraging is that these actions are within reach, and people generally want to help. I've tabled at so many events with plant-based treaty, and there is always interest and curiosity, and many people tell me they are already taking steps to be vegan, vegetarian, or that they want to incorporate plant-based food more into their diet. How great would it be if Burbank could help people get there and help promote this sometimes literally low-hanging fruit solution? Endorsing the plan-based treaty will definitely strengthen Burbank's commitment to sustainability and to the community. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Chinmay Nayak, followed by Chloe Wingfield. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council. Thank you all for giving me and other BUSD students the opportunity to speak at City Council. My name is Chinmayi Nayak, and I'm going to be in 11th grade next year at John Burroughs High School in Burbank. I created the BUSD Food for Future campaign last year to add plant-based options to the BUSD cafeteria since these options are more sustainable. During my experience running this campaign and other sustainability initiatives, I know whenever you present a problem when it comes to sustainability, you also have to present a practical solution to go along with it. When the plant-based options first came to my school, we had a solution for a problem that no one knew about. Not many students knew why these options were better for the environment, so not many people chose them. So along with the plant-based options, we also ran informational campaigns to educate students about why these options were important to increase the conversation about these topics across the school. As a result, more people began choosing the options and started thinking about these ideas about the food system and sustainability. This is information that they would have possibly never known unless we did these informational campaigns, and we're going to expand them next year. The city has much more power to spread awareness and education to so many more people at the city level. People deserve to know information about the food system and the city events might be the only time they will have the opportunity to learn it since it is often overlooked in the conversation of sustainability. Endorsing the plant-based treaty will raise awareness in Burbank with informational campaigns and will also offer a practical solution that empowers the community to do something about it collectively. Thank you and I hope we can make Burbank a more sustainable city together.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Chloe Wingfield, followed by Christina Ku.

Good evening mayor and council members. My name is Chloe Wingfield and I'm a rising sophomore at John Barras High School. I'm also the vice president of Food for a Future, a student-led campaign working to expand plant-based options in our school cafeterias. I'm here today to ask you to endorse the plant-based treaty. Though an official endorsement may not change policies overnight, it would signal that the council values sustainability and is open to working with students and community members on shared solutions. Our campaign is working to make sustainable food choices more accessible in our schools. We've met with district leaders, spoken with community members, and advocated for plant-based options because we believe students should have choices that are good for both their health and the environment. When local leaders publicly support these same goals, It reinforces the importance of our work and demonstrates that sustainability is a shared community priority. An endorsement would also show students that their voices matter and that the city is willing to partner with young people who are working toward positive change. Climate change is a challenge that affects us all, and creating a more sustainable food system is one way our community can take meaningful action. While no single policy will solve the problem on its own, supporting initiatives that encourage sustainable food choices is one practical step our community can take. As a student, it's encouraging to know that our local government is willing to listen to young people and consider the ideas we're bringing forward. I hope to support the plant-based treaty and continue working alongside students to build a healthier and more sustainable future for Burbank. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Christina Koo, followed by Joey Gaber.

Hi, my name is Christina Koo, and well, all my friends have said everything, but I love this city. It's such a great place to be in front of here today, and I do urge you to support Council Member Anthony's first step report to endorse the plant-based treaty, and I hope that you all get a copy tonight and direct staff to bring back a formal endorsement. You know, the science, the medical information is all out there to prove that a plant-based diet and lifestyle absolutely helps human health. I believe Kaiser Permanente actually has that endorsement, and they, if you look on their website, they support a plant-based diet for all their patients. And I know UCLA also has that. In fact, I was just there at the hospital, and I was really happy to see that their cafeteria that served the entire campus and the medical facilities all have lots of plant-based options. And so it's definitely doctors and science and medical science, they know this. And so what we're looking for now is real leadership. Those of you who have science and data behind you and who will lead us. Folks are still sort of held back by just mainstream media and by lack of information, but with city council members who are informed of this and take the leadership and endorse this and have events that serve plant-based foods that are beautiful, delicious, appetizing, And guess what? They're going to go home eating this feeling fantastic. And this is a way to lead us. So we are looking for you, and we hope you will endorse this. Thank you. Thank you for your comment.

Next up is Joey Gaber, followed by Terry Friedman.

Hi, good evening, Mayor Takahashi, Vice Mayor Mullins, and City Council. My name is Joey, and I'm a volunteer organizer and city campaigner for Plant-Based Treaty. I'm here to speak in favor of Councilmember Anthony's first step report to put Plant-Based Treaty on the agenda. I want to start by thanking the Sustainable Burbank Commission for their efforts in working hand in hand with the City Council to promote the City Council's goals and mission to advance sustainability in Burbank. Working with the commissioners has been a pleasure as they all clearly care about seeing Burbank be resilient and thriving. I was so pleased when they gave their recommendation to City Council for endorsement and further implementation as their recommendation means a lot to Plant Based Treaty and myself personally as someone who cares about LA County. I also want to thank Director of Public Works, Damian Skinner, for the memorandum that he created, which I feel was an excellent outlining of our mission, goals, values, and campaign. I agree with his statement that, quote, the city of Burbank has several existing programs and initiatives available that align with the principles of the treaty and encourage and model plant-based food system strategies, end quote. And I appreciate him highlighting these programs where Burbank and PBT do align. I especially appreciate that he said that access to plant-based foods is so important for the path forward towards a plant-based food system. Giving people access to more plant-based whole foods is essential for community health and is a win-win for the environment. I love the idea of recognition for green businesses. One local example being Veggie Grow Toluca Lake, who, if you haven't checked out yet, I definitely recommend. What I would add on the implementation piece is that leading by example is a great way to have a lasting impact. By endorsing the treaty, Burbank has the opportunity to join a coalition of 77 cities internationally, including Culver City, West Hollywood, and Los Angeles. By following this up with other nudges and information provided by the city, the city can add on and solidify use of plant-based policy in their sustainability policy.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Terry Friedman, followed by Elizabeth Bax.

Good evening, mayor, council members, staff, members of the community here and online. First, I wanted to share that I have several close friends now. that have experienced recent threatening coyote behavior in our streets, both in the day and night. For one, a coyote pack attempted to hunt an adult walking alone at night, and when that person called to notify the police of the aggressive behavior and an active threat to local residents and their children and their pets, their concern was rudely dismissed. Another friend had a similar belittling incident a year and a half ago instead with the animal control officer working the phone. Now, due to the increase of coyote human encounters, I feel that we need an outreach effort from the city in order to do a few things. One, educate the public about hazing, how people should react when they see a coyote follow them or their pets. Also, a friend who had one of these close encounters suggested adding a hazing sound to the Burbank 311 app. as well provide reminders to keep pets indoors, leashed on walks, and under direct supervision in our yards. Lastly, all reporting stakeholders such as BPD and animal control should receive sensitivity training to dealing with the public in distress when they are doing what is the neighborly thing to do and call and report near attacks and not erode trust in our city agencies. regarding future agenda items for consideration for AI art and city material. I just took the SB827 fiscal and financial training as required by the city and found it relied on all of the uncanny valley AI graphics in this content. Generative AI art is created through plagiarism and theft and is not able to be government-considered IP because it's not created by a human. So any graphics, text, or audio should not be promoted or allowed by the city. And quickly, I will also echo the supported plant-based treaty. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Elizabeth Bax, followed by David Donahue.

I find it so hard to be here tonight or anymore, by the way.

I've rented for many years before I bought my first home here at age 37 in a single family neighborhood, married and raised my family here. I worked hard in the film business for decades. Life hasn't been perfect. I've made mistakes. As so many people in Burbank who know me know and are very aware of, I owned them a long time ago. And I've worked very hard. I worked hard every day to show my children what accountability looked like and love looked like. My kids are brilliant individuals and very proud of their mama. But tonight I stand before you feeling completely overwhelmed as I feel things crumbling all around me. The film industry in Los Angeles is collapsing right now, and I've worked 12 days this year. The cost of living is drowning us, including me. I have kids in their 20s, and I care deeply about their future and how hard it is for their generation to survive here and in many other places in the United States. Because I'm barely surviving at the moment. And I want equity and solutions for everyone, including young people. But equity cannot mean abandoning the people who put decades of hard work and sweat and taxes into the building of a safe, beautiful city. Right now, I feel like the middle-class families who did everything right are being completely left behind. And when the state pushes bills like Senate Bill 1361 to strip away our local control, to force and choke our neighborhood streets with traffic, infrastructure, and environmental problems, it threatens the very neighborhood stability we worked our entire lives to build here in Burbank. Saying we oppose from a distance is not enough anymore. You need to get up in Sacramento. I don't deserve to be discriminated against for what I want. I don't want to be forced out, but my feeling of tension that says those who don't live here, that who have lived here for so long don't belong here unless we do it one way, and that's not equitable. I don't want to give up, but I'm really close.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is David Donahue followed by Jim Lane.

Mayor Takahashi, Vice Mayor Mullins, council members and staff, my name is David Donahue. I want to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for staff on the consent calendar item number two to approve a budget amendment, and I would like to read this into the record. SB 79 was signed by Governor Newsom on October 10th and took effect July 1st, 2026. The law is intended to facilitate transit-oriented housing development by establishing new development standards for near-qualifying transit facilities, such as the proposed stations along North Hollywood to Pasadena's Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT. As a result, SB 79 densities along the BRT, particularly along Olive Avenue, present significant challenges related to the development intensities, utilities, infrastructure, capacity, and environmental review, and introduces complexities to ongoing local planning efforts. Newly imposed impacts will have significant environmental impacts that must be analyzed and considered under the California Environmental Quality Act or CEQA. So whoever put this forward, thank you very much. It is going to be a benefit to the community and benefit to everywhere, and I think also to the state. Because it's going to have an opportunity to actually answer a question that Metro said no to twice. And so now what are we doing? We're in litigation. Metro has decided to sue us. We're going back to court this month. This will answer the question. And I really do appreciate Vice Mayor Mullins for stating that to Mrs. Laura Friedman, like what is the cost going to be? It's estimated to be an additional billion dollars on top of what was presented in this chamber of $114 million to $700 million for the existing specific plans. So I appreciate the city looking at this. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comment. And my last and final card is Jim Lane.

Two weeks ago, I asked Ms. Mullins how she was so sure that the group who had demonstrated the Moms for Liberty event was the same group calling the women answering the phones at BAOR. Ms. Mullins told me to go back and look at the video. This is the video clip where she says it.

I want to finish what this woman told me. She said your council talk about hate and I don't care with all due respect to the organization. It's not about you. This is about our behavior on council. This woman told me she's been receiving threats Calling the office. They're calling her the end names. They're calling, don't, this is exact truth. And if you want, I have a private meeting with you and that individual. And she is frightened to death because they're calling from the same group that was standing there that you guys encouraged to show up that night, that day, are calling her in the office, calling her names, threatening her life. threatening her children and calling her a lot of names.

How does Ms. Mullins know that it was the same group of people who were at the demonstration calling the BOR with threats and racial slurs? I'm not denying it didn't happen, right? I'm just saying, how does she know this? These are incredibly serious accusations, and I believe Ms. Mullins needs to prove this. if she cannot prove it, that it was the same group of people calling the BOR that was at the demonstration, that she needs to publicly rescind the comment, and then I would add that she needs to apologize. Some of those people in that video are sitting here right now. So you just tell us to our faces, okay? that we made those phone calls. Also like to ask, Mr. Rosati stated that he was giving a live play-by-play account to the city manager and city attorney that night. I would like to ask those two folks to summarize that conversation. Thank you.

All right, that was our final in-person speaker. We have completed the in-person general public comment. We'll be moving to remote comment. For remote commenters, it's recommended that you are in a quiet area with auto turned off on other devices, including your TV, to avoid feedback when you deliver public comment. Participants will be identified by either their name or their last four digits of their phone number. As a reminder, if you are calling from a blocked or private number, you will be introduced as anonymous. When it is your turn to speak, you will be prompted to unmute yourself. Please be prepared to dial a star six on your phone or follow on a screen zoom prompt at that time. Please note that your name will be listed on the record exactly as shown on Zoom, unless otherwise introduced when speaking. Madam City Clerk, please put through our remote callers.

Our next speaker is Nyree Kamalian. Hello, do you hear me? We can hear you. Go ahead.

Good evening, Mayor Takahashi and members of the City Council. My name is Nari Kamalian, and I'm virtually here with Plant-Based Treaty that asked the City of Burbank to endorse the treaty and make plant-based meals a normal and meaningful part of City-sponsored events. I want to emphasize that this is not about taking meat or dairy options away. People would still be free to choose those foods. We are simply asking the City to expand its offerings so plant-based choices are equally accessible and satisfying. When we discuss sustainability, we often focus on transportation, recycling, and renewable energy. But food production also has a major impact on land, water, and other natural resources. A large study published in Nature Food involving more than 55,000 people found that vegan diets had about one quarter of the land use impact of high meat diets and less than half of the water use impact. One reason is that animal agriculture requires land and resources not only for the animals, but also to grow crops to feed them. There are public health benefits as well. The World Health Organization encourages diets rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, along with adequate dietary fiber. Making plant-based meals more available can help make those foods more accessible to the community. It also makes city events more inclusive for residents who eat plant-based for health, environmental, religious, cultural, or ethical reasons. Plant-based treaty has already been endorsed by dozens of cities and regional governments around the world, including communities here in Southern California. This is a practical way for Burbank to provide more choice, use public resources more sustainably, and lead by example. So, I respectfully ask the City Council to endorse plant-based treaty and make a substantial, clearly labeled plant-based meals a standard part of city-sponsored events. Thank you so much for your time and your consideration.

Thank you. Our next caller, please.

Our next caller is Junho Jo.

Good evening. Please go ahead.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay. Good evening, Mayor Takahashi and Burbank City Council members. My name is Junho Jo, and I'm here to support the endorsement of plant-based treaty in Burbank. I want to focus on inclusivity and health as my main reasons of supporting plant-based treaty. While labels like plant-based and vegan may sound different, it's true that it's the most inclusive dietary choice, whether it be religious, health reasons, or dietary restrictions. Plant-based foods have lower amounts of allergens and can accommodate most, if not all, religious groups. And also, it's simply just food that everyone can eat, even without a reason, other than for taste and hunger. Plant-based foods are just foods in the end and can taste equally, if not better, than what we are used to. So many cultural foods are already plant-based or very close to being plant-based and only need minor adjustments, and it can be a great way for people to try out different flavors that are out of their usual meal rotations. Second, it can be a great way to learn about plant-based options. These last few months, I have been adopting more plant-based meals into my diet, and I have come to realize there are so many healthier alternatives and nutrient-dense food options that I simply never heard of. I've only heard of bland salads and tofu, but as I learned and explored more food items used around the world, I learned of seitan, TVP, and tempeh that have better protein per calories with less to almost no fats and cholesterol, nutritional yeast that adds a depth of flavor while having as much as some multivitamins worth of nutrients, and creative ways to use tofu products that comes in all shapes and textures. As I've been incorporating more plant-based meals into my diet, I've not only shed some pounds, but also noticed a significant improvement in my blood work. Additionally, I've become more mindful of the nutrients I consume and their environmental impact, and the only regret I have is that I didn't discover this sooner. If I were exposed to healthier and more sustainable plant-based options earlier in my life, maybe I would have been healthier as I would have known more options that could help my health improve and have had a lower net carbon footprint as I would have been able to purchase more sustainably. Endorsing plant-based treaty and having plant-based meals as a part of option in Burbank will not only allow more inclusivity and healthier options, but it will allow people to make informed decisions about foods in their everyday lives. Thank you for your time, and I hope the Council will endorse plant-based treaty.

Our next speaker is Maxine Hillman. She just lowered her hand. Our next speaker is Donald Roach. Sorry, her hand is back up now.

Hello. Thank you very much. Can you hear me?

This is Maxine. You can.

You can hear me? Hello?

We can hear you. Go ahead, please.

I'm sorry. Thank you. This is actually Paige Carson's approach. Hello, Irving Covenant. Thank you for your time. I'm a local resident, a campaigner for plant-based treating, leading the San Fernando Valley campaign, a mother of two, a wife of 30 years, and my husband has been a longtime employee of Warner Brothers for the past 20 years. As locals, we would like access to healthy, nutritious, sustainable foods that are plant-based throughout the city, as you are offering with more options as well. I've been an environmentalist for the past 30 years. When I learned the impact of my food choices on our planet, I had to make significant changes and align my values with my actions. We're inviting you to endorse the plant-based treaty to bring positive changes to the city, including lowering the city's carbon footprint, as you've heard tonight, reducing water usage, and increasing choices for a healthier planet via Burbank's food offerings. As you know, the endorsement would align with Burbank's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan and Sustainability Action Plan. Thank you. Please join the other 78 cities globally, nearly a quarter of a million individual endorsements, and over 5,000 businesses and organizations worldwide who have already endorsed plant-based treaty with benefits in place for those communities. Please keep leading on climate and community health. Burbank, you're doing a great job. endorsing the plant-based treaty is one more clear way to do just that. I'll be 60 years old next week, and I'm working hard for our future generations to leave our planet in better shape than it is now for the children. Won't you join me? Thank you for your time.

We're going to try Maxine Hellman again. There we go. Can you hear me now? We can hear you fine. Go ahead, please.

Good evening. I joined today to talk about meeting scheduling and collecting usable feedback from Burbank residents, and I will still get to that. But then Congresswoman Friedman said that she's going after funding for a real time intelligence center for Burbank. I urge you to tell her to focus her efforts elsewhere. We already have a concerning mass surveillance network in Burbank that holds extreme potential for First and Fourth Amendment rights violations. Real-time crime centers hypercharge these worries by collating all data in one place. I hope to share these concerns in more detail at next week's BPD community meeting. but I'm not sure how many of my neighbors will be able to join me. I attended the police commission meeting last month to share my concerns again about the use of automated license plate readers, particularly those from flock safety and the mass surveillance present in the city. This was made present in the city without input from Burbank residents. Though we didn't see eye to eye, each commissioner expressed gratitude for the public engagement and desire for more. I was ready to continue my engagement there. Imagine my dismay then when I learned only minutes before this meeting that the police department does not share that same desire. They are holding a community meeting to guide their strategic planning efforts at 4.30 p.m. with no option for virtual comment. I perform stakeholder engagement as one of my main job functions. It is a core tenet that in order to get good usable input, you need to meet respondents where they're at. Holding a meeting at a time only available to those working non-traditional hours, myself luckily included, without offering additional methods of providing comment is frankly a slap in the face to the people of Burbank. How else are Burbank residents going to be able to give feedback on systems of power and surveillance that directly impact our way and quality of life? Because the current option is unacceptable. I urge you to provide more options and more information on options and say no to any sort of real-time crime center in Burbank. Thank you.

Our next speaker is telephone number 3231. Thank you.

Good evening. The answer to public safety isn't more surveillance. It's working in and with the Burbank community. It's creating a better environment for all residents with care and respect. By not agendizing the cancellation of the flock contract, City Council is actively eroding our trust, our right to privacy, and wasting funds that could have been utilized in beneficial ways. I request the complete flock contract to be made available to the public for review. Residents were told that due to city council not reading the fine print, that the contract had to be canceled 30 days before the end of the trial period. And the $250,000 contract had to be paid. What are flock's ongoing subscription costs? What are the historic versus projected versus actual price increases? As taxpayers, residents demand transparency regarding this ongoing drain on local economy that wasn't put to a public vote for approval. How many members of city council, Burbank PD, and or police commission have traveled to flock headquarters? Have all of City Council Burbank PDs and commissions outside business interests been disclosed? Are any Burbank officials paid consultants for FLOC? Have any elected officials signed NDAs with any surveillance technology providers? Residents, join DeFLOC Burbank and Eyes Off Burbank if you'd like to fully reclaim our First and Fourth Amendment rights. Council Member Rizzotti, Did you actually attend the anti-LGBT Moms for Liberty meeting or just facilitate it? I didn't see you.

Our next caller and last caller is Laura Price.

Hello, City Council. I just wanted to thank you all for your support for the Burbank Sister Cities program. It is such a wonderful program, and our students were ecstatic to meet you all through our city hall and have a wonderful time with their host. I was, I'm sorry, I had the ability to meet the mayor of Oda, which was wonderful. And it was great to see Mayor Takahashi's face when she received the gift from Oda. I also wanted to bring up, and I don't know if this has been brought up before, but there's this new stop sign system over on Pass and Chandler. I don't know if you guys have been able to check it out, but it's really confusing. And you have to stop in the middle of the bike paths. So I think it needs to be rethought. Maybe it's a yield system instead of whatever kind of top-line system they're implementing over there. And then the other thing I wanted to bring up, the World Cup soccer event was wonderful. I got a chance to check it out. But I will say it did need more shade. And then the other thing was that even though you could see the screens from the side of the streets, I went to Panini Grill, and for some reason, they came up and were trying to put down the shades so that we couldn't see it from the patio, which I thought was a little, eh.

Anyway, I hope you guys have a great night.

Thank you.

That was our last speaker for general.

Okay. Thank you. Now is the time for a brief response. There being no further public comment, I now declare the general public comment closed. Now is the time for a brief response from city council, city manager, city attorney. Do we have anything from city staff? One from city manager.

Yes. Just briefly, we did end up, coyotes have been an issue this summer in the city. So one of the things that Park and Rec and Animal Shelter have done, they have actually, we have updated our website, but we've also been pushing out different updates. What we're focusing right now is on awareness and hazing techniques as far as what to do when you do encounter that. The biggest problem that we're having right now is people feeding coyotes, and that is bringing them down and creating problems. So we will continue to get that message out. Obviously, call the animal shelter, 818-238-3340. And then we do have after hours. You can call 818-238-3000 for a non-emergency. But this is a constant problem, especially during the summer, especially when it gets hot and dry. So we will continue to push that out. And then the last caller, I have the Public Works Director here. We'll take a look at that. This is our first complaint related to that, but we'll check it out and see what changes that we made and if there's any tweaks that we could do to keep that safe and clarify that for people to make their way safely throughout Burbank.

Thank you. All right. Council Members, who wants to start with brief responses? Council Member Anthony.

Thank you all for coming down. A lot of these are agenda items and we'll talk about them at the end. I was having a conversation with our Director of Parks and Rec. The idea of having a sound on an app to keep coyotes away was interesting. You know, they've done studies into this. There's always going to be a certain percentage of wild animals that are just not afraid of humans. That's just a fact, and coyotes are part of that wild animal crew. But if you feed the ones that aren't afraid, they have more babies, and they pass that gene down. You actually get more coyotes that are less afraid of humans if you feed them. So please, please don't do that. We encourage you not to. I want to just say, you know, I was over here and I was still in the room. Ms. Bax, I can hear you. But we are all servants of the people. If you need me to be in my seat to listen, I'm happy to do it. So thank you for waiting for me. That's all.

Who would like to go next? Vice Mayor next?

Okay, first I want to acknowledge the students that came today and the great experiences they shared with us. You don't have to speak the same language to get along with someone else. Music, food, culture, you share and you automatically get together and have a good time. So I really enjoyed what they said and how they got along and they communicated with each other. The trash truck. Wow. I like that screen. That's like anticipation of what's coming. Really good move. I appreciate it. And I'm going to be looking for that truck because I walk a lot. So I'll be looking out for it. And Mr. Prescott, thank you for the update on our filming. You guys continue to surprise us every week with lots of good information and changes. And this is Burbank, media capital of the world. And you, the staff from the police department, has shown us week after week of all the great things that we're doing to help our filming industry. So thank you for that. And I want to thank, of course, our Congresswoman Laura Friedman for coming and all her work that she shared with us tonight. Mr. Choi came and talked to us about the music and the grant. Give you a lot of kudos to help our youth and get them involved in the music. And this is a great program, so I appreciate you talking about it tonight. I do want to address I believe the speaker name is Julie regarding not so much that I know she talked about flock, but the press releases. And why do we have press releases? I think over the last few months of hearing from the public and not knowing exactly what flock cameras does and how it assists our police department and how they catch criminals, just reading the license plates. I think they weren't presenting wrong information. They were presenting facts in the press releases because the public asked us, well, how do you catch people? What is the criminals? What techniques and who do you catch? So I don't think putting out press releases to answer those members of the community that have asked us, what do you do with and how do you present it? We want to know how you do it. having to put that in the press release is not we're spending money on marketing or wasting staff's time. We're informing you of the tools that we have and how criminals are being caught just by having the actual camera. I'm not talking so much about who's operating the camera. I'm talking about our police work and how they can catch the criminals. Ms. Townsend, Sharon, thank you for being here. And I'm excited for you guys and Woodbury and Redlands merging together. So thank you for coming and making us aware of what's going on. Let's see. Oh, Ernest, thank you for being here tonight, your appointment for the upcoming appointment I should say on the agenda. So we'll be talking about that soon. But I appreciate you coming and letting us know that you did apply. So it helps us to see the face behind the application. Susan, I think she's still here. Interesting video. Captured my attention with the information instead of just talking. There was an illustration there what it looked like. So thank you for bringing that and being creative in a different way. plant base, all 15 of you, I believe. I was trying to count, but I know there is a lot of you who spoke. So we're going to be addressing that coming up soon. So thank you for your effort. I could tell you're very passionate about it. And also for, I think you guys gave us these bars. So thank you. I appreciate it. Okay, moving on. And Ms. Bax, I can tell that you're very passionate about what you're speaking. And I think a lot of people share your concerns and the way of living nowadays. It's difficult. And I understand that. And I'm sorry that you're going through this, and I hate to see you leave our city, so just hang in there, and we'll see what can happen here in the city of Burbank. And then moving on to Mr. Lane. Thank you for playing the video. I appreciate that you heard me when I say go back and watch the video. One thing you need to know about me maybe you haven't known in the last three and a half years I've been sitting here on council or as the city clerk over just the 39 years in public service. I never lie. I never create a story. I'm not doing this to gain popularity among people. And I always addressed you. I never dismissed what you said. So I do appreciate you coming back over and over because you don't feel satisfied of what I said. But what I would recommend... that instead of coming week after week asking me, where did I get this information from, is maybe contact the Burbank Realtor's Office, the administration. I said it because it was said to me because I had a meeting with the individual who was in tears crying. And basically, I passed on the information. I was not in the room when she received the call. Exactly what I said on the video is this individual has received phone calls from people that were at the demonstration. And I don't know the names. I did not go further to say, please spell everybody's name and tell me who called you. I don't know that they identified themselves. And this is not a lie. This is a fact. So if you want to set up a meeting with her, I'm more than happy to do it. And this is the last time I will address this. I don't care who you are. You come in front of the podium and you want me to speak about it again. This is not a made up story. This is reality. And I'm sorry that reality hurts because you don't agree with what I'm saying. So I'm going to leave it at that. Oh, and who else? Everyone else that called in, the coyotes, obviously they're addressed. I'm afraid of them as well, but the staff has already taken care of that. And everyone else that called, it was about plant-based, so we'll address that later. And thank you all for being here tonight.

All right, next up, Council Member Rosati.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'll start with Ms. Bax. I wanna let you know that I hear you. And I feel your frustration. Just this week, one of my clients has to replace six electrical panels at $63,000. She's being forced to replace them. And she's at a breaking point. So I understand it, and I hear you. We're trying to work on solutions. to the caller asking me, I'm not sure what they were asking me, what my role was in this protest. I attend every protest. I did not attend the meeting. I attended the protest. I attend every protest that happens in Burbank. So that was my role. To the plant-based treaty folks, thank you all again for coming. We'll be discussing this later tonight, and it'll be probably another agenda item, but I thank you for the callers and for your participation. To the coyote situation, so this is a very prevalent issue in my neighborhood. If you call the Parks and Rec, they'll come out and put out signs. On the signs, it talks about how to protect yourself and how to try to get the coyotes to get away from you. In my neighborhood, you can see a coyote every single morning. When I walk my dogs, every single morning. We have people that feed cats. our neighborhood they leave out food so we're trying to get them our neighbors are trying to get them to take in the food and the water because the coyotes are after food they're especially it's been so hot they're extremely thirsty so that's that's why we're seeing them but there are signs you we got them put in Johnny Carson Park we can get them put in your neighborhood but there's an outline as far as what to do if you if you can encounter one community member regarding the assault I'll simply just say I have zero tolerance for people being assaulted in any name so that's my position I have a zero tolerance Miss O'Connell I'll go Carol sorry I love that song it's such I don't know who's saying it it's got a great voice such a great tune but I actually liked that presentation, so thank you very much. And Ernest, thank you for coming. I don't know if you're still here for the fire code board. I appreciate that. Welcome home to the students and the delegates from Korea. Thank you for representing us. And Mr. Prescott, thank you for your update on the film industry. We're seeing it in our community. I'm seeing it as I'm driving around town. There's a lot of shooting going on around Burbank, so it's working. Thank you to our congresswoman for being here and giving us your update and always having an open-door policy. and was it Mr. Choi or Joy? Mr. Joy, Toy, for your presentation on your music program. I know several students that really enjoy it, and I'm glad that we're able to help in any way possible. Regarding the flock cameras, I expect our department to be transparent. They report on gun and drug busts, DUIs, reckless driving and pounding cars. And they always talk about their investigative conclusion on how they did that. And I don't see any difference in this situation. I want to know how We are catching criminals. And there's nothing wrong with that. I want to know what's being done to keep our community safe. And I support it. Thank you. Madam Mayor.

All right. Council Member Perez. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you to everybody that came tonight. Thank you, Mr. Bax. Thank you, Mr. Bax, for the apology. Appreciate it. To the Salvat Conservatory, you're doing amazing work. I'm actually very excited for Peter and the Rabbit, one of my favorite pieces to play, and also something I would love to take my little daughter to, so very excited for that. Mr. Ernest, thank you for applying again and putting a face to the name. I appreciate you coming down. Mr. Ernest Dellinger, no relation. Thank you for coming down. And we will address that comment when we get your comments and your concerns when we get to the vote. And then for the plant-based treaty folks, thank you for coming out in numbers, and also we will address that when we get to the item, which is at the end of the agenda. Mr. Kleiman, thank you for bringing up the issue of childcare, very important, and we should be shooting for ambitious goals. And we will address that when we get there. And then, since everybody talked about it, I'm also going to talk about the coyotes. And I'm going to be like that person. It's illegal to feed coyotes in the state of California and in the city of Burbank. Please don't do it. I have known people who actually do it. So please don't. In our neighborhood, it was a big issue. There was one person who was feeding the coyotes. And it turned into all of us with small dogs having to hide our animals. And people with small children feeling unsafe walking outside. So please, please, let's take care of each other as neighbors. And also, yes, loud noises help. So... Yeah, just like my colleague shared, please don't do it. And then the last thing I will say is thank you to the folks from the Sister City program. This has been a really touching year for the program. I think it was wonderful to hear from the students that came back home today. And it was, of course, very meaningful to wish farewell to the OTA students and knowing that we gave them a little piece of safe haven while there was an earthquake happening back home, and while I'm sure they were very worried about relatives back home. So to me, it's nice to know that Burbank is still that community, and we can do that for even folks from our sister city and make them feel right at home here. So thank you.

All right, thank you. I'll be brief. Thank you all for coming tonight and for speaking as always and those who called and those who emailed and met. Just on some things that haven't been addressed yet, just really quickly to the Solid Foundation and folks in general who talk about arts. I attended one of the solid events and I try to attend the arts as I can. And we really appreciate folks coming down and talking about the arts that are going on in the community. We have such a robust arts program in Burbank. And when folks come to council and share what's happening, it helps us know more about what's going on. So please feel free to continue to come back and share what's going on in the arts community. Um, for Mr. Scroggs AB 2319, we've written two letters in support of that legislation. Um, so I'm sure there's, they know where we stand on it, but I agree this continue to pursue that and let them know. And let's see. For the plant-based treaty folks, thank you for coming out. It's always great to see folks from the high schools and young folks. I know it's really probably pretty intimidating to speak at the lectern in front of us, and you did a great job. So thank you for continuing to come out and to do that, even though you may have been nervous. And we will talk about that later. But I want to say also, and I didn't catch, maybe one of you said it, but as a vegetarian myself, that the options for food now that are plant-based proteins are way tastier than they've been in years past. And sometimes way better than what's optioned for meat. When I go to conferences, I get the vegetarian option. Sometimes it's better than the chicken. Just saying. And then I'm going to also, since everybody else talked about the coyotes, I'm going to also say something about the coyotes. We're living in the coyotes' world. This is their home. So we're in their home. But I would like to ask staff about the coyotes. Do we have any PRs or any information online that we can remind folks not to feed? The signs, I think, say don't feed them. But I'm wondering if maybe we could remind.

We have a whole new robust web page. It will tell you everything that you need. And we also have been pushing that out.

Great. Okay. Maybe we can make a video with music on it about feeding the coyotes. And then speaking of the video with music, I would like to know, I would like to meet the person who sang that song, and I would love to meet the graphic designer of who made those images, because we have some great talent in the city. Yes. Oh, got it, okay. Okay, got it. And I think that's it for what I've got. So again, thank you everybody for coming out and speaking on the items. We will get to it. Yes, you had one last thing.

Just for clarification, I know it's been mentioned before, but the individuals who are arrested by the Burbank Police Department are suspects. They are still afforded their rights. They're innocent until proven guilty. A criminal is someone who is convicted after they've been sent to court.

Yeah, and I think the criminals have to have not just a misdemeanor, but an even more serious crime. All right, so that's that. Moving on. The consent calendar may be enacted in one motion. Madam City Clerk, please read the consent calendar.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. We have three items on tonight's consent agenda. Item one is approval of the City Council minutes of the regular meetings of July 21st and July 28th, 2026, and the dark meeting of August 4th, 2026. Item 2 is adoption of a resolution approving the revision of the title and specification for the classification of Assistant Community Development Director, Business and Economic Development to Assistant Community Development Director, Economic Development and Real Estate. Adoption of a resolution approving the establishment of the title, specification, salary, and conflict of interest code designation for the classification of Assistant Community Development Director, Housing and Homeless Services, and adoption of a resolution approving the citywide salary schedule. And item three is approval of a budget amendment to the fiscal year 2026-2027 adopted budget appropriating funds for the environmental review of SB 79 transit oriented development stop zoning in Burbank. Thank you.

All right. Yes, Council Member Anthony.

I'd like to pull agenda item three for the end of the meeting.

Are you going to pull it? Okay.

Pull it or just ask a question or what? I feel like my questions may go a little in depth, so I'd like to pull it. Number three.

OK. All right. So we will pull item three from the consent calendar and put it at the end after item 02. We'll pull N3. We'll pull N3 and put it after item 02. Any other comments before we make a motion for the other two consent items? All right, who would like to make a motion for the consent items that are left?

I move to make a motion for the consent items, excluding item number three.

OK, second? Second. All right. We have a first, Vice Mayor, second, Councilmember Perez, if we could get a roll call.

Councilmember Anthony?

Yes.

Council Member Perez? Yes. Council Member Rizzotti?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Mullins? Yes. And Mayor Tagahashi? Yes. Thank you.

Okay. All right. Tonight we have two agendized reports to council, and then we'll have the third at the end. Okay. And after staff's presentation, the City Council will proceed with public comment. Speakers will be allowed to speak on the item at the conclusion of the presentation as long as the speaker has not spoken on the item during the first period of general public comment. Please be sure to submit your public comment card now, as no additional public comment cards will be accepted once the comment period commences following staff's presentation. Our first report to council tonight is the appointment to fill one vacancy on the Board of Building and Fire Code Appeals for unexpired term. I welcome Madam City Clerk Kimberly Clark to please present the report.

Thank you, Mayor Tagahashi and members of the City Council. Kimberly Clark, City Clerk. Tonight, I will be presenting reports to Council item number one, appointment to fill one vacancy on the Board of Building and Fire Code Appeals for an unexpired term. On June 24th, 2026, the city clerk's office began advertising and accepting applications for one vacancy on the board for an unexpired term ending July 31st, 2028. This vacancy was created by the resignation of board member Carol Ann Coates. To obtain qualified candidates, a notice of vacancy was advertised through the following channels. The city's website, city council meeting announcements, all social media platforms managed by the city clerk's office, press releases sent to the Burbank Leader and myburbank.com, notices posted on the city hall bulletin board through community groups and organizations, and by sending constant contact email notifications. The deadline for submitting applications to the city clerk's office was Friday, July 24th, 2026 at 5 o'clock p.m., The city clerk's office received one application from Ernest Dellinger. At this time, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you for the report. Do we have any public comment?

We do not.

Okay. Then we will move on to the item and proceed with the vote.

Could we have a vote for Mr. Dellinger by show of hands? Should we make it unanimous?

Yes. No, we can't. He's not here. I'm sorry. He's not here. It's unanimously for. OK. Let's see. Couching up. There's so many words on this page. Hold on a second. Okay, so we're moving on to the second report to council tonight is an update on child and infant care needs assessment. I welcome Assistant Parks and Rec Director Diego Ceballos to please present the report.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council, Diego Ceballos, Assistant Director of Parks Recreation. Tonight I will be presenting a follow-up report regarding the City's child infant care planning efforts and a proposal from the Child Care Resource Center, or CCRC. to conduct a comprehensive child and infant care needs assessment for the City of Burbank. This evening's report provides background on Council's previous direction, summarizes the proposal received from CCRC, and outlines staff recommendation for next steps. This item began back in September 2024 when council requested that staff explore potential formation of a child and infant care task force. The original concept was to better understand the child care availability, affordability, barriers to access, and how child care could support a broader community planning initiatives. Council also expressed interest in considering how childcare could be integrated into the city's 15-minute connected communities concept, particularly with the downtown Civic Center area. The concept recognizes the importance of having essential services and amenities located within convenient access to where people live, work, and participate in their community. When the item returned to council in June 2025, council indicated before potentially creating a task force or pursuing policy changes, it would be beneficial to first obtain clear understanding of Burbank's current childcare landscape. Council requested several pieces of additional information, including previous childcare studies, the current provider capacity, examples from comparable cities, and an estimated cost of conducting a comprehensive needs assessment. Since that time, staff has continued evaluating options and has received a proposal from CCRC. At this time, I'd like to start the presentation, please. The current childcare landscape, the previous assessment identified several common challenges facing Burbank families, included limited licensed childcare capacity, particularly for infants, affordability challenges, long wait lists, limited childcare options for working families, particularly those that work evening, weekends, and also nontraditional schedules. These challenges are not unique to Burbank, but they do affect families, employers and the local workforce. Understanding the magnitude of these issues within our community is an essential first step before considering future policy and or investment decisions. In 2023, I'm sorry, the 2023 assessment prepared by CCRC for Burbank YMCA provided baseline information, identified many childcare challenges facing our community. However, its primary purpose was to evaluate existing conditions. It was not designed to serve as a comprehensive planning document for the city of Burbank. For example, it did not include detailed forecasting of future childcare demands associated with housing growth, demographic changes, or employment trends. It also had limited employer engagement and a narrow analysis of workforce impacts and underserved populations. The purpose of this new assessment would build upon the earlier work by providing updated information specifically tailored to support city planning and future policy considerations. CCRC is proposing a comprehensive citywide assessment. The study would evaluate childcare availability, accessibility, affordability, and geographic distribution throughout Burbank. It will also identify service gaps reflecting infant, toddler, preschool age children, school age youth, and families needing care outside of the traditional work hour. The assessment will also examine disparities affecting lower income households, multilingual communities, single parent households, and children with disabilities or other special needs. Ultimately, the goal is to provide the city with reliable data-driven information that can guide future policy and investment decisions. CCRC proposes using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The project would include community outreach, surveys to parents and childcare providers, focus groups, interviews with employers and community organizations, demographic and economic analysis, and a GIS mapping tool to identify areas with limited childcare access. The proposal also emphasizes including public engagement by providing outreach material and surveys in multiple languages. This comprehensive approach is intended to capture both statistical data and lived experience from both families and providers. At the conclusion of this project, CCRC would provide several deliverables. These include a comprehensive final report, an executive summary, GIS mapping tools, child care gap analysis, and recommendations for potential policy and implementation strategies. These products would provide council with objective information to help inform future decision regarding childcare planning, partnerships, and potential investments. It's important to note that completing these assessments will not commit the city to any future childcare program or policy. Rather, it will provide the information needed to evaluate future options. The estimated project cost is approximately $269,000. The proposed assessment will take approximately 18 months to complete. Given the scope of work and the associated costs, staff believes the project should be considered within the broader context of the city's budget process. This approach allows council to evaluate the proposal expenditure alongside other city priorities and determine whether this funding assessment aligns with available resources and council's overall budget priorities. Based on the information presented tonight, staff is not requesting approval of an agreement with CCRC. Instead, staff recommends a canceled direct staff to continue exploring a potential agreement with CCRC, continue refining the scope of work, and implementation considerations and return with funding considerations as part of the fiscal year 2027-28 budget process. During this time, staff will continue to refine the project scope, evaluate implementation considerations, ensure the assessment addresses the childcare needs of children with disabilities and families who may require reasonable accommodations or additional support to access childcare services while also identifying potential funding opportunities. In closing, Access to quality childcare remains an important issue for many Burbank families, employers, and the broader community. A comprehensive childcare and infant needs assessment would provide the city with updated objective data to better understand current conditions, anticipate future needs, and support the formation of policy decisions. Because of the cost associated with the proposed assessment, staff believes it's appropriate to evaluate this project through the upcoming budget process before seeking council authorization to proceed. This concludes my presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions that council may have. Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation. We do have public comment, so we'll do that first, and then we'll go to council questions and comments. So we'll now proceed to public comment. There are in-person speakers. A timer is available on the podium. For both in-person and remote participants, please state your name for the record. For remote speakers, do we have any remote speakers, by the way, Madam City Clerk?

We do not. We do not.

OK, so let's go straight to the public comment. We have one public comment card, and that's Arno Dionysian. You have three minutes.

Welcome. Thank you. Good evening, council. I saw this item on the agenda, and I thought it was interesting. So I wanted to briefly comment on something about it. I'm a student of economics, and I'm doing my best to learn about things like this and how they affect cities and governments across the world. I'm sure that's something that's not foreign to city council. But childcare is the one thing that I found to be particularly interesting in my studies. Because it seems to be something that's a social idea, that we want to help young mothers, young fathers, and raise families in cities like Burbank. But childcare is actually a deep economic institution. Cities and countries that force their citizens to choose between working and raising families will often be very disappointed by the choices citizens make. Nations like Japan and cities across the country are desperately disappointed by the choice to present their residents between raising a family and working. Burbank is known historically for being a city of young families, and I think $269,000, as expensive as it may sound, is a very reasonable cost for more information on what makes Burbank the city that it is. So more information is never a bad thing, and I would recommend city council approve the study. Thank you so much.

Thank you for your comment. All right. We have now completed public comment for this report. And does staff have any reply to public comment?

No, other than I appreciate his comments. And I think it was very eloquent in the way he spoke about it. And I really appreciate his thoughtfulness.

OK.

Thank you. All right. Council, who would like to go first with questions to staff? Council Member Anthony.

I know this is only a first step report. Was there any even cursory glance at potential funding opportunities, grants, nonprofits that are doing this work, anything like that at all? Or are we basically starting from scratch?

So we're not there yet. We would definitely go into a study of what funding options are available and then come back with more information.

If we did it during our regular budget season, come back May, June, would that give enough time for us to narrow the field and have a very specific ask for CCRC? Is that kind of the timeline that would help us?

So we've had a very pointed discussion with CCRC. And I think we're in a good place as far as what we're asking for. There's a couple of tweaks that we'd like to make, including asking for an analysis on a couple of things. One, the impacts of families that have kids with special needs and to study that. Also to study kind of what it would mean for families Our agency, the city of Burbank, to give some recommendations on fulfilling the needs of our employees. So we'd want to look at expanding the scope. But again, I think it's important for us to kind of take that next step. really dive into a firm proposal, and then also look for funding opportunities outside of our general fund.

Okay. So from now until May, we'd have the opportunity to refine it. We'd be able to look, like do the ask, state, federal partners, county, all that stuff to see if there's funding. And then my last question would be, I know there was a little bit of the YMCA's original assessment included Burbank Unified. Is there time for us in the next few months, several months, to work with BUSD and get a request from them on specifics and maybe see what they were looking for?

Okay, if you could just clarify exactly what you're asking from BUSD.

Well, I know there was some consternation from them back in the day about child care on-site at the schools and then how those zero to five institutions, if they're local, how do they feed into the local schools? So I know there's just a little bit of logistics on their end. Would we do any of that locally? would we wait for, if we were to move forward with this, get CCRC to do that full report and then they would be the ones to be checked? That's correct.

The latter. The latter. So CCRC would ask BUSC to be a stakeholder in their review process.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Council Member Rosati? Did you have your hand up?

I was just waving his hands. I just have a quick question regarding, do we know how many child care spaces, license, that is, we currently have in the city?

We do have, through our license and community development, we do have that information, yes.

Okay, and that would include, I think, child care sometimes can run from somebody's house if they're licensed?

If they're licensed. Okay. And then also not only that they're licensed, but they've decided to kind of go through the licensing permitting process through the city.

Okay. And is that, I'm assuming you don't have it handy with you right now, but is that information when you come back Would we be able to identify here is how many we have already and perhaps it might be in certain areas we're lacking childcare, maybe they're all concentrated in one area versus another area that has more need. Would we be able to find this information when you come back with assuming we give the go to look into it further and do a study?

Okay. So what you're asking me is when I come back through the budget process, if I can come back with that information readily to discuss as part of the budget request. Is that what you're asking me?

Well, I'm assuming you're going to come back with information, what we have currently, what are our needs, the gaps, something like that.

So no. So no. Well, we would be coming back with... is a expanded scope for CCRC to do that work, right? Okay. And so CCRC will do the gap analysis. CCRC will go out and have the stakeholder interviews. They'll meet with the providers, right? They'll gather all of that data, and then they will, from that analysis, community outreach, public meetings, all of that, then will give us some policy recommendations.

Okay. And, and I, that's something I wanted to understand what we already know and what we have versus the additional information that we're going to need to bring back to council. Uh, to look at 260-some thousand dollars. What exactly are they bringing back? What exactly are they looking for? Because what we would want to have is where are the need, the gaps that we have in the community, and also how many are licensed, how many out there can get licensed, so all this information.

So not only that, and it was mentioned in the presentation, What CCRC will do is also forecast out, based on the development that we have for the next 5, 10, 15 years, right, what is our future demand going to be for child care, right? And so they will develop that information. They will meet with the, what is it, the specific plan manager you know folks they'll review specific plans and they will make policy recommendations for council to consider based on not just a static snapshot of what is today's need right because today's need will change tomorrow's different right if I did an assessment during the summer months say hey Constantine your child care your program that you're running Today, how many vacancies do you have? Well, I have 50% vacancy. Well, it's summer, right? But fall, winter, kind of the projection. So we don't need a static analysis of what today's needs are. We need an analysis of, based on how the city is growing and developing, right, with our current plans, what policy decisions and considerations will council need to make in the future associated for childcare?

I agree and I disagree. I think we need current analysis of what our needs are today to accommodate the needs of our current situation and population. Then every year, therefore, based on our growth, and this is something I'm sure they're going to look into it in the report and figure out, like you said, what is the city's growth in the next five years, 10 years? How have we grown in the last 15 years. And I think maybe there is more and more opportunity for child care that will be open. And as council member Anthony said, the school district, maybe there's other opportunities that they can present to us with the help of the school district plus our analysis, maybe there's going to be other opportunities. Yeah, I'm just trying to get the money that we will be spending on this study, is it enough information that we'll get back to give us this determination what our needs are now, what our needs are in the future, and also who else can we partner with.

That's a key point. That's absolutely a key point. And what are the partnerships? What are the partnership recommendations? Who are all the stakeholders? What commitment levels do we have from those stakeholders to help grow? This is not going to be City of Burbank going to solve the problem. is going to be a partnership and a collaboration with our current providers, how they see themselves playing a role in addressing this need, but also having a clear understanding of what their current capacities are, what their limitations are based on space, staffing levels, that sort of thing, But the school district, for example, is currently looking at an additional child care provider that they're bringing on board to help with the child care needs. So we want to have those conversations to understand what is that capacity going to look like today and into the future.

Okay.

Thank you. You're welcome.

First, Council Member Rosati.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Okay. Back in the day when I was on the campaign trail, this was like the top three of people's concerns. And the report is pretty in-depth. I read it a couple times just trying to make sense of it. Some of it is outdated because of the dates and three, six years ago. You know, depending on our budget and our situation, I want to spend the money, but I want us to be able to do something actionable after that. So what is that? I think we need to determine what is our role if we're going to do something actionable with this, who we're going to partner with or what nonprofits or whatever. I think a good question to ask is how has TK, the advent of TK, taken some of the pressure off? Because I know a lot of parents are sending their kids into school early, you know, early fours and fives. So I definitely think this needs to be refined, like you said. There's just a lot here to get our arms around this. But I think I would like to know, again, what we can do. If we're going to do this, what actionable item can we do? What's possible? What's within our realm?

So I can't answer that question. I think an assessment needs to be done. CCRC are very well versed to understand what are the specific needs for Burbank. Let's identify them. And what policy recommendations, a menu... of potential actions that council can take to help alleviate these, right? So it's going to be an a la carte menu of things that you can select from as far as policy to address the immediate, the long, the midterm and the long term. And so that's what you will get with the assessment. Another tool, the GIS mapping tool, will also have a graphic depiction of where the gaps are in the city and where are there opportunities to grow through strategic partnerships. So beyond that, I think right now we do need to kind of take the next step is to, one, look for outside funding if there's an opportunity there. We're very sensitive to that. And also, I think we're fairly good at looking outside. for other people's money to help fund some of this. Right. If we're not successful there we'll come back and tell you kind of what avenues we've looked for and then come back with a plan and make a general fund request during the budget cycle with a refined plan. And I'm taking notes of what the council members are saying. as far as actionable items that we can take in the immediate term and in the mid to long term.

And I also think that we should look at what we currently have in that there are facilities that are good facilities that don't have the proper accreditation, therefore they're not getting the enrollment. So how can we as a city help that? How can we help them get the proper accreditation so that they can fill that need. I'm not going to mention the schools that I'm thinking of, but I know that there are two that are out there that just don't have the proper accreditation, and therefore they're not getting the enrollment. And they have a decent facility. They're already set up. So that's just an idea.

Right.

Thank you. Thank you.

So I'll start with questions. And I think my colleagues alluded to this, but 18 months is a long time. And our residents, I absolutely agree. You ran, oh, my gosh, it's almost like, what is it, two years ago? My God. You ran two years ago. I ran four years ago. We hear the same thing. Child care is a need in our community. when I look at this, yeah, 18 months for the study, we're still not necessarily agendizing that because we're waiting for the budget season. And then for it to come back, we're looking at an entire cycle that is a zero to three cycle for a child in our community. So I think And then correct me if I'm wrong, but I think what I'm hearing from my colleagues and my question too is what can we do now? What can we do to move this along and get actionable items that happen now? And I know Parks and Rec has some low-hanging fruit items, but I think I want to plant that seed and really have a discussion about that.

that's a good question and I appreciate that what have we done so far right so a couple of accomplishments that are notable is during our summer camp program kids are out of school we've expanded our summer camp program we expanded the nature center camp from a half day to a full day book to capacity right we expanded the arts camp which was a half day to full day filled to capacity so that's 40 kids in each camp i think between 40 and 60 kids in each camp getting before they were getting half day care today they're getting full day care. That's across 10 weeks during the summer months, okay? So what we've done during the summer months is that we provide service, the city of Burbank directly through my staff provide service to over 4,000 kids for the summer, right? A combination of art camp, nature camp, summer days camp, you know, at multiple sites. So we understand that there's a big need. Additionally, through contract instructors, we've brought in contract instructors to do Lagos camp and theater camp and sports camp. That number goes from 4,000 to 6,000. That's over 183 weeks of distinct camps over a 10-week period. That's a major accomplishment. And so we understand that there's a need. To the extent that we can, we provide that service. Our after-school days program, Last year was at about 85% capacity, so we still had some room to take some kids into that program. I know that the school district is expanding their child care after school program to a third provider, which is wonderful. We're going to be meeting with that team to understand what that looks like and how we play a part in that. I think low-hanging fruit, I heard low-hanging fruit, I think something that we can do today. In the report, attachment number three is the Burbank Child Care Directory that is dated 2009-2010. What my staff have begun to do is go through that entire program, make phone calls to each one of the providers, and ask them what... capacity do you have? And what I can tell you, a lot of the providers that are there are no longer in service, right? So what we've also done to the earlier question, we reached out to folks in community development and I asked them for a list of all of the providers. And so low-hanging fruit could be update this document, in short order before the end of the year and see if we can publish it so at least families know who's out there, what the contact information is for those groups, how are they distinctly different from their competitors. and what their capacity, what age group they provide, and also what their costs are associated with their programs and what the registration process is, some kind of basic level pieces. So I think that that's a low hanging fruit that we can move forward fairly quickly.

Thank you. And I ask because I wanted that to be said out loud. I think that's something we should already be doing. That's something that I'm glad you all are taking on. And I think covers, to my colleague's point, a slice of what is one of the things we wanted from a comprehensive report. And I do believe in a much more efficient and shorter way because families need access to this now. I have another question with that. And I don't need a study to know this. I think you know this very well. The minute you enter enter parenthood when you first find out you are pregnant or expecting or when you first adopt a child your village your Burbank community will tell you sign up for child care now I was three no I was a few days pregnant when somebody was like before you're three months you have to look for child care now I'm very fortunate that I have a wonderful village in my family who you know has provided a lot of child care and help shout out to them but That is a reality that our communities are facing. And I don't need a study to know that there's a massive gap in the zero to three realm. And so I think this is great. I think it's good to get data. But there are things we already know today. And so I think, and I see the nods from my colleagues, I think there is an urgency to move forward because, again, in this period that we wait three years, because it's going to be two to three years before this comes back, I think we would like to see what we can address sooner. And I have some ideas, but I think you grabbed the mic, so.

No, no, please go ahead. Please go ahead.

I think some of the things I would like to see is perhaps maybe between amongst ourselves, we can form a subcommittee. We can think of proactive ideas because we have other local jurisdictions, other folks that are looking at things to try to bring forward. And of course, we're not going to know until their staff analysis what that looks like. But I think we have to start looking at more more immediate things, more things that we can do proactively now. Because to your point, you said something that hit me massively, Vice Mayor. You said you want to know the reality for now, for the families that are here now. If we study the families that are here now through this process, it's not going to matter because that's going to be a whole different world in four years when the policies that are recommended in that study start to come out. I do appreciate the want to research for future planning. I think that's definitely something that can happen. But again, I'm thinking of the now. I'm thinking about the affordability crisis we are absolutely living in right now.

You have follow-up, Vice Mayor?

Yeah, so I want to talk about the list that we can create and make accessible online. And I know this firsthand. It's not a secret. I have six grandchildren, and I am a free babysitter. I should start charging them. God bless. Start a daycare. Yeah, I'll give you the dates where you can sign up. Are you licensed? No. You come as you take it.

She has to adopt your children first as a grandparent adoption.

Yeah. But it this even goes back 44 years ago, when I was dealing with my own first child and finding a place for my son, and where am I going to put him when I go back to work? So I mean, childcare exists for many, many years, if you're a working mom and dad, you know, or a couple, it is It's hard because you need to find that child care. I know the challenge that I know my children ran into and even myself... is knowing who's out there and who's really reputable. So do I sign up with down the street, there's a school or there's a neighbor that has a license in home and she takes care of the kids, but the struggle is, is this person reputable? Do they abuse children? So this is a lot that goes on into the parents trying to figure out. And I think it's important that providing that list, and I like to see, I don't know if there is a way that we know, how long have they had their license? You know, have we had any complaints about them? If we're going to provide something immediately to the families, maybe give them that information. part of understanding. Here is the names of a list of schools out there. Here, they've had their license 15 years or one month. I don't know. It depends on what you find out. And I think this is information, like you stated, it's easy to find out from the CDD department.

to see they have license how long they've had it and I know complaints don't come to us That'll go to a different department and I don't know if his child care or so somebody else I would be reluctant to advise the city that Because it is not a licensing entity because it is not charged with child care child welfare that we shouldn't be in the business of making recommendations We could certainly provide a factual license, not factual, but when you go to the reputable category or trying to phrase conclusions about businesses, I think the city is not in a position to do that, particularly when the licensing entities wouldn't do that themselves.

Fair. But I think it would be important to see how long they've had their license, obviously, because if they had it for a long period of time... That's just factual. Yeah. And I wasn't implying, and thank you, Mr. City Attorney, for bringing this up, because I know the city, we typically don't recommend one vendor over another. We... we don't do that because we don't know and we can't take that risk. But just having a list available for parents for now, immediate need versus waiting to do the study. Because we have to do a study. If we're going to do it right, I agree. We need to go out there. We need to look at options and we need to do a study. But for immediate needs, so a parent is looking for childcare. If you're stuck, you go online, oh, there's a list of all these schools because there's so many of them and most of the time we don't even know they exist unless a friend tells you or you get a reference from somebody else. So that would be very helpful, I think, for immediate action.

Council Member Mullins, I think if I give you a couple of recommendations of what was done in the past as far as information that was presented, I think it would definitely satisfy a lot of those questions. One is number of years of operation, right? The other one can be ratio of adult to child, right? Sorry, say that again? Number of ratio.

Ratio of adult to child. Oh, how many adults?

What's their supervision ratio?

Okay. Not necessarily their enrollment, but what they try to maintain.

IE, the state of California mandates one child, or sorry, four children to one adult, from the zero to three range. but some places will advertise, we do two kids per one adult, which is a huge difference.

Correct, correct. And then also months of operation. So understanding, is this a seasonal business? Is this summer only? Are they operating 10 months out of the year, 12 months out of the year, right? I think that that will kind of help inform parents. I'm more comfortable with just a seasonal operation, just a little mom and pop operation, not a big deal. I can do 15 to 1 ratio, not a big deal for me. There's other parents that want a little bit more attention or may need a little bit more attention for their child.

I have a kid who needs one-to-one.

Very good. And so I think those pieces would be very helpful to help alleviate your concerns.

I agree.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

And if I could follow up on the directory, unless you had a question about the directory earlier.

I just want to say things have changed from when we were kids. You can go to an indoor playground. I think a lot of child care is worried about playgrounds and things like that. You can do an indoor playground now and take your kid there, and it's just as much fun as being in an outdoor playground. So maybe we look at our licensing coding and say, you know, we had a 35% vacancy rate in Burbank and office buildings. Maybe we look at taking a building and an outside vendor and making it easier for them to roll in with childcare, and they can provide that indoor-outdoor play with the indoor facility and so on and so on. So I think there are things that we can do on our licensing code to make things a little bit easier. Because I've heard that's an issue of trying to find the proper location. But I think if we change how we view a facility where it can be all indoors, you could have an indoor playground, I think that could alleviate some of the pressure. So I think we just need to think outside the box.

Yeah, agreed. Follow up to that? OK.

We have a lot of businesses that are part-time now, work from home, semi-remote, and there's a lot of office space available. I'm just trying to think of actionable items we can take. Is there some way to get... Businesses that have more than 20 or 30 employees to incentivize them to have on-site child care. Is there a format for us to say, okay, if you're a business and you've got office space, we'll help you set it up. I guess my question is, we talked about licensing. Is it a state license board? Does the county inspect? Who sets that up? What is our zoning and business permit requirements in residential neighborhoods? Is it different than trying to set something up on the second floor of an office building? Like, I'm just trying to think how can we relax all of that, streamline it, and then at the other end of it, incentivize folks to do some of that work. And I know, you know, The assessment by CCRC needs to happen at some point, because we don't know what we don't know. We need to know how many we got to go out and make. But we know our code. We know our city code. We know what we can allow and what we can incentivize. So those are, I think, easy, actionable items for us to move to a second step while we figure out this budget.

Yes, I see that you are at the podium.

Good evening, Mayor Takahashi and Council Members. Marissa Garcia, Parks and Recreation Director. Child care is a big issue, big problem nationwide, and certainly we appreciate Council's interest and desire to want to help our community address our child care needs. One thing I want to just mention is that neither a park and rec staff, a community development staff. We're not child care experts. We absolutely are problem solvers, and that's one of the things that I think we do really well is try to solve problems that come before us. So one of the purposes with partnering with CCRC is because they are an expert in child care, in licensing, in providing some recommendations as to how we can incentivize businesses to provide childcare for their employees or how we can attract childcare providers here in the city. I don't have the specifics, but I do know that Community Development Department is looking at a community benefit program in which child care would be an incentive. So there are things that staff is already working on, and certainly we're taking copious notes to all the comments that you've made. I think from, again, just not, we don't really know what the actual true need is because we don't have that assessment. We can. I think all of us can agree that the infant, toddler, right, the zero to five traditionally has been the biggest need. And so I think that that's something that, from what I'm hearing, is that something that we need to focus on. As Mr. Ceballos mentioned, we, over the last... two years in Parks and Rec, we've expanded our childcare offerings primarily during the summer. The school district is bringing that third party service provider to help during the school year. As Mr. Ceballos mentioned, we are not full, our capacity, we still have some capacity at our elementary school age and we're on campuses at all of our elementary schools except for one, or two actually. That being said, I think that, you know, just kind of bringing back the focus and the discussion is I think there is absolutely value in doing whatever we can do low-hanging fruit, working with our colleagues in community development. How can we, what can we do, what tools do we have? that we can incentivize that. And I think that we can do that at a staff level. I think working, we meet pretty regularly with our colleagues at the Burbank Unified School District, talking to them. I think there's great partnerships and a lot of great things that we can do. between now and when we can, if there is a desire to move forward with an assessment. But I do believe that it's a lot of money to invest. We do have a great foundation, which is that 2023 assessment that was really a good snapshot. As some of you have noted, that assessment just basically said, There's a need, and good luck, right? What we are looking to do is have a much more robust community engagement. Their assessment did not do an extensive community engagement, at least did not meet the standards that we would want to. We want to go out to the community, multilingual community engagement, and really understand, right, we want single family, make sure that we're capturing single family households, multicultural households, just the gamut. So that being said, to us it's important to understand what the need is through a in-depth comprehensive assessment that I get it. What can we do now for our families today? And then this assessment will help us in the future because this issue is not going to go away. This issue is going to be with us for a very, very, very long time. So we just want to make sure that we're doing things that are responsible to not only our community and meeting their needs, but also being responsible to our budget. So I just wanted to put that out there. And I think Mr. Suarez is doing an excellent job answering questions. And we're here to get any input. And if we need to come back between now and before the budget process to bring you some of our thoughts and ideas and certainly welcome any suggestions that you might have, I think we can move pretty quickly in bringing those forward. Thank you.

Before, any more questions? Okay, so I had, this was my item that I had asked for originally, and I've had a few meetings around it, and I really appreciate the staff taking this seriously and looking into it and bringing this today. And without doing an assessment or asking community input, I can guarantee you that the stress of childcare is more today than ever. And it's based on partly about our input that we get just being existing in our community, but also the reality is that today we have far more dual working parents than ever before in our society. In addition to that, the grandparents who would normally watch the children, many of us are working still. And so if my child, had a child right now, I would have a very, very hard time being the grandparent who could watch the children. And so this is like cascading. And it's like, it's not just us, you know, it's not just Burbank. It's like, this is a whole society wide thing. So I think that, you know, the need is urgent. And I understand what staff is saying about how this is also needing to know the assessment in order to get a deep really accurate policy moving forward. But I also agree with my colleagues that this is an issue that has gotten very serious. And I think part of the reason why, one of the many reasons why children are, I should call them children because my children are childbearing age, but young adults are waiting longer to have kids is because of the cost of childcare and the accessibility, not just even the cost, but just whether it even exists in the beginning. And that's zero to three, as you had mentioned, is like the biggest. And so I'm wondering, like, just as we're going through this process, and I do have some questions and stuff, but as we're going through this process, too, I'm hearing a little bit of discussion. I'm realizing that part of also this kind of moving through this is that we're, I don't know, maybe there's an opportunity here to see child care and being... that business being in that role as a more serious business as a more serious position at the same level as opening a restaurant or starting a retail business or starting you know web design firm or whatever it is it's the same level of serious that we give folks and So if they're interested in opening us childcare or they're interested in that, we give them the same level of support and attention we would as somebody who's opening up a retail store. So we have like our business concierge, Cynthia, who's fantastic, is to equip her with information on how she can help. You know, maybe she could go to a few webinars to learn more about the basics of how that is opened. And for the chamber, partnering with the chamber, because they work with businesses. I don't know how many businesses they have on their list that are child care providers. So really starting to see this as a serious business that we need. It's not just a side thing that people who happen to have time do. I mean, not that that's bad, but that's not the only reason why that's happening. It's because this is a legitimate business that's needed in the community, that it should be paid well, and they should have good pay. Good support and all that so I'm wondering through as we're moving through that So also that maybe that's the part that we can do as a collective is to look at it that way So to address it in that way as well So I do have a few questions One is about the Horace the Horace man and the and the Mary Alice O'Connor, right? So Horace man is through the YMCA right and the Mary Alice O'Connor is our is it through the city or who runs the Mary Alice O'Connor? Is that BHC? Oh, Housing Corp, okay. So those are the two that come to mind immediately for the zero to three opportunities.

There's Mary Alice O'Connor is also associated with Peter McGrath.

Okay.

Right? So they're part of a larger kind of nationwide outfit, if you will.

Got it.

Okay. And Peter McGrath also has infant care available. Got it.

Okay, so I'm wondering if there's also opportunities there that we could support them in increasing their ability to have infants there and toddlers there since it's already working. And then for the nature camps and other options that we provide that are full, that's great. I'm glad to hear that we are able to provide a camp that's really successful. I'm wondering if there's an opportunity, and maybe this will be difficult to do, to either prioritize or give a certain number of spots for folks who have dual income or low income. Maybe you already do it. Because I know when our kids were smaller, I was fortunate enough to be able to be home with them for a good portion of my time. And so when they went to camps, they didn't have to for that reason. They went for enrichment and whatnot. So I'm wondering if there's an opportunity there to allow for spots or to increase.

Can I ask, we use the PASS program for those, and so the lower income folks get a bigger discount. So I mean, just price point wise, it is more incentivized. But if it fills up, it fills up. So that's the other, it's like, if you're not, folks who are working two jobs, Sometimes they want to register and it's like the day before. It's already full.

So a couple of things there. While the city programs, because we add a lot of value and we have very seasoned staff and we have really great ratios, and the city has come to know them as high quality programs, they fill up fairly quickly. But what I can tell you is that the summer camp program that we run through our contract instructors as well, we have 8,000 spaces. And we filled 6,000 of them. So there's a vacancy rate of 2,000 spots for the entire summer.

I see.

So there's opportunities. There may not be an opportunity in a city camp because it fills up fairly quickly. But there's opportunities in our contract instructor camps. And those have vacancy rates.

Yeah. Okay. Great. That's great to hear. Thank you. Yes. What's the age gap for that one?

So it ranges, right? So those camps do range. We take them, some contract instructor camps take them as early as four, and then we go up to teens and preteens.

Just want to point out that still leaves the zero to three gap because that's just what we hear is the hardest one.

It's hard because of many reasons, but as we know that the ratio from adult to child ratio is much smaller in order to obviously to be safe, but that's what they need. It also is more expensive to just have the facilities available for children that young, everything safe and all the materials you need. the licensing and the skill set and everything else you need and especially if there's a facility that you have to build out like at an office you know facility versus say at home there's all the safety precautions you have to do and that cost money to build that out so it's a it's an expensive endeavor and that's one that's bigger than we can individually as a city make up for that expense. But I think it's part of our discussion. We know that that's...

It is and it isn't. I mean, you know, it's a for-profit. You know, you build out an office space just like you would any other business. And, you know, it's just part of your investment and you need staff and things like that. So... It's a business. It is and it isn't.

Right. Well, yeah. And so the amount that they would have to charge in order to cover their expenses will be higher than, say, for preschoolers or for school-age kids just because there's so much built out for it. But you're right. I mean, it's still a business. And if the space isn't there at all... then it's not so much a cost as much as it is a recovery.

I think that's why there's that opportunity to work with employers because when we're talking about the pure dollars, for an employer to pay somebody enough money to go out into the free market and find that individual who will do all that investment, The price point is high versus incentivizing a business to, okay, I have 25, 30, 40, 50, maybe 100 employees. Let's work with you. You already have the office space, so your overhead's way low. Instead of... part of your paycheck that you're incentivizing people to come in, you put right on that job description in-house childcare. People will take a pay cut to do in-house childcare.

For sure.

So like the amount of money you save by partnering, and like you said, we can't pay for that on our own, but we can bridge that gap because there's a ton of for-profit businesses that would fold that in and work with us.

I'm wondering if we could also, on our list or directory, is to provide the information of... that's possible, I don't know, or just know internally maybe of who has that already.

Yeah. And I just have an idea because both of my colleagues are pointing out very different sides of this and solutions that come from different angles, right? You're talking about facilities that already exist where we already have employees and we have these places, right? If we incentivize them to create childcare, that's another facility in our city, right? And you're talking about making it easier to bring them in, which I do think is a possibility. To your point, we need to start viewing this less like, oh, a thing that happens around us, and more as a thing, the same way we view housing. We are not contractors, we don't build housing, but we view it as our responsibility, right? To create affordable housing. We give money to affordable housing providers to do things like that.

And it's not one size fits all. It's all different types of. No, it's across the realm.

We want to incentivize the creation of housing, and therefore we streamline things. We streamline permits. Those are the kinds of things I think I would love to look at. Can we streamline permits? Can we make it easier to bring a child care facility to the city? Can we make it easier for an existing employer to create that facility so that we can expand because we know the need is there?

Yes, comment from staff.

I've just got one really important point to make. If you go to an employer with this amazing proposition, the employer, the business is going to want to know statistics. They're going to want to know all of the quantifiable data to be able to make that decision. Right now, we don't have that. And this CCRC report will get us there. So to be able to make a quality policy decision, we've got to get the data.

I think we're all on board with the data. I think it's just timing. I mean, I had originally agreed that we do it through the budget process. But if it's going to take 18 months, you know, putting, trying to put the gas on it today and getting it done maybe by mid-year appropriation. Like, I don't know.

Yes, city manager.

Okay, so if I could weigh in, I've heard a lot of comments, really good discussion and a lot of good ideas. So what I think, so I think we could kind of do this in two parts. So what I would recommend, because I think we could probably go on and you could throw a lot of ideas out here. And I think one of the things that we could do is I think develop a low-hanging fruit plan. So basically, what can we do now up until that budget time? Remember, I'm still running a $2.7 million deficit, so I'm just cautious on that. But I get it. It's a priority for the council. I think there's a lot of things that we could put together. If you give us a couple months, we could put together a plan and then report out every couple of months as far as everything that you guys said as far as streamlining the process, looking at the process, incentivizing. IS THAT TOO SOON? WE COULD DO THAT OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL MONTHS LEADING UP TO THE BUDGET AND THEN YOU ALREADY HAVE A LOT IN PLACE AND THEN AT THAT POINT WE COULD DETERMINE ON DOING THE MORE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN. But then that keeps you guys updated. It allows us to kind of figure out how much we can do within this kind of next like eight-month period and report out every couple of months so you know things are happening and that we're trying to do stuff. So that's what I would recommend as far as kind of trying to. put our arms around this and wrap it up. So that's what staff recommends.

Okay. And then in addition to that, too, we have a goal-setting meeting that we do at the beginning of the year as well. Is child care in our city goals plan?

I think a lot of things are in. There are a lot of things in there? Okay. As far as the specific action item, though, that, you know, doing assessment and stuff, we had not included that.

Yeah, I think so.

So that was not necessarily included. It was kind of a general... Yeah, idea.

That's something to keep in mind for that, too.

Yeah.

Okay. All right. Is there any other discussion that needs to be had in order to give staff direction? Yes.

Yes. I was going back in my brain, and I think in this century, this is the first city council where all five of us have kids.

Okay. Interesting. I have no idea if that's true or not.

A wide range of ages, too. Yeah.

I think it's very rare that two of us have young kids. That's not something you see in city councils. And, you know, again, I don't think either of us are speaking selfishly. We've kind of figured it out. We've made do. But we know we have friends, we have community members, neighbors, relatives, people who are literally begging us to look into this issue because – affordability is the issue of our time. And it's seen in housing, childcare and food. Those are the basics. And nowadays, we both know that childcare is competing with your housing costs. And in fact, if I had to do the math, that's probably more expensive than housing at this moment. You know, it's a hard time for childcare. So I think it's just as much of a priority for us to figure out and to incentivize how we can bring more providers into the city to help folks with at least the portion of the accessibility. And I think the one thing I will ask of my colleagues too, which I didn't see in the study position, but I would like for CCRC to look at how can we tackle the affordability piece? Somebody mentioned universal childcare earlier. I know that is something that people scoff at all the time, like, oh, this isn't possible. The city can't afford that. I don't know that. Can the city afford a portion of that? How will I know if we can't study? Those are the kind of things I want to study. I don't need to know that this is a need. I know that this is a need. I need to know if it's possible to address that need through the most insane-sounding, the most high-level attack. Could we afford to pay universal childcare? I don't know that until I see a study. Could we afford half of that? Could we afford to subsidize something? Could we afford to make it financially affordable for people to want to bring their childcare facility here? For employers to want to make childcare facilities?

Those are the kinds of very innovative things I want to see in a report. I don't want to know that we need more childcare because I already know that.

Yeah, thank you. But to that point, there are, you know, National League of Cities is working on this. It's a nationwide thing, and we've talked about that. So if we can also direct the study to look at what the National League of Cities looks at already, and then what other cities, you know, what they're doing, too. And obviously not every single city, but if there's a successful city out there that's a model, or a few of them, to have them look into that and use that as examples for us to model after, too. That would be really helpful, as well. So we don't have to do everything from scratch, you know, so yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, if that's something, yeah, go ahead.

One thing, and I know the mayor and I have talked about this in the past when she brought up childcare. One thing we had talked about is, and again, not to put the onus on staff entirely, because we can ask for a lot of things here, and you are all the ones that are thinking, great, tomorrow I have this to work on. We could also have a subcommittee. We've done this for items that are very much a passion item for council, and to bring up ideas that we think we'd like staff to look at. So I know we're throwing a lot at you right now. That's something my colleagues are amenable to.

And then maybe do a little bit of the load that is not going to be done perhaps by the study, and then it's our own. I mean, maybe it's too much. Yes, city manager.

So, again, I would say that let's give us a couple months, based on your comments, to put together just kind of a mini plan to at least get us going. Perhaps at the start of the year, as part of the liaisons and council appointments, we'll put in a section as far as whether or not you want to do a child care subcommittee. And at that point, you could select two council members, and then we could kind of... GO OFF AND RUNNING THERE BECAUSE WE'LL BE AT THE CUSP OF LOOKING AT COMING BACK WITH A BUDGET DISCUSSION PAPER AS FAR AS THE LARGER COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT AS WELL AS SOME OF THE STUFF THAT IS ALREADY THAT WE'RE DOING AS FAR AS THE LOW HANGING FRUIT QUOTE UNQUOTE.

OKAY. OKAY. SOUNDS GOOD. DO WE NEED TO DO A VOTE ON THIS OR IT'S JUST SIMPLE AS A DIRECTION TO STAFF THAT YOU ARE CLEAR ON?

I THINK WE GOT DIRECTION.

YEAH?

We got plenty of direction. That 270 may go up. I don't know. But we'll be working on it. I think we got good direction. So we'll come back. We'll do a memo in the weekly management report. We'll provide you guys a report as far as what our action plan is and make sure we'll get it to you. And we'll kind of work from there.

Okay. Okay. Sounds good. All right, so we're going to move on to the polled item, the item N3, which is, did you? No, no. Okay. The approval of budget amendment to the fiscal year 2026 adopted budget appropriating funds for environmental review of SB 79, transit-oriented development zoning in Burbank. So how, Mr. City Attorney, how shall we approach this? Okay.

Well, we can follow a traditional format. I can give you a very brief oral report. There is a written report of the materials. You can take public comment, and then you can go to council questions.

All right, let's do that. Let's hear your report. Thank you.

So you have a staff report before you. There has been much discussion of SB 79 over the last 10 months, essentially assigned by the governor on October 10th, 2025. Parts of the bill required HCD to adopt guidelines and SCAG to adopt maps by July 1st. And by July 1st, the city has an obligation to approve housing development projects within SB 79 development zones. SCAG adopted the maps, which include for Burbank on July 2nd of 2026, and there are now some 2,580 acres of SB 79 development areas within Burbank. They do not neatly line up with the proposed specific plans that the city has spent millions of dollars on over the last seven or eight years. uh... which the city is now bringing to conclusion so it creates a gap and our analysis as the council has heard over the last uh... eight months or so since the media district specific plenty i are was put out for review is that with the specific plan proposed housing development were forecasting significant unavoidable environmental impacts to infrastructure in particular the sewer system is the easiest one to quantify because our Because of water conservation and because of our sewer stream is more Concentrated we've lost rated capacity in the plant it's approximately 8.5 million gallons per day and our sewer generation is approximately 8.5 million gallons per day and And we're in the process of developing plans to improve that. The specific plan based upon the 2022 housing element projected numbers, we already knew we had to increase that. The city is implementing mitigation measures to do master planning. The city has been acquiring for sale properties around the wastewater treatment plant and they're completing a master plan, part of which the analysis is being conducted in the specific plans for how much new capacity is needed and what types of improvements are needed first to eliminate bottlenecks at the plant. THE PRELIMINARY ESTIMATES FOR THE HOUSING DEMAND CREATED BY THE HOUSING ELEMENT IN THE SEPTEMBER 24, 2025 TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM, WHICH IS AN EXHIBIT TO THE MEDIA DISTRICT SPECIFIC PLAN, THE NUMBER FOR THE HOUSING ELEMENT $115 million. For the preferred project under media district specific plan including cumulative growth from the other two specific plans could require the plant to be 17.5 million gallons at a cost of over $430 million and to go to 22.5 million gallons per day which was the upper end of the alternatives analysis $775 million was a ballpark estimate just for the wastewater treatment plan alone. The environmental analysis for the specific plans from the cumulative project set was also projected to over-subscribe our energy production. And the city has as a mitigation measure to create a new interconnection with either LADWP or Edison and look at other power production opportunities to try to make sure we can maintain our reliability and don't suffer brownouts. And water reliability is an issue, though not as dire as for energy and wastewater. So currently, there is a recirculating draft EIR for the media district specific plan. that's on the street right now being reviewed, which is proposing a sustainable utility alternative which lowers the proposed housing for MDSP by several thousand units. I don't have the details, but those are the efforts that the city is going through to make sure that we can devise a number of housing units that eventually we can meet with infrastructure. But there is a deficit already from our 2022 housing element and the specific plans will create a greater infrastructure deficit for sewer electric. So that's the effort that the city has underway for the specific plans to meet projected housing development for the future. SB 79 creates new areas of housing growth, substantial housing growth that are not included within that plan. And so the problem that the city is presented with is how to analyze. So SCAG has adopted those maps. SCAG declined after the city's request, declined to do CEQA. And so no one is presently, the maps are effective, adopted by SCAG July 2nd, and no one is conducting that analysis to add to our specific plans for that olive corridor. And this analysis is needed to be able to develop programmatic mitigation measures necessary to protect the community and develop a comprehensive infrastructure plan. The staff report basically points out the context in which and the different entities that the city has asked to do this analysis. At the end of the day, no one is conducting that analysis and that housing development adopted by SCAG, the housing development potential adopted by SCAG affects Burbank. 2,500, I think the number is 82 acres based upon our GIS. I don't know that that nets out the streets. We're in the process of trying to do this analysis so we can match it without slowing down the specific plans and sending them back to the starting point. And so we're rapidly trying to develop numbers for what these SCAG maps mean, identify the potential yield, reach out to responsible and trustee agencies, what they think, and then determine the impacts. That's what the CEQA process does. There's not another process. CEQA is very... specific in requiring cities to quantify what the project is, so we have to do that with our GIS, identify potential impacts and identify mitigation measures. So the goal of this request is to permit the city to hire a consultant to help us figure out what the project is and commence the environmental review so that we can plan for that infrastructure that is now necessary because of the maps adopted by SCAG. That's my staff report, which is probably longer than the written portion.

Yes, I think it might be, but it was very thorough. Madam City Clerk, do we have any public comment on this item? No? Nobody approached you for it? Okay. No, we don't. Okay. All right. So, Council, do you have any questions? Yes, Council Member Anthony. Okay.

Yes, thank you. Very comprehensive. And I don't disagree with any of that. So we have a valid housing element with the state currently. Yes. Certified is the word. Certified. If we don't do this, at any point in the future, Can they invalidate our current certified housing unit because we didn't do CEQA?

I don't want to speculate on that.

Okay. When is our next arena cycle?

When does that start?

Okay. In 2018, eight years ago, the governor signed what at the time was supposed to be the city killer SB35. And I remember... we did a whole study session on SB 35. I don't remember us doing a whole sequel review on SB 35. Is that because those projects require that review as part of the ministerial process?

So SB 35 did not have a mapping component which told us exactly where the development must occur. SB 79 does, and the map exists.

So how are we... So currently... Well, how many SB 35 projects do we have in the city? Eight. When the eight showed up at each point in time, did we have to make an analysis then to project?

There are screening criteria. What does that mean? It means in order to qualify for SB 35... A project must not be a historic resource. It must not be part of a natural communities conservation plan. It must not be identified habitat. There's 10, right? But the statute itself screens out things that normally would be CEQA criteria. And in that process, it also created a statutory exemption. There is no exemption. for an SB 79 project. An SB 79 project could be a streamlined ministerial project, which could be SB 35. It could be AB 2011, court or commercial. It could be an AB 130 exemption, which were the ones the governor signed and made effective last July 1st, 2025. There are many different ways where a project could be exempt. But that doesn't speak to how the city plans for infrastructure when it knows that there are now, where the city has 35-foot heights, under SB 79, they're now 55-foot heights. Where the city has 50, they could be 65. They could be 85. Right now, there are a few places where the city has 0 to 14 units per acre in R1, and there's a little corner where that is now, because it's within 200 feet of our proposed station, potentially 140 units per acre at 85 feet or unlimited if it meets the TOD stop criteria under the density bonus law. The The main issue why we want to do CEQA analysis is because the mapped area, it does overlap with two different specific plans. The mapped area is over 2,500 acres and we don't know what the development yield is. And that's a lot of potential development. We don't know what the infrastructure demands are. This is the way that we, the sequel processes is the way that we quantify what the infrastructure.

I get all that. I guess my frustration is in eight years of SB 35, we've gotten eight projects. If SB 79 is in play now, and we haven't had any projects that's SB 79 qualified yet, right? And when they come in, here's the issue. We just spent an hour.

Well, how would you suggest we analyze the infrastructure impacts of this 2,580 acres?

Wait for the projects to come in. If they come in in a year.

They will likely be exempt. So it will be piecemeal. Right. You won't know.

And what I'm saying is, we don't know how many are going to be coming. My issue is we just spent an hour trying to find $200,000 for a need that's been here for years, and yet we're just going to go $200,000 for a study on something that has not even been applied for yet. There is no SB 79 projects yet. Let's just see how they come in. Do them one at a time, because at the end of the day, We're we're speculating ahead Give it six months That's that's all I'm saying So I'm not saying it's it's not needed.

Let's let's go vice mayor and then council member press So first of all, thank you city attorney for In my opinion you're trying to protect our city from future losses in getting us a full understanding of what we're looking at with SB 79. What you're proposing to do is something that You've foreseen possibilities. What could happen with SB 79 and the impact on our infrastructure? Because we talked about our specific plans and what is needed for our specific plans. In addition to that, we don't know what CEQA is going to come back and say, or the study is going to come back and say, adding more project of SB 79. I don't want to wait until we have two or three applications waiting to go in and say, well, let's wait and do it because that would be too late by then because the projects will be waiting for it to happen. So the city attorney is really protecting us from the future and protecting the city to know what is needed for our infrastructure. Can I ask that? I just, let her finish just for a second. Yeah, yeah, it's okay. I mean, if you have a question, I'll wait. Yeah, I mean, it's fine. I think you're comparing a child care issue compared to housing project, compared to infrastructure, things that are going to cost us billions of dollars. It's not really fair to say we didn't have $264,000, but we're going to give $200,000 to the city attorney. It's really not a fair comparison. It's not apple to apple, because to me, This is billions of dollars that can cost the city in our infrastructure if we don't have a better understanding what happens when you bring SB 79 to our city. And we know that it's all going to be concentrated probably on Olive and Glen Oaks because of the metro, the BRT. We know where it's going to be concentrated. So SB 35, as the city attorney said, It didn't require CEQA because it's not the same impact that we would have. And we hadn't done our specific plans. Now we have the specific plans. Now we're almost going to be there approving it.

And I'm sorry. We were in an exchange and there... The one important issue about SB 75 is those projects must be consistent with the general plan for which we did CEQA. 79. I'm sorry. This happens to me. I know, 35. SB 35 projects must be consistent with the general plan and or the zoning. In this case, every single SB 75 project I'm sorry. SB 35 project, every SB 35 project is consistent with the general plan. Many of them were not consistent with the zoning, but that was the remedy, one or the other. And the general plan is the Burbank 2035 general plan. So the SB 79 is neither consistent with zoning nor general plan. So there was no CEQA to cover that threshold, and we're not doing it now.

Right, and if I could just, I remember the study session, it was the difference between the general plan and the table, and not everything was there, and my understanding was SB 35 simply said, okay, you get extra bonus, and the numbers are based on the original FAR and the zoning, so that was easy to see, and I get that, and I think, to my point, I don't know what we're protecting the city from because CEQA can't prevent any SB79 projects. From my understanding of this, we're basically just trying to get ahead of infrastructure, plans, funding. We're doing all of that already with our general plan, so we're trying to just update the general plan, and I get all that. At the end of the day, my issue is you're saying it's not apples to apples. $269,000 and $200,000, dollars is dollars. Why do we have to wait for the budget season and look for grants for child care and we don't say, you know what, if you want $200,000, go get a grant from the state housing trusts and ask for money. We don't ask for money that way.

Councilmember Anthony, if you recall SB 79, took effect July 1st. So... But we have no projects. No.

So let's hold on. Council Member Perez has a comment she'd like to make.

Well, I wasn't totally finished. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Right. We did interrupt you.

I did. I'm sorry. But it's okay. I am kind of surprised that... You are asking the city attorney not to look into our future and infrastructure and how do we protect our city from future billions of dollars of impact, possible impact, and comparing it to a child care issue that have existed for hundreds of years and is going to continue.

I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just trying to figure out the rush. Why are we paying for this today and putting the child care off six months?

It's happening. It's been implemented already.

We've child care for years. That's been happening. Do you understand my problem? It's the timing.

It's just the timing. I can't compare the two.

Thank you. That was going to be my ask. Please don't compare the two. Don't warp what we said earlier because I'm not saying no, I don't want to spend the money on the study. I'm saying I want the study, I want to be abundantly clear for the item before. I want to spend the money on something that's going to yield a result we want to hear. So like, I'm fine with that. This, on the other hand, we're talking about studying like the project in general. And I think the reason it was on consent is because we're trying to anticipate the needs that SB 79 is going to create. And I don't think I don't think we should drag this into like whether you want the housing, you don't want the housing. I think in general it's just city planning. It's like very cut and dry city planning that we're going to just have to analyze.

I don't want to come across like I don't want to do this. It has to get done at some point. That's my issue. At some point. I just don't feel comfortable spending it now. If you guys want to spend it, I'm fine. Go ahead. Go to the vote. That's fine.

And I think I want it to be clear, though. This is not a pro or against SB 79 conversation. This is a how are you going to address the gaps.

It's a planning document. I know.

It's a planning doc. This is not like a hot button issue item. This is just a planning doc.

If I could just expand on Council Member Perez. So these are multi-year infrastructure projects. That's why we need to plan these that are expensive. So for us, they are big, large infrastructure projects. So it's not like, hey, 3SB79. We can't pivot to, like, all of a sudden create a substation overnight or make the sewer flow accordingly. So we've got to put it in our overall plans to make sure that we have it. And that's why we're requesting that.

Okay. And look, you could even argue that the area where, how can I say this carefully, because I don't want the public to think that there have been oversights from BWP, but they were abundantly clear when they came here and they said, hey, if this law is going to go into effect, we would like to look at these areas and address those infrastructure needs. I think that's perfectly fine and perfectly like, but I think we should address those infrastructure needs.

I'm totally fine. I just want to point out the questions asked at the beginning were current approved housing that we have with the state and our next RENA cycle. So for me, it's about the ongoing process. I disagree with the timing, but I'm happy to make the motion.

And just to clarify, our SB35 developments have been in areas that don't have any, like they're next to where we're building the substation, that kind of thing. I don't think this question has come up. And for me, I'm just trying to view it from a lens of, like, I actually want them to do this review because if an SB 79 project were to happen there, I don't want people to not have water or power or have outages in that area. It's very cut and dry.

And if there was funding available, we need to have something to show them.

Which our congressman made clear there is funding available.

Yeah. Let's do it. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure or something like that. And so I also wanted to point out too that from what I understand, maybe this is a question actually, so you mentioned the specific plans that are millions of dollars to do the specific plans. And is this an accurate way to look at that this is a supplemental aspect to the millions that we put into planning the city, planning the infrastructure, planning the build out of the city, this is a supplemental aspect? piece of information that we can then add to the entire planning program that we've got.

Yes. SB 79 creates a gap that we need to figure out because all of the outputs of each of the three specific plans then goes into significant infrastructure planning.

Right. So to that point, since we're not done with the specific plans yet, we're still working through all four of them, that adding it now then that can be part of the specific plan process to add it while we're doing that, rather than waiting until they're done and then adding it later.

That's correct.

Okay, just wanted to add that too. I think that for that too, because doing these plans is a lot of, you know, a lot of work, not just money, but a lot of work, and to integrate that into the study portion of it as we're working through those plans, I think even, you know, not counting the in-between parts, which also need to be done, but the specific plans themselves, It's valuable information, important information to have in the specific plans in addition to the gaps in between. So I think that's worth it. consider as well so it's not separated out.

No, I get that. Okay. Okay. All right. I'll move, approve a budget amendment to fiscal year 2026-2027, adopted budget appropriating funds for California Environmental Quality Sequel Review of Transit-Oriented Development Stop Zoning as mapped by Southern California Association of Governments pursuant to Senate Bill 79, which designated unplanned and unstudied density and increased height limits around transit stops in the city of Burbank.

Second. Okay, let's take a vote. Councilmember Anthony.

I'll abstain.

Councilmember Perez. Yes. Councilmember Rosati. Yes. Vice Mayor Mullins. Yes. And Mayor Takahashi. Yes. Thank you. Okay.

I do appreciate everyone walking me through that. I thank you. Okay.

All right, now we will, let's see, we've done with all of the agenda items. Let's see. Now we will hear council comments, including reporting on council committee assignments, attendance at conferences, regional meetings, and community events. Who would like to go first?

I'll go.

All right.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. First up on the list, that was that national night out. I really like the new location. Even though the other location is a block from my house, this was a lot shadier. It was just a lot better location for, I think, people to come to the event. So I really enjoyed it. And all the participation for all the departments, it was a lot of fun to see everyone out there. So thank you for that.

Yeah, it wasn't too bad. It was too bad. I mean, there was a lot of shade. I mean, it was good. It was good.

And then on the 6th, I was at the Arroyo Verdugo JPA meeting where vice mayor was appointed chair, president. Congratulations. And then on the 6th, I also met with a member of the public for a brief meeting. And on 8-8, I attended the funeral for a longtime member of the community. Passed away at 99 years old. God bless her. And she was here, I think, 60 or 70 years. So we always look at our past to say thank you for all the things you've done in our community. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you. Who would like to go next? All right, Councilmember Anthony.

Thank you. Last Tuesday I met with members of the Sierra Club, and they were telling me about their new plans for the future to see what's going on in Burbank. And then on Thursday I went to Burbank High School registration for my son. Go Bulldogs.

All right. Now we have a problem.

Bears. Go Bears. Go Bears. Regiment High School? No, no. Regiment.

All right, who's next? Council Member Perez? Everybody in the audience is looking at us like we're the lamest five people on the planet. Thank you, everybody. Okay, on Wednesday, July 29th, I had the absolute honor of welcoming the amazing Keystone Leadership Group from the Boys and Girls Club. They interviewed me about what it's like to be a council member, what it was like to be the youngest and the first pregnant mayor, which was really cool to talk to them about what that experience was like and give them some fun stories.

And they're doing this really cool project. I can't wait to see it finished. ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 2ND, I ATTENDED THE BIRBANK SISTER CITY COMMITTEE FAREWELL PARTY AND THANKED OUR FRIENDS FROM OTA FOR BEING HERE ON BEHALF OF ALL OF US ON THE COUNCIL. IT WAS A VERY, VERY NICE FAREWELL PARTY. THEY ALWAYS MAKE IT VERY, VERY COMMUNITY-ORIENTED. THE DESSERTS ARE LIKE A POTLUCK. IT'S VERY SWEET, AND IT WAS A VERY NICE GROUP OF STUDENTS WHO DID THE EXCHANGE. IT WAS WONDERFUL. And then on Tuesday, August 4th, I also attended National Night Out, got to go to a few of the community events and I learned a very important fact which ties into our trash truck thing today. I learned from PD when they go out with the car and the lights, All the kids are excited about the car. And then when the fire truck comes in, they're chopped liver. But then when the trash truck comes in, PD and fire are both chopped liver, which was fascinating to find out. Kids love the trash truck.

And then finally on Friday, August 7th, I had a Zoom meeting with some of my colleagues from the Film Commission to discuss some of the legislation that the commission and that the film industry is watching right now.

Vice Mayor?

I had a very short agenda. I was out of town, but on July 30th, the mayor and myself attended an ad hoc committee meeting for putting together the rebuttal for our upcoming measure for election. That was it.

So we had the ad hoc committee meeting for the ballot measures that are coming up in the election on August 4th. Also was at National Night Out, and I agree the location was good for shade. It's tough with McCambridge because of parking, but folks seem to have found it and found a way to park and overall seem to appreciate the shade. And let's see. On the 7th, I met with... Abikoya, the founder of LA African Professionals, to discuss ways to bring African art, music, and culture into Burbank. So that was a great meeting. And then the 8th, I went to the Burbank International Film Festival Gala, where I announced August 8th was Jay Leno Day in the city of Burbank. That was fun. Huh? No. We've in the past did Tim Burton Day, and we did Quentin Tarantino Day every year. Well, I guess that's one of the prerogatives of the mayor is to declare one of those days. Well, they ask, they request it, and then the mayor can okay it or not. Yeah. I said okay. Okay, all right. We're trying to help. It was fun. And then, let's see, Sunday, I went on the 9th, I went to the quarterly convening of the California Advisory of Women and Girls Commission. And then today, earlier today, I met with LA 28 and Warner Brothers leadership about the communications program over at the branch. And you guys will too. You're going to meet with them as well. And that's it for me as well. OK, so next up is time for consideration of previously introduced agenda items. As a reminder, this is council's process for adding additional agenda items. There are two requests tonight from the July 28 council meeting. So the council member who introduced the item will have two minutes to provide a brief explanation of the request along with how the request ties to the city goals. After that, council will vote on whether or not the item should be added as an additional agenda item for consideration at a future meeting. If needed, council may provide clarification or additional information to staff regarding the agenda item requests. So our first item to council is Council Member Perez's request for a first step report on banning the use of AI art in city materials and social media. Council Member Perez, you have two minutes.

Thank you. I don't think I'll take all the two minutes, but basically it's very self-explanatory and straightforward. I would like to see us as a city, given that we are not only the media capital of the world, but we are really the hub of animation, and the animation industry has been severely hit by AI content. without permissions uses the quality work that artists have put out for its data and information. In many cases, there's a lot of stolen art through AI. So I think it would behoove us to be leaders and all of our public facing art should not use AI. You know, I'm talking the messaging that we put out, the informational stuff, social media content, all of that. because I think, first of all, people really enjoy the real content. We see it in the comments from our residents when we use AI art, and we want our artists and our community to feel supported. It's doable for us. We have done it before AI existed, and again, we are the capital of animation, and I think it's not a tall order to do so and to be leaders in that field.

Sure. And this is for the city manager. Do we still have graphic designers that work for the city? In my time as the city clerk, I remember we had Cassidy and there was somebody else.

Cassidy is still around. And we do have graphic designers in a couple different departments as well. And we really do try not. We're not big fans of the AI art straight out. So we try not to use that. But we could certainly come back with a policy. WE WOULD PROBABLY HAVE SOME FLEXIBILITY IN USING THE TOOL SO TO SPEAK BUT WE ARE NOT BIG FANS OF AI ART.

I WAS WONDERING I DO AGREE WITH YOU. I DON'T THINK WE USE THE ART BECAUSE I KNOW CASSIDY AND THE OTHER STAFF MEMBER DOES A GREAT JOB WHEN THEY DO THE FLYERS FOR THE CITY FOR ANY EVENTS. The broadness of it, use of AI, because sometimes we need, there's maybe corrections or edits or certain things like what we have in our phone, for example, and I just learned that recently, that Once you take a picture and you don't want somebody in the background, you can actually delete that in the background. So there might be times where they need to make some adjustment.

Is that why I'm in never any of your photos?

See, you figured it out. I just recently figured it out how to remove Constantine from my photos. You're so smart. You got it. I will. I'll give you a tutorial on this. So I was wondering if we are looking at, is it just when we're designing content to put out on social media or to put out for events like we have in the city, or is it Anything at all to do with tools that they might help them to make the picture look better, enhance the colors or whatever? Because I'm just concerned it's a fine line what we're asking for. So we allow them to do the best job they can.

So Photoshop and programs like that are utilizing AI to help do these things. But I think it's very clear what is AI art. For example, there was a post that was blatant AI art for the FIFA World Cup. It was a fake young man running through the crowd with the soccer ball. It was obvious that there was absolutely no creative content that went into that. other than just AI, right? And there's another piece where I'm not trying to police if like, I think this is an example we talked about, if somebody has a baby shower internally, and they want to use a flyer like that is staff facing for AI art, like, I'm not trying to police them, like, that's their choice internally. But I think as a city, we should be putting out content publicly, that doesn't include AI art. And generally, we don't, but we're starting to see examples of that. For example, that social media post.

OK. Could I just throw this in there? It's not a defined term yet, but the phrase generative AI usually refers to original, not original, Pirated artwork or written copy. When we go in and use an AI tool to fix something that's already been Photoshopped or photographed or created, that's a different tool. And the same thing with correcting a document. So I think what we're talking about is the generative AI.

Okay. That makes sense. Because my concern is how do we tell them don't bring us a map in the event there's an emergency and they need to put something out like the fire, for example. You need to put a map together. I'm assuming. I don't know. I mean, can you put that out? So I just want to give them a little flexibility without having causing somebody else's job to be taken away. But to also understand there's got to be a little flexibility. Okay.

Yeah. What do you think about bringing back a policy on the use of generative AI?

Yeah. And that's really what I'm trying to tackle. I think, again, I wouldn't consider that map to be art, per se. That would be a tool that they're using for a safety plan. I'm talking about truly the art content that we're putting out. I think if the city wants to put out, I don't know, I'll give you a silly example. We want a city mascot just like our sister city have. We should not generate AI for that. We should be utilizing the artists that work for the city, the artists that live in our city.

Anything that we are putting out that is public-facing content, you know, that are flyers, informational materials, social media is where this is most likely going to play out.

A country western song.

A country western song from the city's end.

That was a nice song. From the city's end. So it sounds like there is an interest in bringing back a policy to discuss through what this would look like.

Yeah, I just want to say that we'll get something back from JJ and the team. These are the boundaries, so I would like to discuss it just to see what they need or don't need or are willing to do. But yeah, I'd like to cut back.

Yeah, okay. Do you need anything else from us?

I think I got the gist of, and JJ will take care of things. Okay, JJ.

All right. Listen, I have never heard Mr. Jonathan Jones be called JJ. That's very clever. I'm like, who is JJ? Okay, have JJ bring us something. Yeah.

All right, we good for this item? Okay, moving on to the second item, which is Councilmember Anthony's request for a first-step report to formally endorse the plant-based treaty and direct staff to work with the Sustainable Burbank Commission to curate a list of actionable policy changes that align with the treaty's goals. Councilmember Anthony, you have two minutes.

Do you have some precursor?

No, I know. I just see their faces. They've been here all night waiting. They suddenly woke up and sat up and they're ready for the action. Do we want to make it easy for you?

No. All right. So from my understanding, I researched this. It's basically two components. One is the forward-facing public statement of we as a city agree that this process of adding more plant to your diet is better for your health, for the environment, for the community, and actually found to be cheaper, saves money. So that's the public-facing thing, endorsing the plant-based treaty, right? That's the one side of it. The other side of it is looking at some internal processes where we can start to make some changes to actually you know, live by that code. Offering internally more plant-based options, you know, the snacks that we have, that kind of, right? There you go, edamame beans. That's what I'm saying. Which, to the report that went home, if you remember the memo that went home a couple weeks ago, we do a lot of the things that are already in the treaty. So I would just say, as the second part of it, send it to Sustainable Burbank Commission and let them come up with some low-hanging fruit, easy to do, maybe some long-term goals, and that's it. Fruit. Low-hanging meat? No low-hanging plant-based protein? No. So that's it. That's my pitch.

Agree. And as I stated before, it's part of my diet. As a matter of fact, I'm on it now, but I eat fish. So it's really a choice and an option to make healthy choices and to make it available is not a bad thing. Mandatory is a different thing. So for, you know, there's certain people that can't be on diet. PLANT-BASED DIET. SO I'M SUPPORTIVE OF IT AND WE WANT TO SEE WHAT IT'S GOING TO LOOK LIKE FOR OUR CITY AND HAVE SUSTAINABLE COMMISSION COME BACK WITH SOME RECOMMENDATION.

I DON'T THINK WE'RE THAT FAR AWAY BECAUSE AT ALL THE EVENTS I'VE ATTENDED THERE'S FRUIT AND VEGGIE PLATTER AND THINGS AT THE PARK. THERE'S ALL KINDS OF plant-based items so I don't think we're really that far off.

It's plant-based protein is the tricky bit. That's the part that's really important. So I realize our last item if we didn't get a vote but we do need to vote on whether to agendize. Did we? Yeah on her thing so.

We're good.

We're good? Okay and this one too? We're good?

I feel like I heard from all five of you and it's pretty much unanimous. So that's coming back with both the endorsement of the treaty as well. So what we can do is in talking with the public works director, I think we could at least bring back the treaty within a couple of months for you guys to be able to approve that or sign off on that. AND THEN IT MAY TAKE A LITTLE LONGER JUST WORKING WITH THE SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION TO KIND OF PUT TOGETHER THAT LIST OF ACTIONABLE ITEMS.

SOUNDS LIKE THEY'RE READY FOR IT.

SO WE MIGHT TAKE A LITTLE LONGER TO PUT TOGETHER THAT LIST BUT AS YOU KNOW WE'RE DOING A LOT OF IT NOW.

Yeah. OK. Great. All right. Yay. Now is the time. We're almost there. Now is the time for the introduction of additional agenda items. Do members of council have items to introduce? Yes, Council Member Perez.

I have two. So both of these are letters. So you heard Mr. Scroggs talk about SB 122. And this plays into the conversation that we've been having. So SB 122. is a bill that was passed by the legislature. So what I'm looking for is a letter from the city supporting an exemption for the entertainment industry.

OKAY. SO THIS IS RELATED TO UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE OF 122 AS FAR AS CAPTING THE FILM TAX CREDIT. SO WE ARE ACTUALLY WE DO GOT WORD OF THAT ONE. WE KIND OF NEED TO MOVE QUICKLY. WE ARE ACTUALLY RIGHT NOW that we're going to send through our state advocacy group. So we could bypass even the first step here because I think time is of the essence as far as... And that's in our goals, right? Totally within the platform. We actually need to move by Friday. So and we kind of have the same situation with the I think it's I think your next item. So related to the to the 3D printing.

And I appreciate the context from staff, too, because this is very fast moving. There isn't even like a bill number yet for what would have meant that.

So they are working on a fix-it language on another bill to exempt film companies from 122. Yeah.

And then my next bill is AB – Wait, hold on.

Can I just ask, what is SB 122? I haven't even read that.

It's annual cap on corporate tax credits. It was really created for the tech industry. Briefly. Unintended consequence. It's a $5 million cap. So film tax credit higher than that.

Oh, and the film tax credit is considered a corporate tax.

OK. Lots of unintended consequences there. And then my next item. I would like to request another letter for AB 2047. AB 2047 is a 3D printer bill. it is directed at gun usage or ghost gun creations, which we know is a real issue. However, there is a current exemption by the author for 3D printers created and sold exclusively to studios in the film industry. We have about 30 We have about 30 prop shops here in Burbank who would not be exempted because there is no such thing as a 3D printer created and sold exclusively for the film and entertainment industry. That's not a thing. So again, unintended consequences, but this bill would basically put them out of business. So I'm asking for a letter of support for an exemption that exempts use of a 3D printer for the entertainment industry.

So we are also working on that as well because that's due on Friday so for us to get our voice in there so ironically in this case they tried to do the exemption but they failed in the language so their language is unclear so we just they really just need some cleanup language and that's what we're again totally fits into our promoting the entertainment industry so We actually have both of those letters. So I'm going to try to save you guys time and not have to agendize anything and push those forwards in the interest of being able to get that up to Sacramento in time as well.

Thank you. And I want to put that in front of my colleagues because it gets very nitty gritty. But these are both issues that were brought to the Film Commission and the Film Commission has also sent concerns.

Thank you.

I also have a letter. This one is not, sorry, this one's not on our city goals. It's separate. So I'm asking council to consider signing a letter of support for AB 1267, which is a statewide law on acting minimum age for marriage, which would be 18.

That one we do not have in the platform, and so that one will be brought back.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

If I may ask a question. Zonta's working on this, and they've been working on it for some time now.

Yep, yep. And this is the first year there's actually a bill with a number, and it's making its way through, and it's getting pretty good traction, so it could use some support. There is no minimum age in California, by the way, which is crazy. It's absolutely crazy.

My father signed for me when I got married at 17. Oh, wow. Here you go. Here's a fact that you didn't know. And I was willingly getting married.

We have to agendize your marriage for a future meeting.

The city attorney's like, oh, no. I do have a question outside of the marriage thing. You guys are too much. Um, AB, uh, is it, no, it's SB 1360. Um, the email I send you today, is it too getting too late or can we do something about it?

Yes, we are. We have sent multiple letters. We are opposed to that. We have Kira, our, our state advocacy. Um, she is up there talking to everybody. We talked to Schultz, Menjivar. Um, you know, we, we, we are, um,

And we all have spoken to all of them individually.

Yeah, we continue to do that. If it does get, we will send the veto letter to the governor and we will make our rounds. So yeah, that one is, yeah, that's our, of all our activism, that one's way up there as far as the amount of letters that we have sent along with SB 79 last time.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? No more letters? Okay. All right. We are at the end of our meeting. We now adjourn the meeting to Tuesday, August 25th, 2026, for a joint meeting with the Housing Authority and the Parking Authority in Council Chambers, 275 East Olive Avenue, second floor. Thank you, and good night. Thank you for staying, everybody.