City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to a regular meeting of the Burbank City Council on Tuesday, September 29th, 2026. Please join me for a moment of reflection. This moment is intended to begin our meeting with a 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 together 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 contribu

I'm good, thank you. Please conduct the roll call.

There will be two 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 your yellow public comment card to address the council at the ci

I'd like to thank Vice Mayor Mullins for stepping in for me tonight. I twisted my knee earlier today, so she's going to do the presentation for you, and I will watch very adoringly during the process from here.

Well, first, I'm sorry about your knee, but thank you for allowing me to do this. And it is really my honor to issue this as your first proclamation, if I can have Mr. Prescott come out. So our presentation this evening is a presentation for a proclamation declaring October 2026 as a national community planning month for the city of Burbank. This is our first one to do. Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Hummers. Thank you for being up here. And I know we have all our planners here with us this evening. And your department, just really quickly, is a department that just keeps working. They keep the

OK, looking right at me. One, two, three. And one more.

Well done, Madam Vice Mayor. Thank you for doing that. And congratulations and thank you to all the planning staff. All right. Mr. City Manager, do you have a report for us tonight?

Okay. Thank you. Mr. City Attorney, do you please report on closed session?

Thank you for the report out. All right, now is the time for general public comment. I'll 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. Remote participants wishing to speak during the general public comment who have not yet joined the speaker queue may do so now by dialing nine on the 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 an

All right. Well, thank you for being here tonight and offering your service. Enjoy the rest of your evening. Madam City Clerk, how many public comment cards do we have for general public comment and how many remote commenters?

So 24, that means two minutes each. Two minutes, all right. Okay, so first up we have Ron Bax followed by Dustin Blakenship.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Dustin Blakenship, followed by Jim Lane. Welcome. Welcome.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Jim Lane, followed by Barry Sarwa. Welcome.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Barry Sarwa followed by Mark Strogs.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Mark Scroggs, followed by Diana Pulver.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Diana Pulver, followed by Emily Hunter.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Emily Hunter, followed by Joseph Castillon. Welcome.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Joseph Castillon, followed by Cynthia Pease.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Cynthia Pease, followed by Sean Mulligan.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Sean Mulligan, followed by Amy Tsai.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Amy Tsai, followed by Juliana Sanocian. Welcome.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Juliana Sanosian, followed by Nishka Menj. Welcome.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Nishka Mend, followed by Sarah O'Dell. Welcome.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Sarah Odell, followed by Mariana Sergoyan. Welcome.

Thank you for your comments. Next up is Mariana Sergoyan, followed by Daniel Bagumian. Welcome.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Daniel Bagumian, followed by Kale Thomas. Welcome.

Thank you for your comment. I don't normally do this, but that was our last high school commenter. I think they all deserve a round of applause. Very well done, you all. All right, back to our program. All right, next up is Cale Thomas, followed by Maxine Hillman.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Maxine Hillman, followed by Jamal Elliman. Welcome.

Next up is Jamal El-Amin, followed by Lisa Cusack.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Lisa Cusack, followed by Cameron Tennyson.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Cameron Tennyson, followed by Joe Pimienta.

Thank you for your comment Next up is Joe Pimienta followed by David Donahue and that's my last card

Thank you for your comment. Next up is David Donahue, and that's my last card.

Thank you for your comment. That's the end of our in-person comments.

We do. Okay. Please go ahead and patch them through.

All right. There being no further public comment, I now declare the general public comment period closed. Now is the time for a brief response from City Council, City Manager, and City Attorney. City Manager, City Attorney, do you have a brief response?

Thank you so much. My question is, and I've seen these, and I know this is an issue because it's come up before, where a car is towed. When you say marked, do you mean they leave a note? Because I've seen notes, I think, on there that just say this car needs to be moved, something of that nature.

That was my second question because I totally hear you. I think you all are looking for those. But I have seen it in the community where a car is there for an extended period of time and it's in front of a homeowner's home, people will call. So thank you for that. And I think my last comment will just be it may be worth us looking into signs, some kind of awareness for folks because we have heard about it a few times.

Just statistic-wise, like how many of these complaints would we get in like a month or a year or something like that?

Well, let me just ask a follow-up if you have it. How many of those 250 do we typically tell?

And then how long from that notice is the actual tow?

And just to clarify, that's what I was talking about. There are notes, and I'm sorry if I misled. I didn't mean like a written note. Like there was a printed thing.

Yeah, so I love the idea of a PSA through social media. And maybe if there's an insert in the BWP bill for folks who don't follow social, I think it's a really important piece of information for folks to know because the gentleman who spoke.

All right, thank you. All right, who would like to go first for brief remarks, response to public comments? No. Okay. Council member Anthony?

Thank you, Madam mayor. First off, Kale, thank you for that. We're going to address the film stuff later. We'll have a nice discussion about that. Mr. Sarna, always good to see you. Thank you for coming down. I don't necessarily agree with your interpretation of that, but I do understand your position. You're not the first person to talk to me about that in that way. And I'm happy to have more of these conversations with you. Ms. Hunter, I do want to say I don't like the connotation that I am somehow hiding my politics or distancing myself from some political agenda. I'm very open with what I

I want to start with Mr. Elmy. Thank you for coming down and sharing this. I know you also sent us an email, sometimes hard to answer on council days, but I hope that's helpful, and I hope you've started something about us putting out a little more info where it's needed. So thank you, and I'm sorry that happened. To Mr. Scroggs, thank you for speaking up on the merger. It's a concern, and thank you for coming every single week and telling us exactly what's up. Thank you to Kale from Stay in LA. I'm not going to mention the agenda item because we're headed that way, but thank you for coming an

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just want to say thank you to our planning department for all you do and all the late hours that you work. being part of the city for 14 years. I've seen many, many, many hours put into some of our plans and we, we, we thank you from the bottom of our heart. Mr. Bax, thank you for coming and I'll ask for an updated report from the housing enforcement unit. By the end of, by the end of the evening. I know you've asked for it several times, so I'll, I'll be the asker. Um, Mr. Sarna, thank you for coming and your comments tonight. And same with Ms. Hunter, thank you for

Yes, and thank you everyone that came tonight. And then congratulations to planning again. Good job, as usual. Mr. Sarna, thank you for being here and sharing your thoughts. I know it's very, we don't see you often, so this must have been very important topic for you to come here tonight. I wanted to acknowledge speaker came in early, Joseph. You talked about the importance of our entertainment industry and we're gonna address that tonight. I just wanted to acknowledge you. I think it's your first time here with us in the chamber. So welcome and you're always welcome to come and speak to us an

Okay, thank you all for being here tonight and sharing your thoughts and public comment. Always appreciate your taking time out to come to council meetings and to those who emailed and contacted us since our last meeting. Several of the comments were about the item that's going to come up a little bit later, so we'll address those comments then. And a few of the questions that were brought up were already answered by staff, and so pass on those, but thank you for asking them. I'm glad they were answered. I just want to reiterate how impressed I was with the kids from the youth and government p

Do we have a motion to approve the consent calendar?

Madam Mayor moved to make a motion to approve the consent calendar.

Second. All right. Please take the roll call.

Before we do that, sorry, I was going to stop. Please. I forget what item number it was. Oh, four. Thank you. I just wanted to see if we can get a highlight of item four. I don't want to pull it. I just want more information because I'm very excited that this is in the consent calendar. I just want the public to be aware.

Thank you so much. I just wanted to highlight that because I think it's great that we're starting. I think it's great that this council has chosen to fill a gap because this program, and Albert can attest, is already working for other parts of our region, and they are managing it. So we have been a little bit of a gap there, and I'm glad this council voted to. to ensure that, so thank you.

And thank you, Council Member Perez, for agendizing it. We have a first and a second, so let's get our roll call. Thanks.

Okay. Everyone's running to the restroom. Okay. We have one report to council this evening. 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. If you would like to participate in remote public comment for this re

All right. Thank you. We'll move on to public comment first, and then we'll come back to staff with follow-up. All right. We will now proceed to the public comment period for the report, and no additional cards will be accepted. For in-person speakers, a timer is available. As you know, we only have the one, and you know the drill, so I won't go through it for you, Mr. Scroggs. Do we have any? Madam City Clerk, do we have any? Oh, I guess we have one that's coming in late. Okay. Sure. Mark? Yeah, Mark, sorry.

Thank you for your comment. And then second card I have is David Donahue.

Thank you for your comment. Madam City Clerk, do we have online comments?

No comments online. Okay. So we've now completed public comment for this report to council. Does staff have any response to public comment? No? Okay. Then we will move on to council questions for staff. Yes, Council Member Anthony. Thank you.

I actually wanted to follow up on something the public commenter said. 2319, we're going to see a tax credit for post-production. That happens a lot in the city. I know this task force was convened before that bill was signed. Is it possible, could we speak to how that implementation of a tax credit could maybe guide some of this work or Or is that still further down the line for us to start to implement that? I mean, is it conducive to this work? Does it help? Will it affect it directly? Or have we not even analyzed that yet?

So 2319 gives a tax credit to post-production. And we know that there's a lot of post-production in Burbank. So when we're going through a lot of this stuff here, and I know a lot of it is filming locations and permitting and that kind of stuff, but we have a lot of post houses. And in addition, a lot of folks work from home in Burbank in the industry that do post-production. Have we considered modifying any of our you know, work from home permits, the stuff that we do when we permit jobs at home, sort of anticipating that we may, bring more production back. Has that been factored into this, o

Any other questions for staff? Yes, Council Member Rosati.

Just piggybacking on that, Council Member, were you trying to ask the question, are there barriers that we can maybe, permit barriers that maybe we can offer to get more post houses in Burbank? Because if that's the case... Well, I'm not asking the question.

I know the answer to the question. I'm saying, are we looking at that? Because there are certain things that I know we could do better with post, but a lot of the discussion, from my understanding, was mostly... the permitting, the bringing in new businesses. And so basically what I'm asking is, in a roundabout way, once this goes into effect, it starts in January, for us to adopt some of those new ideas into not just this plan, but see how that bill would affect. I think it's a good idea.

I think it's a good idea that we'd look at it. If we can look at our permitting process and get more post houses in Burbank to take advantage of that tax credit, It builds synergy in the community and keeping everything local. So I think it's a good idea.

Thank you. Thank you for the report. As the speaker said, this was very well put together and easy to understand and follow. And being that I was a member of the committee, I'm a little bit more privileged of hearing a lot of the conversations that went on. I do want, and you might have touched on it, I know I had to step away quickly and come back. Can you talk a little bit about what we have done since the creative task force was developed in the sense of establishing our own internal operation enhancement? some of the things that we did to immediately react and help the process with the per

Thank you. Also, I want to just talk about it really briefly. Because during that process, we have heard from a lot of people who are in the industry and also community members who talked about film la. And why aren't we connected with Family LA? And can you just quickly talk about the process? And why are we not connected? Because that seemed to be something like, oh, they do a much better job promoting or whatnot. So what was the reason and what we have done with that?

Thank you. So there was obviously reasons to ask these two questions because those are kind of the first things that we started dealing with when we formed the committee. They were focusing on our internal process and what we're doing right, what we're doing wrong, and how can we enhance it. I'm happily to report that I have personally we being all of us as counsel been getting Updates from our city manager in regards to our website the social media and the streamlining process that we have currently internally for our permit department and Since then, I honestly could say I have heard nothing

And would we probably need to change our code if we would allow the overnight parking for specific filming projects? Is that something that would involve a change in our code for specifically for filming?

By posting the no parking for an extra amount of time or days, which we do that now anyway in the neighborhoods and when there's local filming.

I got it. Thank you. Those are my questions right now, but I do have some comments later.

All right. Council Member Perez, oh, Council Member Anthony, you have a question?

I have a couple questions about the marketing campaign. But first, I want to just say, Vice Mayor, you're being very polite when you talk about Film LA. Thank you for being magnanimous. Anyone who's dealt with them... Everyone who's ever dealt with them knows exactly the answer to your question of why we didn't go with film LA. So you were too kind. The marketing campaign. I know we started off with some identified trades that we don't normally publish in. We looked for like, you know, film and television production trades. I think that was a great step in the right direction. Have we identifi

Council Member Perez, you have questions?

Yeah. I have a few questions. My first question was, hi, thank you so much, Mary. My first question was about the, I was trying to look for it here, but the part where we talk about hiring a marketing firm and doing that piece. Have we looked at any specific firms or, you know, I got questions from folks in the industry, who are we going to pick? Because I think you've heard this a thousand times. It's really important for folks and self-included that we find somebody that is familiar with the industry, that knows the inner workings. that can speak, not to just lay folks like me, but who can s

Okay. Thank you. I don't have any other questions or comments, but I know we're not there yet. Okay.

Thank you for the presentation. I have a few questions as well. Excellent, excellent work on the task force. I know it was a long time coming. A lot of great suggestions here. I'll have comments later on some of my thoughts on that. So generally speaking for the task force and moving forward, are there any plans on kind of keeping the group live or reconnecting or how to keep... keeping a finger on the pulse of what folks are thinking and following up after this task force, because the task force is technically completed, right? So what would be the next steps?

And then a follow-up on that, so that's great to hear. A follow-up on that, one of the great parts of the task force was getting community input and really getting a wide range of viewpoints. So will there also be future opportunities for us to continue to get that input to see how the changes are affecting the community, what the, I mean, other than the organic input, you know, just kind of like the word on the street and what we're hearing in the permit office and whatnot, but more formalized information gathering?

Okay. So I'm wondering if there might be an opportunity, and this is a comment more, to have that open feedback possibility available for folks to just generally give feedback to, like, maybe have on the Film Burbank website, how do you think we're doing? Just give us some feedback. That kind of thing might be helpful to have ongoing. Other than, you know, the emails to council, which we will hear from it if something's really going on. But just general feedback would be a great opportunity to keep that going. Okay. Okay. So a question about the concierge. I love that we have the film permit c

Okay. Did the task force or in your discussion with folks, have you heard of independent or smaller productions having any trouble finding where to film or knowing where to get that list? Or is that what the concierge helps them with?

You know, there's a number of changes already made that are great that were already mentioned that are fantastic. I'm glad. I'm really glad about the overnight parking and about getting help from neighboring jurisdictions for the police support. And yay for the $15,000 for the arts grant. Yes. So since we've made these changes, have we been able to notice or clock whether we've got an increase of permits issued or increase of production happening that we can correlate to these changes having been made?

Okay. I would guess a majority of these are likely because it's been asked for and it helps make it easier and it just removes barriers, right?

But also there's just a slowdown. It's hard to see those numbers come up.

Yeah, yeah. And let's see. So moving on to the Creatives Hub, that's so cool. I want it to happen tomorrow. Can we just like, I don't know, can we go Woodbury and say, hey, you got an extra room or two we can? Just you three. So I think this is a great idea. It's fantastic. Obviously, this is a unique idea, a long-term plan. I mean, getting it up and running is a shorter-term plan than ongoing, and then building it and all that is a longer-term plan. You mentioned, though, that Irvine has something similar. Could you share a little bit more about Irvine's model, and more specifically, kind of

Okay, great. And then my last few questions are around the film permitting fees. So one of the slides, it's number 10, is about the income that we get yearly from film. This is from 2025, from film permits. So on average, or how does it determine what a film permitting fee is. Is it a flat fee? Is it based on the size of the production? How does the film permitting fees get a charge for each individual production?

While she pulls that up, the city does actually have a wonderful website where the fees are on the website, which I think is great. I know there was a lot of work that went into updating that because it was not as straightforward before. So it is a new website.

Okay, so one more time, 390 for one day, 77?

Okay, great. And do we have different fees for if it's just a smaller production, even if it's not a student, but a smaller production, or an independent production, or anything that is outside of studio production?

Okay. So if... Warner Brothers or larger Disney or one of the larger productions came in two days, it would be $3.98. And if a smaller production with two people wanting the same permit, it would be $3.98. Okay. Yeah. Follow up, right?

Yeah. What is that? There's a sheet that's produced. before you start production, it's basically, it lays out your costs, your budget, your expected revenue. It's like a... Cale would know this. Anyway, what I'm saying is, there is a way to find out what the budget is. It's based on a lot of their internal paperwork. Most productions know speculatively what they're going to spend. And... A lot of their union contracts, if they're under certain budgets, they are able to do small-scale productions and get lower rates. So many of the small production, independent productions, not necessarily nonp

the 398 for a one to two day, that is the cost of them going to the counter, everyone doing their due diligence, checking on what they're doing and issuing the permit. And like, like that's what they're paying for.

Here's what I was going to say. If there's a way to make the permitting process so if it's a smaller production, if they don't have a bunch of extra things, stunts or overnight shoots or anything like that, The paperwork is less. There's less pages to fill out. There's less staff time. So we can reduce our cost on it, is what I'm saying, versus somebody who needs multiple parking lots, has to take over the right-of-way. That requires due diligence. You know what I'm saying? So the work of the permit should be less.

I think to follow up on what you're saying, I think what you're looking for and maybe you want to see is customized based on the size of the job or the filming, the production, how many maybe people are going to be involved and Are you gonna have police officers or not? Are you having firearms? So I think what, if I'm not mistaken, or you can correct me, is based on the size of the filming, the production, based on how many staff, based on the location, then customize those permit fee instead of our permit fee is $380 and it applies for everyone. I think that's kind of what you're saying.

If I may ask a follow-up question before I... So the fee, the $333,000 that you're quoting here is just permit fees, the film permit fees, but not the other ones? From 2025. Yes, Council Member Rosati.

I just want to reiterate, I think we want to streamline the process, and I don't want staff to say, well, they got four trucks and three ladders and... 10 people working on it, 5 people, it gets a little cumbersome. I think streamline it, issue the permit, and just charge the flat fee. I don't think If we start leaving out the staff as to how many, you know, what's large scale, what's small, what's ultra small, what's medium, it starts to cumber the process again. So I think we want to keep it streamlined, issue the permit, and just recover our costs and be done with it.

All right, so thanks for answering that question. I have a couple more questions about permit fees. Okay.

Could I, I just want to, I want to push back on that just a little bit.

Can we hold off on the commenting until my, if that's okay? Okay. That'd be great.

I want to put a pin in that because I want to talk about it.

Perfect, thank you. Really appreciate that. All right, and then. And then the cost of facility rentals, so those are the same rentals as, say, if you were going to use it for an event, or is it just the pure facility rental regardless of whether it's filming, not filming, et cetera, and then that's what would be part of the application for the fee if they were using our city facilities? This $75,000 I just quoted here.

But the cost of the use of that facility is the same as, say, if someone were to rent it for an event or rent it for any other purpose other than filming, or is it a separate filming cost?

And so that has its own kind of rubric or its own?

And is that, okay, I'm not seeing on the website. There it is. I see it. I found it. Got it.

So I see here it looks like the majority of the facilities that are rentable are $200, with the exception of Starlight Bowl, that's $5,000 for four hours, and then DeBell, which is for the whole day, for $1,000. Somebody can rent out for filming the entire day at DeBell, huh? Yeah. Oh, okay. That's good to know. FYI for the community, in case you want to film a golf scene, you can rent it the whole day.

Ok. Ok. So this $333K and $75K and the total of $408K is just the permit to film period and the And the $75,000 is to rent the facility. It's not all the other permits that might be involved with it. So the recommendation from the task force is not touching any of those other fees. It's just very specifically their recommendation is specifically focused on the general permitting fee. Correct. Okay. All right.

Madam Mayor, there's also a recommendation on the facilities fee, but my understanding is those are the two that were touched.

Right, okay. Yeah, okay. And then the $200 for this facility fee is per hour, two-hour minimum. So actually it's $400 minimum because it's two-hour minimum. Okay, got it. Kind of doing some math here.

Okay. So just kind of doing the math in my head a little bit, I'm imagining a small independent production wanting to film at the skate park. That just to get in the door, we're looking at the application fee, the facility usage fee, the permit fee, the application fee for the permit as well, and then whatever else they need for that. like if they need other, like parking or other things as well. And so then that would be just to get in the door to be able to film there. Okay. Yeah, I would wonder if that would be, so yeah, it's hard to do that math in my head, but it is something I think that

Yeah, on the fee conversation, when we set our fees, we're not looking at out-of-state fees. Is that correct? So we're not looking at what other states cost. We're looking internally where California, our surrounding cities are competition, for example, Culver City or any other city that we're doing filming here and we'll be doing filming here in California. Is that correct?

I mean, at one point, there's also a discussion or maybe comparison what out-of-state cost could be versus what we're costing here, and the idea was to keep keep the company, the production companies staying here in California, not going out of state because they're cheaper, beside the incentives they get to. But it might be cheaper to get permits out of state versus what they're getting here in California, or in the city of Burbank, in that matter. So is that something... We would be be able to look at at some point and maybe when you look at our process and the permit fees and what we're com

Okay. I just wanted to confirm because in some of my conversations, they're not charging as much as we are for permit fees, for example. We talked about police and fire charges and Our rates are very competitive. Actually, we haven't increased our rates for police and fire in years. But I think it's maybe important to also include that in the discussion when you come back, that we are focusing on California, our competitive cities here. How do we bring them to Burbank versus going to Culver City? Because we're going to look at a broader picture with the fees and the breakdown of all these fees

You know, another question came to mind while you were talking. And I see that we have Jennifer Becker here. It is a budget question. So with all the fees and all the charges that we have around film, how much do we earn? How much should we bring in in 2025 to kind of give this $333K in a kind of context of the larger fees that the filming brings in on the larger scale? And then maybe if you have it in your mind, how much it costs us to process all that.

To hold to at least wait on this one and still proceed with all the other recommendations All right any other questions before we turn our discussion Okay So who would like to go first with just yes councilmember Anthony.

I have a pen I To Council Member Rosari's point, yes. Making it easy, absolutely. I think that's the first step. I think we've done a lot of that. My concern is not the pre-budgeted studio picture that is 10, 50, 100 million dollars. They're looking for easy and quick because they're on a timeline, they're on a crunch. My concern is the $100,000 pilot, is the $250,000 independent film. They have more time. They will take their time. They will look for the cheapest. They will send out, you know, when you have a big studio picture, you've got, you know, the location scout reports to the location

Makes sense. I think as long as we can cover our costs and staff can say, look, normally we spend whatever, 30 minutes on this, but we're only spending 15? Yeah, why not? That's fine. I get it.

About this? Yeah, well, I'll just start off since we're all talking. I went to a number of the meetings. I was impressed with the dialogue and the input and most important, just the amount of industry experts that were there. I think for me, the most exciting thing, and I'd like to move forward tonight on, is the Creative Hub. It's going to be the incubator, I think, towards other development in our city with regards to the film business, and I think It really will create a synergy in our community where this is the place to come. You're right near Hollywood. You got all the post houses. You h

All right, who would like to go next? Any thoughts? Councilmember Perez? Next, okay.

Yeah, thank you. So obviously this is like the culmination of something that I was very proud to put forward for the city because I feel like we had to have this conversation. The industry is in my blood. And I wanted to make sure that we were actually doing something rather than just saying we are the media capital of the world. So I appreciate the work staff has done. I appreciate everybody who sat on that task force and who are still here tonight. Shout out, Leslie. And if you want to talk animation, talk to Leslie. If you want to talk animation, talk to Leslie. But I had a few things I wan

And we can even pull part from the handbook, but I think it helps folks, you know, When they are here, like my colleague mentioned, people, location scouts go like this when they're picking locations, when they're picking where to eat, where they're picking all of those things. So if we can have that list handy, we can ensure that people are actually spending the money in Burbank, which is our goal, right? Our goal is that this, all the things that we're doing, invest in the economy of the city through what is possibly our purpose. Most important industry our most widely participated in indust

OK. Thank you. So I attended probably all the meetings with an exception of one, but also talked to many folks who are in the industry prior to the task force, visited their site, spoke to union reps here, IATSE sitting in the back, many times about concerns and what we can do for them immediately and what can we do in the future and how we can keep the production here alive in Burbank. I do want to acknowledge and applaud the staff. John, thank you for your leadership during the discussion and keeping the dialogue open and really including as many people as you can possibly include in that co

Okay. You know, I have one more question before I make my comments. So I know I do. I'm doing the math. So again, it's a budget question, I think. So with the film permit fees, the $333,000, what percentage of those come from the one-day permit fees and what percentage come from the full week long? Do we have any idea?

Okay. And the reason, yeah, I'll get to, you probably could probably figure out why I'm asking that. But, yeah, so I, you know, the permit fees, actually, I'm going to hold off on the permit fees conversation. I'm going to talk about the other stuff first, and then I'll come back to the permit fees.

Yeah. Just before we get into full discussion, I wanted to ask about how we determine how many officers we need for a shoot. When is that determined? And does that change throughout the film shoot? And what's that process?

Okay, all right, thank you. Okay, good question.

All right, so first I agree with the creative hub being amazing. I'm so glad that that came up during, that came up out of the task force. I love the potential shift. It wasn't in the presentation tonight, but in the staff report there was a mention of the creative capital, shifting to creative capital of the world. I love that idea. I mean, maybe not fully, maybe media and creative capital of the world, but I love bringing that in and really broadening who we are and our identity as a community as we adapt moving forward into the industry. And creative is more than just... We'd have to get al

Leave it alone. All right. All right. And then I've mentioned before, I would love to kind of change our model that we use in the city of live, work and play like this too. Live, work, play, and create. I've been saying that for years, and if that ever happened, I would just have a little party. It'd be great. And then I love the idea, too, of following up with the task force folks, with the community, keeping that conversation alive, as Vice Mayor said, because this is an ongoing conversation forever. And as the industry shifts, this is We don't know where it's going to go, but my guess is th

One clarification for me, because I realize I didn't mention this. I know the committee's recommendation was, or the task force recommendation was to waive the permit fees and the location fees. Given our economic situation, I'm okay waiving just one, because part of waiving them, part of waiving the permit fees is, and we talked about this during the commission, it's not just the fee itself, it's also that we can put that out there. It makes people want to come film here, and we may increase. And they have talked about increases in Santa Monica and in Culver City because of that permit fee wa

Yeah, and practically speaking, the permit fees themselves may be only a small portion of the initial cost to get everything up and running. That's why I asked that too to really understand that. But if it's a marketing technique, for example, to say we don't have permitting fees and we don't have that, be able to say that. You know, I also asked the question about do we know, the things that we've already done, do we know if that's increased our production? Because the question that we might want to ask staff is to go and see has removing permitting fees affected production, but I'm wondering

Madam Mayor, can I say something real quick? Sure. I've been to a couple of the task force meetings. I've also been to all of these cities and talked to their council members about this for the last, I don't know how many years. I think fundamentally what happens in this conversation is that we think there is a limited number of productions every year and we're all fighting each other. I cannot stress enough how many low budget and independent films, small pilots, YouTube and Instagram shows, like they have recurring shows that they put out on social media, will opt not to issue a permit or do

Just to add to that a little bit, and I appreciate the statistics. My fear is that that's the statistics now. People are just starting to talk about Culver City, about all these places. And I'm afraid that that creativeness is going to swing over there. Because that's what I hear now. And it used to be Burbank. And I really want to... let folks know that we are open for business with these permit fees, that we are available for you to shoot in the city. And that's why, look, I understand the deficit we're in, which is why I'm not going to push for the location fees. I think that that would kic

Thank you, Madam Mayor. You know, I think it's important. If our budget was more robust, then I certainly would say, yeah, we can take a gamble and look at the numbers in a year or two. But my concern is being fiscally responsible. And if we keep going down this road where budget is deeper and deeper in the deficit then okay yeah we have more filming in Burbank but we also laid off two or three employees so or we can't do some of the things that we want to do and help out our nonprofits and and grant giveaways and so we're if we continue to go down this road with our budget it's going to limit

I want to ask the captain a question. I was in one of the sessions where Gina talked about why is it important to have a permit process? Because we will find out that somebody is actually filming if there's no permit process at all. people can come in and start filming and we would never be able to track them. I remember that conversation. But if the permit fee is waived, how would you develop the process to be aware of who's going to be in the city filming? Or would you pivot to figure out a different way to apply for that?

No, no. The conversation, when Gina made her presentation, she was focused on we need to know. I think there was a conversation about waiving the perm AP. And her answer was, We needed to have a permit process, a fee applied to it, so we know we can hold the production companies accountable that they are applying for a permit that they are going to come to our office we issue a permit we have to sign off otherwise they would never if there's no permit if there's no fee then they can start filming we don't know that they're here is that yeah that is absolutely correct we would basically be subs

Yes, because she had meetings one-on-one with, I believe, all the council members, her and the chief, and we had, when I was in the meeting with them, we had a very in depth conversation about permits and waiving the fees and the consequences and how would you track them and so I just want to make sure that we're not overlooking a company would come in and start filming and we keep track we lose track of who's here filming in our city because they don't need to come in, they don't need to pay a fee. So to them, well, I don't need to do it, I can just go ahead and film.

Thank you, Captain, and Mr. Prescott. Come up and then I'll make my comment.

Thank you for that. And there is a reason why I asked the question, because Gina and I had a lengthy discussion about what other options would we have with the fee process, especially with the captain, what you described, because her main concern, and it's a valid concern, and we did talk about it at the meeting, about waiving the fee and how they can come, they don't have to come to the city and actually apply because now they have to do it since there's a fee. You gotta go in, turn in your paperwork, there's a fee. So I think it's important to explore and allow to see how would that look lik

duties here to come back ask a process question on timing just real quick just a quick process question I know when we vote on an ordinance a law that changes in the city it needs a second read and then it's implemented 30 days later but this is an internal process through the city Manager's department through traffic Bureau if if you guys came back to us and put out a fee schedule or a change and we voted on it that night how quick can you implement it

And the only reason I ask that is if the election in November is going to be certified early December, we'll know pretty much mid-December whether or not measure C. So, like, we could, in theory, if we were to, say, come back in December, we could get something done by January 1st, you know, so theoretically. But we'll have more answers.

Yes. So I have had conversations with the city manager about that. That's where I was saying I'm flexible in timeline. I just don't want to go study other cities. We know what they're doing. I would love to have this, if we can, come back in December where you'll tell us fully. What does it look like without permit fees with what our new actual budget is? And I'll throw one other thing in there. I was toying with throwing this out there or not because I don't want to make it more complicated, but we talked so much about the potential of deposit, reimbursement. Honestly, one of my original idea

And great idea. So the deposit, what we were talking about, is to ensure that someone will come in, apply for the permit, so we know that they're filming in Burbank. Because the concern from staff was, if we don't have some kind of a process that's tied to a fee... They are not going to come. There's no need to come.

And a few of the cities have made it like that kind of a reimbursement thing.

I totally agree with that. Yeah, and it could be anything. I really want to leave it up to staff to see the most creative way. And then, of course, I mean, we're giving you input right now what we want to see. But come back with... how is that going to look like for staff, and how are you going to be able to monitor that there's people actually filming in Burbank and holding them accountable to filming here in Burbank? Because there's other things involved in filming besides just the permit. The parking situation, where maybe if we're opening our city parking, you know, where are they going to

Can I offer two suggestions? One, when he comes back, just that we look at the 24 and 48 hour permit waived in case there's a fiscal change between the two, because I know we're talking about the short term and the long term. So I'd like to see waiving just one, the smaller one. And second, if it's possible to come back with a potential fee schedule where we heavily subsidize city properties that we're using, city parking lots, city parks, and heavily subsidize up to one police officer. If they can work with, if someone coming in can file for a permit and work with our office to keep it to jus

All right. Any other comments? Yeah, I think these are all great ideas, and I think that the message is clear, that we're trying to find ways to, to Council Member Anthony's point, not just compete for other, from other cities, but to increase the production in general. You know, to be the place where, one of the places, or the best place, to come and do production that maybe wouldn't have been done at all because of our approach. And we're doing so many elements of that already. It's not like the fee is the only part of that message. It's the only part of that story. But it's definitely money

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Maybe if you did three shoots in a two-year period, your third shoot's free.

You incentivize. You say, oh, you go to Burbank, you're only paying for two, and your third one's free. So, I mean, there's ways of doing this without, you know.

Actually, to that point, the people who come frequently, we know that, like, do we retain their information? Do they keep an account with us or something? Like, how do we – is it just the same face at the counter every time, or do we have like a – a user interface that they can upload due permits quicker if they've done it before?

Well, because I know if on my 311 I have to create an account, but then the next time I complain that there's a refrigerator on my block.

I think there's ways that we can incentivize this. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

I got to add one thing just because I didn't say it earlier. You mentioned earlier that you guys aren't good at marketing. I watch your Instagram. You're great at marketing. Oh, yeah, you're good.

Thanks for clarifying that. I was going to ask you, does this include what Warner does on the campus? But it's okay. You already answered it.

So it's a lot more, obviously, what they do plus what we do here.

Yeah, you know, pre-COVID, I don't know about you guys, but it seemed like every other show I turned on, there was, oh, that's Burbank. Oh, that's Burbank. Yeah. And I think that that's an important point to make, that there's more than just the permitting for filming. That is the number, though. That is, we can quote it. It's one that people pay attention to. And that's something I didn't mention earlier, but I think I wanted to add, just to have it out there that I said it, is that when looking at the budget and looking at how much this costs to subsidize these permits, these permits in part

I will concede. I'll wait till December. I'll be fiscally responsible since I'm hearing that's where the council is going. But I do want to make sure that we do bring this back. It has been over a year. So we've had the conversations. And the last thing I will ask of staff, and I know I ask a lot of you guys, so thank you for delivering, is please, please talk to the folks at Stay in LA. They've been doing amazing things in the city of LA. Okay.

All right. So there's no formal vote necessary for this?

I'll make a motion to have staff bring us back a full discussion on waiving fees with the methods that were discussed today in December for a vote.

Permit, yeah. Permit fees providing different options of 24 hours, 48 hours, correct?

Or a subway punch card. Or a subway punch card as an incentive.

Well that would be, so just as a separate discussion. repeat customers, deposits, tiered, I think that should come back later as a full discussion. But in December, we're looking at

And my motion is to bring back the discussion on fee waivers for the one-year pilot program that was recommended by the task force. Thank you. For implementation January 1st? January 1st is what I'm looking at.

But within that? With all the different options.

The three tiers that they looked at. I know you all wanted data on the three different tiers. I second. Does staff understand?

Okay. Do we need a vote on that? Because we have a first and a second. Yes. Okay. Let's do it.

Okay. All right. Next up, 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? All right, Vice Mayor first.

I have it right here in front of me. So on September 16th, I attended the Burbank Police Foundation Police Awards Luncheon, which was... Great event. Kudos to the foundation committee members for putting on the event, and congratulations to all the awardees. Then the same evening, I attended the police commission meeting. So it was a whole police day. On the 17th, we had Councilmember Rizzotti and myself, the Economic Development Subcommittee meeting. And on the, let's see, Network Reception, on September 22nd, the mayor and myself attended Economic Development IEDC panel. That was also in dis

Thank you so much, Madam Mayor. On Tuesday, September 22nd, I also attended the Burbank Fire Department promotional ceremony. It was very nice. It was a lovely event. And I do want to shout out our new fire inspector, Mother Spa, who let me hold her five-month-old baby while she went up to get pinned by her husband. It was beautiful. Kudos to you for being a mom in the fire service. You are awesome. And you let me hold a five-month-old again. So let me reminisce. And then that same day, I met with one of our residents who is facing a landlord tenant issue and wanted more information about the

Saturday, I also attended the Zonta Club of Burbank's 90th anniversary luncheon. Congratulations, Gloria. I love you. You are amazing. And that is what I did this week.

Treasurer, because you're so fiscally responsible. That's why...

Yeah, that's right. See? See? See? Fiscal irresponsible to me.

I didn't have anything this week, but I covered for the mayor on a couple of fun stuff. I can't believe we missed out on this. We did the Rockahoola. Oh, that was fun. And the dancers. Yeah, they're fun. And the dancers are fun. They have hula dancers. And then that same morning I went to a ribbon cutting for a catering company called Take and Taste and the food was awesome. She cooks everything in her own kitchen. So she got a she's a business licensed out of her own home and she does all her catering from in their house and the food is amazing. Oh my God. And then I was also at Providence Hi

Thank you, Madam Mayor. On Wednesday, September 16th, I went to the Burbank Police Foundation Awards Luncheon where all of you were at, and it was a fabulous presentation of our officers and what they do and deal with every day. And then... That night, I was at the Police Commission meeting. The 17th, I was at the Economic Development Subcommittee with Deputy Mayor, and I went to a new coffee shop called Last Sip Cafe, and they're actually going to put a dinner menu on their menu. dinner items on their menu so it's not just coffee in the Burbank side of Toluca Lake on Riverside Drive and nice

Okay, on Wednesday, September 16th, I attended in the morning National League of Cities First Tier Suburbs Council Quarterly Meeting. And then later on in the morning, I went to the Police Foundation's awards luncheon. With the others. And then I also, with Council Member Rosati, on Thursday went to the opening of the Last Sip Cafe, and they made me a drink that had magical flavors in it. I don't quite know what it was, but it was really, really good.

Oh. It was one of the sweeter drinks, though, right?

Yeah, it was, I think it was a latte, maybe, but it had something like foam on the top or something. I don't know. It was really good. Yeah, it was really good. And it had sprinkles, like something that sprinkled on top. I don't even know.

They had a mix of Argentinian and Armenian drinks.

He asked me, what do you want? I said, well, surprise me. And so he gave this drink to me. Oh, I remember. That's right. No idea what was in it, but it was really good. He should probably ask me if I had any allergies, but it was fine. On the 18th, I went to the Career Transition Expo as well. And on the 19th, went to the Burbank Autumn Arts Festival at... Bob Hope Park, Burbank Autumn Arts Festival. Oh, last step. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the last step. It's off Riverside, across where Red Maple used to be, across from there. It used to be a Japanese place.

Sushi place, yeah. Which is bummed. I'm bummed that that's gone now, but there's a lot of sushi places, so it's okay. Burbank Arts Festival was amazing. The band was so much fun. It was so well attended. Kids all over. I gave out so many stickers. I love Burbank stickers to the kids. Everyone in the park was wearing them. It was super fun. And the weather was perfect. So well done, Cultural Arts Commission. And then that evening, I went to see Catch Me If You Can over at the Colony. Oh, my god. That was so good. If it's still running, I'm not sure if it's still running or not. But if it is, ca

Want to give me some of that blessing? Let's go.

I didn't know what it was going to be. I thought maybe they were going to put a flower on my head. TFTI. It was great. It was so sweet. Kids were there. All right. And then the 22nd, I went to the fire department promotional ceremony as well. And then that rest of that week, I was at the Cal Cities conference doing all the things. And then on Saturday, the 26th, went to Zonta, the 90th anniversary, and the recognition of Gloria and all her hard work. Man, the things that she's involved in, there's so many things she's involved in. Oh, my gosh. I don't know how she finds the time. She's amazing

Maybe just a report, you know, just some stats from the Housing Enforcement Unit, something updated from the last time we did. Just a memo. Yeah, please. Okay.

Anybody else? Great request. All right. We are done. We are now adjourned the meeting to Tuesday, October 13th in two weeks for a regular meeting in the council chambers. 275 East Olive Avenue, second floor. Thank you and good night.