City Council candidate Emily Gabel-Luddy

A 30-year veteran of the public sector, Emily Gabel-Luddy began her service to Burbank a decade ago when she was appointed to the Planning Board. She brought her experience of working for the Los Angeles Department of Planning at all levels, including history as a zoning administrator and establishing the Urban Design Studio that focused on developing tools to integrate pedestrian and urban infrastructure to create more walkable neighborhoods.

After leaving her post in Los Angeles, Gabel-Luddy began lecturing for the landscape architecture program at the USC School of Architecture.

"This is not the time for on-the-job training," she said. "I have the time and the passion to devote myself to the work that is needed for Burbank."

Why are you running for Burbank City Council?

Public service is important to me. As a professional city planner with more than 30 years of practical experience working with diverse communities to address a full range of environmental, traffic and land-use issues, I believe I can bring an important perspective to our City Council deliberations.

What are the major issues or problems facing Burbank?

As evidenced by the empty storefronts and vacant office buildings we all see, Burbank is facing the same economic challenges that have affected us all over the past two years. Even though Burbank is in much better shape than many other cities in the region, I believe the economy is clearly the single largest issue we face since it affects everything we do.

I want to do everything I can to support a strong local economy and would like to pay particular attention to developing business opportunities within our existing stock of storefronts and buildings.

My goal is to maintain police, fire, public works and protect our senior citizen, parks and library services in the manner we have come to expect. This means taking a hard look at where city money is going to ensure that services to Burbank's residents are maintained before we agree to any discretionary spending, especially when so many of the residents I have met walking door-to-door are doubling up, out of work, or renting a room to help pay the mortgage. We need to maintain the proper perspective on where hard-earned tax dollars should go.