Complaints

Ryan Carter BURBANK -- A trio of city employees suing the city for job discrimination and wrongful termination must amend portions of their claim, a Los Angeles Superior Coury judge has ruled. In his order, issued last week, Judge William Highberger asked attorneys for Tina Staffon, Richard Benson and Beverly Starleaf to amend their claims of age and disability discrimination, job retaliation, gender discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful discharge.

BURBANK ? The family of a woman arrested for her involvement in drug trafficking activity in 2004 dropped a civil rights complaint brought against the city and the Burbank Police Department, court documents show. Attorneys representing the Gatchalian family withdrew a lawsuit alleging that police illegally detained family members during a criminal investigation of Anselma Oronce, Senior Assistant City Atty. Carol Humiston said. Oronce was wanted in connection with a million-dollar drug trafficking ring between Hawaii and the San Fernando Valley.

With more attention being paid to the potentially tragic effects of bullying, particularly online, Burbank Unified has resurrected a hotline for students to report abuse. As students prepare to return from summer break, Tom Steele, director of student services, said he printed 1,000 fliers with the hotline's phone number and email that will hang in every classroom in the district, from kindergarten through high school. The hotline has been six months in the works, and comes after new cyber-bullying laws have been created to support California students.

Ryan Carter BURBANK -- Prompted by complaints from local businesses, police are stepping up enforcement against panhandlers. "It's becoming a problem," Burbank Police Sgt. John Dilibert said. "Some are being aggressive in the solicitation of money, which can be illegal." In the past few weeks, merchants have called police about increased solicitations on sidewalks along Riverside Drive, Verdugo Avenue and in the Media District, police said.

BURBANK — Marina Manukian pulled her Infiniti G35 into a curbside parking space across the street from her Andover Drive home just 10 minutes before a large tree limb came crashing down. “I heard a big bang and then saw that a parkway tree limb had fallen onto the roof, trunk and smashed the window,” Manukian said of the Aug. 4 incident. “If it happened just a few minutes earlier I could have been badly hurt, or killed.” Falling limbs, pine cones and fruit have become a common side effect of an urban canopy in an semi-arid urban environment that’s home to some 30,000 city-owned trees of varying species.

T he Rev. Will Bowen of the Assn. of Unity Churches wants everybody to stop complaining. Complaining, he says, only leads to more things to complain about. And if the world's population could collectively stop harping, we'd be a better place. Bowen has reportedly challenged his Missouri congregation to wear purple bracelets to remind themselves to stop complaining, criticizing or gossiping. He also challenged them to stop complaining for 21 days to break habits.

Josh Goldstein BURBANK -- A former Burbank councilman has filed a complaint with a state watchdog agency alleging that a member of the City Council violated state conflict-of-interest laws when he voted on issues that could affect him financially. Ted McConkey, a councilman from 1995-1999, on Wednesday submitted a complaint against Councilman Dave Golonski with the Fair Political Practices Commission, the state agency responsible for enforcing the Political Reform Act. The complaint alleges Golonski voted about eight times on issues relating to the city's West Olive Redevelopment Project, a project only a few hundred feet from where Golonski owns a four-unit townhouse complex in the 300 block of North Hollywood Way. Golonski's property is within the 2,500-foot radius of the redevelopment boundary.

Yes, one more letter regarding the boot camp at Wildwood Canyon parking lot. I find it very curious that the boot camp has been operating for nine years at this same location and has never bothered any of the neighbors prior to Jan. 27. That was the time one of the Harvard Road residents discovered that Tina Castaldi, who runs the camp, was earning an income. How peculiar it is that his complaints of noise coincided with this discovery. In fact, in a letter he wrote to the Burbank City Council, he indicated that the noise bothered him before, but he thought it was a nonprofit organization, so he did not voice his discomfort.

Now that I?ve become a renowned journalist (insert smiley face here) people keep coming up to me with ideas for my column. Bill really thinks I should look into the horrible state of repair many of our streets are falling into, especially Buena Vista Street between Riverside Drive and Alameda Avenue. He?s heard from a city worker that they have a backlog to keep them busy for many decades. Sort of makes you wonder where the heck all our tax money is going, doesn?t it? Lisa and Mary both asked me what I thought about the new configuration of Verdugo Avenue.

CITY HALL — Burbank officials Thursday warned that the winter homeless shelter near Bob Hope Airport that serves an average 107 transients nightly may be rejected next year unless swift efforts were made to address neighborhood complaints. The warning came two weeks after the Burbank City Council grilled representatives of the shelter’s operator, the Los Angeles Union Rescue Mission, on several apparent mishaps and neighborhood nuisances, including loitering and public urination, which were supposed to have been avoided with the “bus in, bus out” approach.