Complaints

BURBANK ? A week after a town hall meeting and a series of negative attacks from neighbors, members of a sober-living home on Clark Avenue are speaking up, saying they have been unfairly criticized even as surrounding residents continue to call for their removal. ?There are no drugs, no alcohol, nothing. That?s not what we?re doing,? said James Murphy, the longest-standing resident at the home. ?Everybody that is currently at the house works. This is a transition house for you to get your [life]

CITY HALL — A review by two Burbank residents who oppose a proposed baggage facility at Bob Hope Airport was denied 3-2 Tuesday by the City Council, which backed the tri-cities airport board that called the project a vital tool for improving airport security. Stan Hyman and David Piroli filed complaints with the city on the grounds that the 4,500-square-foot baggage facility, meant to house a new luggage screening apparatus, violated both the development agreement that guards against terminal expansion and a section of the Burbank Municipal Code concerning airport construction.

BURBANK — Proceedings for a sexual harassment suit filed in June against the Burbank Unified School District will continue despite the district’s attempt to have the case thrown out, according to court documents filed Monday. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joanne O’Donnell denied the district’s request for the suit to be stricken. In response to the sexual harassment suit filed by district secretary Danielle Baez against the district and director of facilities Craig Jellison in June, the district’s attorney, Nancy P. Doumanian, filed a motion in late September in Los Angeles County Superior Court to strike the complaint, calling it frivolous.

BURBANK — In response to a district administrative secretary’s sexual harassment lawsuit against the Burbank Unified School District and its director of facilities, the district’s attorney has filed a motion in Los Angeles County Superior Court to strike the complaint, calling it frivolous. “The complaint as a whole . . .amounts to a ‘frivolous pleading’ . . . given that the allegations contained therein are totally and completely without merit,” according to the motion, which school district attorney Nancy P. Doumanian filed Friday.

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.

BURBANK — Protesters gathered in front of NBC Studios on Wednesday, decrying Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's scheduled appearance on the "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." About 30 sign-carrying protesters, mostly nurses from the California Nurses Assn., rallied against Schwarzenegger's policies. Protesters claimed that he was unfairly taking advantage of television air time by appearing on "The Tonight Show" without equal time given to Democratic challenger Phil Angelides, his challenger in this year's gubernatorial race.

BURBANK — The Environmental Protection Agency has filed a complaint against a metal-processing company in Burbank, citing hazardous-waste violations at its facility on Spazier Avenue. The complaint alleges that by-products of metal plating work from All Metals Processing Co. are seeping through the inside walls of the facility into the ground within 10 feet of a nearby storm-water canal. The company offers plating services for metals, said EPA spokesman Dean Higuchi. "A lot of companies — whether they do metal plating or they process metals — do use hazardous materials that when they're spent and they're used, they then become classified as hazardous wastes," he said.

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.

For 40 years, Burbank residents have built fences and walls on their properties. But none of those front and backyard structures compare to the bureaucratic wall that threatens to separate them from enjoying their property. Residents have been allowed to build and build over the years, without seemingly any public outcry and little enforcement. Now, after more than 500 complaints from two citizens, the fate of the city's law on such heights is being determined. With the complaints, and the sudden enforcement they've sparked, the city threatens the ability of residents to enjoy their property.