Complaints

BURBANK ? The City Council passed an interim fence ordinance on Tuesday night that raises the height limit for residential fences by one foot in most cases and allows existing fences to stay up as long as they do not pose a safety hazard. A Blue Ribbon Task Force will be formed to review the interim standards before they are put in place permanently. Homeowners have been coming out en masse to protest changes to residential fence standards, but as it turns out, the outcry was much ado about, almost, nothing.

A no vote on crazy fence ordinance Thank you for covering the Burbank fence insanity ordinance ("Council closer to fence ordinance," Saturday). It was a well-written article that covered all the issues brought up in the City Council meeting on Feb. 28. I have attended all the City Council meeting dealing with the Burbank fence ordinance. I have heard many people speak regarding the ordinance and the rights of citizens to utilize their property as we see fit. The most disturbing piece of news brought up at the last City Council meeting was the fact that 500 complaints of alleged height violations were filed by two unnamed individuals who reside in Burbank.

NORTHWEST DISTRICT -- The Burbank Police Department needs no additional oversight of officers accused of wrongdoing, the police chief told members of the committee reviewing the city's charter Monday night. Police Chief Thomas Hoefel outlined for the city's charter review committee what measures are already in place to investigate officers. "The City Attorney's Office and human resources looks at us, and there's the [state] Department of Justice if there's something criminal related," Hoefel explained.

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.

Gretchen Hoffman A year after Charter Communications opened the doors to a regional call center -- resulting in a flood of complaints about customer service -- officials say the cable company is consistently meeting industry standards for call- response times. The call center has more than doubled the number of custo- mer-service representatives, to 600 employees, and is answering 90% of calls in 30 seconds or less, Charter spokeswoman Sandra Magana said.

Ryan Carter Based on complaints from local merchants and residents, Burbank Police are cracking down on increasing crime in areas around Burbank Village. In the past week in the Village area -- from the Media City Center on the north to Gordon Biersch Brewing on the south -- police have cited and arrested about 50 people. Half of them were citations for possessing open containers of alcohol. Thirteen of them were for urinating in public, with the remainder mostly being for fighting, police said.

AS IF YOU ASKED Commenting last week on a scathing written lecture the Public Integrity Division of the L.A. County District Attorney's office sent Burbank school board members, school district lawyer Richard Currier said of the D.A., "They're not going to do anything." Even if that's proved wrong, his words do sum up my experience with filing formal complaints. But in this case and others, the lack of action isn't exclusive to the enforcers, and there is something we can do about it. I've filed many formal complaints over the years, and I'm not talking about gripes over cable television, bad service or decrepit rental cars.

Ryan Carter Out of an estimated 100,000 contacts with the public last year, police received 37 citizen complaints -- four of which were sustained -- according to numbers recently released to the Burbank Police Commission. Of the complaints, six were for excessive force, one was for racial profiling, three were for failure to perform duty properly, 24 were for inappropriate conduct, two were for unprofessional conduct and one was for unlawful detention, police said.

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.

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.