David Gordon

During the last stretch before Tuesday's general election in Burbank, fundraising continued among the four candidates competing for two seats on the Burbank City Council, recent reports show. City Council incumbent Dave Golonski raised $3,410 over the most recent reporting period spanning March 24 to April 3 from 22 sources, boosting his total since the start of the campaign to $18,983. He received $250 each from the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters, Disney Worldwide Services and Warner Bros.

I see with the election drawing near, Golonski's army is on the move. Wow. His soldiers are getting worried and on the attack. They bring David Gordon down and say what a bad council person he is. What a joke. As a 30-year resident of Burbank, Gordon is the best thing that has happened to Burbank politics in all that time. He truly cares about the welfare of the citizens of Burbank. He is truly articulate, and his probing deeply into the issues that effect his constituents is refreshing, to say the least.

You showed your bias by printing the picture of David Gordon with the caption underneath suggested by your reader, Carolyn Jackson. Gordon gave a thoughtful and helpful suggestion to a client of mine who went before the council with an issue. He was not one of the sheep who simply followed each other's responses. He was thoughtful, analytical and empathetic. I'd recommend the people of Burbank stand up for him and vote him back to the council. Margie Vierra Burbank

I will never understand why some Burbank citizens see David Gordon as their hero, a true man of the people. I see him as a distraction, keeping the other council members from taking care of city business in a balanced and timely way. If Gordon is re-elected, my biggest worries are that recently--elected Bob Frutos will vote in lock step with Gordon since he and campaigned closely with him and that Gordon may one day be vice mayor or mayor....

How many times have we read a line like this in the paper? “The sole dissenting vote was cast by David Gordon.” Isn't it an insult to all of us who thoughtfully elected the other four council members to have Gordon's supporters telling us that the folks we chose to represent us are always wrong? If he's so brilliant and all-knowing, wouldn't he have found at least one other person to regularly vote with him in seven years as a council member? The only thing proven about David Gordon is that he's not suited for a democratic, collegial form of government.

I am responding to a letter (“ David Gordon is bad for Burbank ,” Mailbag, March 20) from Carolyn Jackson charging Councilman David Gordon with having “proven” he is “an uninformed, misogynistic, unreasonable and belligerent bully.” I cannot comment on misogyny, belligerence and bullying, since I was not present at her interactions with him back in 2005-06. Aside from the obvious factor that tossing muddy personal labels and name-calling at a candidate just before an election ought to focus on the accuser highly justified suspicion at the least, I can say that whatever Jackson thinks Gordon has “proven” to her, she has proved nothing to me by her assertions.

A recent Mailbag item had a laundry list of criticism of David Gordon without any factual back-up. This is the type of misinformation Golonski gadflies have been writing for the past 20 years of his tenure. Gordon has been expressing his views on all the issues for years, and rightfully so. Anyone who disagrees with Emperor Golonski is soon criticized by him and his flock of sheep. It is time for Golonski to go. Only 20 years of name recognition by the uninformed have kept him in office.

Burbank Councilman Gary Bric laments that there is no money in the city's budget for this year's Easter Egg-Stravaganza (“ Council restores Easter egg hunt ,” March 16). He says, “We have to stand up and be able to say, 'I wish we could do it, but we can't.'” Funny, Bric didn't utter those words two years ago when he readily gave his blessing to a $2 million bailout of the DeBell golf Course. Oh, that's right, he's an avid golfer. In Bric's world there exists plenty of money for his priorities, but not a piddling $14,000 for the Easter egg hunt, which probably attracts more people in one day than the failing golf/Frisbee course attracts in one month.

I had the honor to serve as chair of the 2005-06 Burbank Charter Review Committee, a panel of 15 City Council-appointed volunteers, including now councilmember-elect Bob Frutos. Members of the committee dedicated more than 500 hours of volunteer time to this effort. The council had mixed reactions to our recommendations; however, what stands out was the lack of respect and contemptuous remarks directed at the committee and its work by Councilmember David Gordon. Gordon charged that our work was sloppy and our recommendations useless.

Although more voters participated in Burbank's primary election this week than turned out in 2011, it still drew yawns from most. Some of those who sat back and let the others decide the outcome may wish now that they had been paying more attention and gotten in on the action. When the dust settled on Tuesday's vote, Robert Frutos was the sole City Council candidate out of six who secured more than 50% of the votes cast. His seat is secure, but incumbents David Gordon, Jess Talamantes and David Golonski - not to mention solid challenger David Nos - will be battling it out for the two remaining seats when the general election is held April 9.  This means one of our sitting council members will be out when the votes are tallied next month; maybe we'll be showing the door to two.  Perhaps, as Frutos suggests, those who voted in this week's election would prefer that the money the city has spent on lawsuits defending itself (some $7.1 million in recent cases)