Recommendations

FOR THE RECORD A story in Wednesday's paper, "Committee reveals recommendations," should have stated that the Charter Review Committee proposed to decrease the number of City Council votes needed to adopt a budget. . . . . . . BURBANK ? The charter review committee on Monday unveiled some of its recommendations for the city's guiding document ? proposing to increase the number of City Council votes needed to adopt a budget while keeping the status quo on the city's board's and commissions.

Two months after a nonprofit consulting firm issued its recommendations for turning around the struggling DeBell Golf Club, an oversight committee this week implemented some of those recommendations, which involve cost-cutting measures and course improvements. At a meeting on Wednesday, the golf subcommittee recommended shifting 14% of the cost associated with paying city staffers to oversee the course to the Burbank's General Fund. That could save DeBell $53,828 next fiscal year.

Noisemakers are not the majority Airport activists are at it again. They are against every sensible fix to the airport that has come along. Anyone that has been at the airport knows they need to re-do the terminal to make it workable, and add more parking. Their idea that if you deprive the airport of parking, people will not use it is a stupid, unrealistic idea. Fix the terminal and add more parking. The complainers already received their "welfare find" to soundproof their homes ("Airport gets $10-million grant," May 10)

After years of work on the city charter, revisions are set to go before the public for a vote. But what should be a relief for charter-committee members is instead a dark day. While the City Council was right in breaking the charter recommendations up and putting each section before voters to approve or deny, the vilification of committee members was uncalled for, out of line and completely inappropriate. For Councilman David Gordon to take these people to task as he did, and suggest their work was shoddy or that it should be doubted or discredited because they dared laugh during a committee meeting, was petty and absurd.

ENERGY PROGRAM PRESENTED Burbank Water and Power staffers will present two new energy programs: a demand response program recommending the installation of 20 Ice Bear thermal storage units, which would provide ice for space cooling; and an air-conditioning efficiency program for residents and small businesses. The staff recommendations follow Burbank’s continuing shift toward energy efficiency. FREDERIC STREET CONSTRUCTION The council will consider an appeal from a homeowner in the 1600 block of North Frederic Street, who wishes to expand her single-floor home by adding a living room and increasing the size of the kitchen.

As city officials take up the process of revamping the financially strapped DeBell Golf Club, they have so far declined to say whether they favor a recommendation to overhaul a management structure that was called inefficient by an outside consultant. The recommendation from the National Golf Foundation comes as two of the three main operators at the municipal golf course could soon be on month-to-month contracts, making a change easier to make. In the draft report, Burbank officials were encouraged to consider consolidating management under one operator - a move that would reduce overhead and improve the economic performance of the club, according to the draft report.

CITY HALL — Charter Review Committee recommendations for amendments to the Burbank City Charter will head to city staffers for minor reworking before ultimately appearing on the ballot for voter consideration, the council decided on Tuesday. The committee was charged in November 2005 with the task of reviewing the 90-year-old charter, which serves as a blueprint for city government. If the revised document had been approved without modification by the council on Tuesday, the recommendations would go directly to the April 2007 ballot as one item.

CITY HALL ? Special education programs in the Burbank Unified School District could get beefed up next year, based on recommendations in a report released on Thursday. The district needs another full-time psychologist, more services for autistic students and more efficient and frequent use of technology, according to a nearly five-month-long study of Burbank schools conducted by Caryl Miller, executive director of the Riverside County Special Education Local Plan Area. If the district accepts these recommendations and decides to implement solutions to the problems listed in the study, the district's already overspent special education budget could be pushed further into the red, said Steve Bradley, the district's assistant superintendent of business services.

Supporters of creating historic districts in Burbank intend to give City Council members an earful Tuesday as they consider a proposal that would make the threshold for establishing the protected neighborhoods the most restrictive in Los Angeles County. If the amendment to city code is approved as recommended, more than half of the affected property owners in a proposed historic district would have to sign off on the concept before the process could get started - a far higher standard than the 25% originally recommended by city officials.

Transportation commissioners this week recommended several changes to bus service for seniors and the disabled, including cutting weekend service, as they grapple with reduced funding. In an effort to generate more income for the service, an outreach program could begin in the next two months to remind seniors of the voluntary 50-cent fare in the hopes of getting more riders to pay, Transportation Commission Chairman Paul Dyson said. The Joslyn Adult Center will be the target of most of the outreach, Dyson said.

Two months after a nonprofit consulting firm issued its recommendations for turning around the struggling DeBell Golf Club, an oversight committee this week implemented some of those recommendations, which involve cost-cutting measures and course improvements. At a meeting on Wednesday, the golf subcommittee recommended shifting 14% of the cost associated with paying city staffers to oversee the course to the Burbank's General Fund. That could save DeBell $53,828 next fiscal year.

Police Commissioners this week agreed an outside consultant could help oversee the implementation of the police department's 2011 Strategic Plan - even agreeing who they believe that person should be. But they stopped short of making a formal recommendation to the City Council. Elise Stearns-Niesen, commission chair, said attorney Robert Corbin, who assisted the Los Angeles Police Department in the aftermath of the Rodney King beating and Rampart scandal, “seems to know where we were and where we are going.” Success would mean cultural changes had taken place in a department plagued by lawsuits and allegations of excessive force.

As city officials take up the process of revamping the financially strapped DeBell Golf Club, they have so far declined to say whether they favor a recommendation to overhaul a management structure that was called inefficient by an outside consultant. The recommendation from the National Golf Foundation comes as two of the three main operators at the municipal golf course could soon be on month-to-month contracts, making a change easier to make. In the draft report, Burbank officials were encouraged to consider consolidating management under one operator - a move that would reduce overhead and improve the economic performance of the club, according to the draft report.

A draft report by the firm brought in to help turn around the struggling DeBell Golf Club suggested infrastructure upgrades and a concessions revamp for what it otherwise called a “quality municipal golf course.” In the report to a golf club oversight committee created by the City Council, the nonprofit National Golf Foundation suggested reducing the number of trees and upgrading the infrastructure to make the course more playable and attract more...

The Civil Service Board, tasked with creating a nepotism policy, has declined to ban all relatives of city workers from employment, ultimately recommending that the rule apply only to family members of executives within their respective departments. The policy would also prohibit relatives of Management Services Director Judie Wilke from employment in the city because she oversees recruitment and selection. Relatives of City Manager Mike Flad and his direct subordinates would not be eligible for city employment either, since he oversees all departments.

A ban on plastic bags from store checkouts has been recommended by the Sustainable Burbank Task Force. Councilman Gary Bric, a non-voting council representative to the task force, said the task force recommended the city move forward with a ban. “This is just the first step,” Bric said. The county ban went into effect July 1 for stores with gross annual sales of $2 million, or that have at least 10,000 square feet of floor space. Smaller stores in the county must comply by Jan. 1, 2012.

CITY HALL — The City Council last week rebuffed a series of tax hikes, instead calling on executives to prioritize a list of revenue-generating proposals with fewer impacts to residents and economic development. The revenue and investment study comes as City Manager Mike Flad told department heads to trim 5% from their proposed budgets to close a projected $5.3-million budget shortfall for 2010-11. Financial executives said the $35,000 study was a way to gain insight into what other cities were doing to boost revenues.

The Department of Homeland Security could be pouring as much as $30 million into efforts to “fingerprint” nuclear material under a bill by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) that passed Congress on Thursday. The bill, which is awaiting President Obama’s signature, recommends the department create a National Technical Nuclear Forensics Center to focus on tracking material that terrorists could use in nuclear weapons. The tracking technology should help fill in the gap between nation-based nuclear warheads and the possibility of terrorist-based attacks not tied to any one government, which would make tracing the origin of the material much more difficult, Schiff said.