BURBANK COUNCIL ASKS, HOW MUCH FACE TIME IS TOO MUCH?

Byline: Jason Kandel Staff Writer

BURBANK - It's fairly common for City Council meetings to drag on for hours, but the marathon session that started at 5 p.m. Feb. 28 broke some kind of record.

It was 2:46 a.m. on March 1 before the council adjourned after listening to nearly three dozen people speak about the city's hedge ordinance and 20 more comment about other agenda items.

``I was just plain old tired,'' Burbank Mayor Jef Vander Borght said. ``When you get past midnight, I think you're getting into unreasonableness.''

Conscious of the strain that long meetings put on the public - and themselves - City Council members are considering ways to shorten future sessions. Proposals include imposing deadlines for taking public comment cards, allowing comments only on city business, and setting aside a 20-minute block for those who want to talk about neighborhood concerns.

``There are people who have made it their livelihood to come to the council and weigh in on every single issue,'' Vander Borght said. ``At that point their input loses value. The question is, whose time is being wasted?''

But some residents say it would be a disservice to Burbank's residents to limit the public comment period.

``The City Council needs to manage their time and their agendas better,'' said Carolyn Berlin, a former Planning Board member, who regularly attends council meetings.

``Rather than having very, very late meetings, perhaps they should have a special meeting to catch up, rather than cutting the public's comment time. They need to seriously look at balancing everyone's needs.''

Raphe Sonenshein, a political science professor at California State University, Fullerton, said many cities are struggling to shorten their meetings while still complying with provisions of the Ralph M. Brown Act, the state's public meetings law.

For example, cities can set rules limiting comment periods and even the tone of comments, Sonenshein said.

``In a number of cities, the issue is to make sure that the work of the council gets done in a reasonable amount of time,'' said Sonenshein, who has worked with Los Angeles to reform its City Charter, and is now working with Burbank on a similar review.

``It's a real legitimate question. And to a certain degree, you would have to assume that the city can find a way to not overwhelm everybody with the length of the meetings, and that meetings be effective, and that everybody gets to get heard,'' he said. ``It's not impossible to do.''

Residents get four opportunities to address Burbank's five-member council, whose members serve part-time: three minutes each on closed- session items; two minutes each on city business; four minutes each on agenda items; and two minutes each near the end of the meeting on city business.

``I think we have to manage the time better. I want to avoid wasting people's time unnecessarily,'' Vander Borght said.

Jason Kandel, [phone]

jason.kandel(at)dailynews.com