Weathering the Storm

When Mike Flad officially takes over as city manager in Burbank on Jan. 6, it represents a career peak for a lifelong resident. But it will also present challenges to the 42 year old as he comes in at a time of shrinking city dollars. Flad replaces Mary Alvord who had been city manager for five years after replacing Bud Ovrom, now a deputy mayor with the City of Los Angeles. As the city’s chief administrator, he will oversee a staff of hundreds of employees in a city that went from the center of aerospace to one that boasts the title of Entertainment Capital of the World. Yet Flad knows that the city cannot move into the future on its own. Regionalization and sharing of services with neighboring Glendale and Pasadena is one area that he will pursue as city manager. “With Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena we are similar in our structure and our philosophy of service deliveries that it makes it a natural to partner more,” Flad said. Question: How have you prepared to be the city manager? Answer: I’ve been with the city for 19 years now and two years working as an assistant city manager with another city. I think being born and raised in the community gives me a perspective that is unique. My predecessor Mary Alvord had the same perspective. It helps a lot in having a much better feel for the whole community. Professionally, I worked in several different departments within the city. I worked in human resources and finance and parks and recreation, in the city’s manager office. I think I have rounded out my experience in terms of the professional experience. Educationally, I got my bachelor’s degree in public administration and my master’s degree in public administration. Q: Does the city have any concerns over budget cuts? A: Unfortunately that will be my role. Number one for me is to work with the department heads on budget cuts. On a smaller scale than the state, we’ve got revenue shortfalls and, like everybody in every business, expenses that continue to grow in excess of revenue. At this point we are looking at a 5 percent budget shortfall for the 2009-10 budget, which is not as severe as what we experienced in 2001 after the stock market crash and the post-Sept. 11 economic slump. And nowhere near what we experienced with the pullout of Lockheed in the early 90s and the transition from a Cold War, post-military industrial town to one that is now the entertainment capital of the world. This contraction appears to be much more severe and longer lasting because it is impacting industries that haven’t been impacted in the past like the automotive industry and the housing industry and the stock market at the same time. The city’s income is dependent on retail sales, property values and the utility user’s tax and all three of those will be impacted by the economic downturn. Q: What are the city’s short-term strategic plans to get through the downturn? A: Fortunately for us, because of the business climate we can weather the storm better than other cities. There is a diversified income portfolio, as it were. We have a strong retail base, which is located on the properties that were previously Lockheed industrial properties. From developers like Cusumano (Real Estate Group) and M. David Paul we’ve got fantastic office developments that continue to bring in strong jobs. The entertainment industry for example, tends to weather recessions better than retail or auto dealerships. A Glendale or a Cerritos will be more adversely impacted than a Burbank. That said, you look at a variety of ways to overcome budget shortfalls. First are cuts; second is gains in efficiency. Are there ways that we can better regionalize, are there ways we can change the exact services we provide? We are looking at revenue enhancements; we are currently conducting a revenue optimization audit to look at revenue streams that may be underperforming compared to other cities. The first one that comes to mind is the transient occupancy tax. The voters turned down an increase a few years ago to bring it more in line with our neighboring cities. Q: Are there long range projects, such as major developments, that are being put on hold because of the economy? A: You are starting to see a slow down in the permit process. We talked at the (city) council about people coming in and asking for extensions to their permits. That is an indicator they are having trouble getting money to fund a construction project. We’ve got quite a few where they are having trouble getting the financing and that is delaying projects. Our goal as staff, and the council echoes this, is to help facilitate and ease the governmental burden placed upon people trying to develop or open a business in town. We started a “Buck Stops Here” program during the holidays and mailed that out to residents encouraging them to shop locally and reminding them that of their sales tax dollars spent locally, 1 percent of that comes back and helps us provide the police and fire services, parks and rec services, the library and everything else. The last thing we want to be is a hindrance to the success of businesses in town. Q: As city manager are there any major initiatives that you will implement? A: First and foremost is to get our budget on track. I am one that brings a little different perspective than Mary and an approach that is more business- oriented in terms of traditional performance measurements, and paying more attention to our business processes. For the most part it is taking a very good organization and trying to improve it, which I think sometimes is more difficult than taking a broken organization and trying to turn it around. We definitely have a perception we are a great city but I don’t want to rest on our laurels and not try to continuously improve. There are some personal things from myself as the city manager that align with the council goals. Sustainability is a large goal of mine. Disaster preparedness; a core mission of every city is to be prepared in the event of a disaster and I think we’ve done a lot of good work in that area but I think there is a lot more we can do. Continuing our partnership with the airport and working toward a nighttime curfew. Under Mary Alvord’s leadership I don’t think the relationship has ever been better and I would like to take advantage of that momentum. Q: Is there anything that you would do differently from Mary Alvord? A: Having come up in this organization under both Bud Ovrom and Mary they are two contrasting styles. I have my own style but my hope is to take the best from both. Bud was a true professional administrator that completely understood every intricate detail of public administration and municipal government. Mary coming up from a parks and rec side was intimately familiar with the community itself and the value of creating community and providing services in a very personal way. My goal is to combine the best of both and bring that professionalism and focus on the administrative part of the job but also bring a very community oriented, community-minded perspective. Q: What are Burbank’s biggest assets? A: Definitely the studios. We’ve got world-class, exceptional high-paying jobs that are conscious of issues of social justice and environmental justice. You couldn’t ask for a better employment base and a better business base. As a city our biggest asset is our employees. From top to bottom I have never seen an organization that per-person cares more about making a difference and making Burbank a better place. When you’ve got people’s hearts and souls committed there is not a lot that can’t be accomplished if they are given the right tools and the opportunities to accomplish those goals. Q: Now for the flip side to that question what are the biggest problems facing Burbank? A: For me having grown up here and having developed asthma at an early age, I think air quality is still a significant issue. You can debate the city’s role in regulating or improving air quality. As a kid in elementary school when you had Stage 3 smog alerts and you couldn’t see the local foothill mountains and your lungs burned when you went home from school those days are far behind us but there is a lot of work we can still do to improve air quality in the region. I am not one who believes traffic is not as much a local issue as a regional issue. I think behaviorally we need to continue to work hard on changing fundamentally how we get to and from work. Continuing to mitigate and preserve the qualities of our neighborhoods and mitigating the impacts the urbanization of Los Angeles. To do that we need to build our aquatic center, which we have planned, and continuing to work on an overnight campground is something I’m looking forward to doing as a person who camped a lot as a youth, and to create, protect and preserve the small-town feel as an oasis in the urban metroplex. Q: How can business take a role in that preservation of the community? A: I think they already do that. I think that’s the consciousness of Disney and Warner Bros. and NBC and the Cartoon Network. There is such a consciousness within this industry. What puts us at an advantage is these major international businesses understand and value the protection of the quality of life and make it their mission. They are entertainment, yes, but I also think you’ve seen those industries change to where they are focused on getting positive messages across and are spending a great deal of money on positive messages. They have been fantastic partners in getting the word out on all our sustainability efforts. You take the Cusumano family. They are the largest family developer in town and they are the first to step up to introduce low-flow toilets and CFLs and just about every other energy saving device. They have been at the table with us. It is a credit to the businesses that we have, more than it is us trying to convince them to do something. Michael S. Flad Title: City Manager, City of Burbank Age: 42 Education: Bachelors from UCLA in Political Science and Masters in Public Administration from CSUN Most Admired Person: John Wooden Career Turning Point: In 1996, when I lead the development of partnerships with local businesses, the chamber of commerce and school district to provide hundreds of jobs for Burbank youth. Personal: Married with one daughter age 5