Larry Koch is in business with Lt. Eric Rosoff and Julie Scott’s husband. That disqualifies him from BPD top job

Don’t even think about it, Burbank.

There’s been much talk tonight that retired Deputy Chief Larry Koch was offered and has accepted the interim job to replace Stehr in a few months. It’s also been one of Burbank’s worst-kept secrets.

But it’s a non-starter.

We’ve pointed out elsewhere, and we’ll point it out again, and again if need be, that Koch has a serious conflict of interest. He does business with the husband of the assistant city attorney in an outfit called the Career Survival Group. The founder of this organization is Lt. Eric Rosoff, who is still with the group and who we’ve been tipped off is also currently under investigation by the FBI.

This CSG group scrubbed Howard’s name off of their web site about two months ago so that no one would know. But we did (thank you, Google cache). These guys are all in business together; his wife Scott handles the BPD’s legal affairs and is up to her eyeballs in these big troubles.

This is a no-brainer. The Burbank Police Department is going to have to find someone else other than Koch to take over.

The two Dave Golonskis; or, “Roll the Tape!”

This one has got to be seen to be believed- hopefully someone will link up to it right away. And to think that we had just been saying such semi-nice things about the guy only a few hours ago.

But maybe we were just dreaming this happened, no?

Tonight, Chief Stehr’s departure was a major story on all of the local 11 o’clock news shows. It was the actual lead story on FOX 11 and 13. So while surfing around we caught a front porch interview on Channel 7 with Dave Golonski. But this wasn’t the same Dave we saw last Tuesday night. No, this was more like Dr. Gordon wearing a leftover Golonski halloween mask.

So this Dave Golonski tells the KABC interviewer about how glad he is that Stehr is leaving, that it was all for the betterment of the community and the department, etc etc. and that hopefully things will be improving with this move and soon, bla bla bla.

But wait a minute!

Didn’t some other Dave Golonski tell us on Tuesday night that he didn’t know what in the world all the hullabaloo was about? That Dr. Gordon was “grandstanding” about his call for a discussion of Stehr’s immediate future, and that he was just playing to the audience with this overwrought concern, like he always does?

Was this the same DG? The same guy? The one who played dumb about it all? Where the hell was this version last week- because apparently we got an imposter back then who wouldn’t budge an inch when it came to even setting up a future council meeting to discuss the department and the chief. Like it was all a big phony issue or something.

So which one is the real Dave Golonski? Which is the imposter? And are either of them going to be apologizing to Dr. Gordon tomorrow night, and admit that he was right all along about the chief needing to go?

We’ll take either one. And it’d be great if someone could splice them both together, the before and after version. Are they both talking out of the same side of their mouths?

Roll the tape!

Stehr needs to leave right now. Pronto

We’re not impressed with Chief Stehr’s e-mail today announcing his retirement next month. We reported weeks ago that he was planning on retiring now anyway because he’d already told people and put in his papers. So this sudden notice is no surprise at all, nor should it be celebrated as some kind of soul-searching self-realization on his part.

If anything, Stehr has actually delayed his release, and that’s a big cause for concern. Too much time left over only allows he and his minions the ability to wrap up their retaliation efforts and clean out as much of the incriminating evidence that they can.

This well-publicized memo is just another publicity stunt to try to make him look like a good guy to the public and settle down the department. If Stehr was sincere about any of this he would be leaving earlier, as originally planned, instead of (as we’ve heard) sticking around for up to four more months to continue to screw over everybody who has spoken against him.

Incidentally, we’ve gotten word that the brave officer who first reported police misconduct to the FBI has been placed on administrative leave. If so, why is that? And are internal investigations against others being speeded-up so that he can still be around to punish them?

Chief Stehr should be immediately removed from all of his supervisorial duties. There’s way too much opportunity for last-minute mischief. And why does the retired Larry Koch think he has the interim job all sewn up?

Wouldn’t it make more sense for Burbank to bring in a complete outsider now, say an older guy from the Sheriff’s Department, somebody who has no familiarity with any of these personalities? Koch is another Burbank insider who is even on the CSG web site that we mentioned awhile back. That’s the Rosoff outfit.

There’s some more info right here on this cozy little assemblage of locals.

It’s just so sleazy, isn’t it? More incest, Burbank style. They’re all in business together ! Get ready for lots more cover-ups.

About Us > The Group

CAREER SURVIVAL GROUP

Larry Koch – Deputy Police Chief (Ret.)

Chief Koch began his police career on July 16, 1973, when he was appointed as a police officer with the Burbank Police Department. He promoted to the rank of Investigator (title later changed to Detective) in February 1977. As a Detective, he worked in the Vice/Narcotics Section, conducted background investigations on prospective employees, and served as a Patrol Investigator, processing crime scenes for evidence.

In January 1981, he promoted to Sergeant and worked assignments in both the Patrol and Personnel and Training Bureaus. In June 1985, he was promoted to Lieutenant, and served as a Bureau Commander in Patrol, Traffic, Crimes Against Person’s, and the Communications Center.

In January 2000, he promoted to Captain and was placed in command of the Patrol Division, where he served as the leader of that division for three years. This assignment included responsibility for the 24-hour operations of the Patrol Bureau, the Jail, and the Communications Center.

On January 1, 2003, Larry was assigned to the newly created position of Deputy Chief. This assignment includes command of the Administrative Division and oversight responsibility for the other divisions of the Police Department.

In July 2006, Deputy Koch retired after serving 33 years in the law enforcement profession.
Deputy Chief Koch holds a Bachelors Degree in Criminology from the California State University at Long Beach, a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the California State University at Northridge, and is a graduate of the F.B.I. National Academy.

Golonski’s right about those ficus trees. But he has only himself to blame

We got no joy last week watching Dave Golonski suffer a crushing 4-1 defeat over his ficus tree proposal. We’ve mentioned before here that Golonski is totally correct about wanting to save those pretty trees, and that the idea of cutting them down en masse is a travesty.

For those who don’t know, both Burbank and Glendale have a thing up their craw about any kind of showy, leafy big tree. Glendale’s been worse, with their policy of engaging in sudden weekend destruction fests in their older neighborhoods, with one result being that they’ve eliminated all of their stately old carob trees, among others.

Burbank seems bound and determined to do a catch-up job when it comes to their own “re-forestation” program, a term that Golonski correctly pointed out should be called “de-forestation” instead. What Golonski wanted to do last week was revisit the planned destruction of 300 of these ficus trees on Magnolia, but in the end, as always on this proposal, he was outvoted by the rest of the council.

In order to get these councils to go along with them, our local agencies lie through their teeth when they claim these showy trees are inherently hazardous. The real story behind their removal is that these management people can save themselves a lot of grief when they cut them all down, because big old trees are expensive to maintain. Some of the local merchants are their own worst enemies down there, too, because they think cutting down the trees will help people better notice their signs.

To defend his position, Golonski pointed out that Portos Bakery had made a great asset of their own shady ficus trees, and that cutting those down would make outdoor seating impossible in the heat. He also demolished the city’s phony contention that these ficus trees are destroying sidewalks all over the place, and that’s why they need to be removed.

Clearly, Magnolia’s ficus grove is a beautiful sight when you drive into town, and an asset to the area. Only an idiot would seek to get rid of all of them.

So why did Golonski lose on his meritorious position?

Much could be made here that Burbank is run by an ignorant, lamebrain class of clowns, and that the kind of people who care about things like beautiful trees prefer to live in more affluent places like South Pasadena or Los Gatos, two communities that value their trees more than their kids. We’ve cited this explanation before, and it’s still a good one.

But Golonski has been in power since the early 90s, and that’s given him plenty of time to have built a progressive constituency that, with a moment’s notice, would have been down at the council chambers in full force and all screaming to the high heavens about this stupidly conceived destruction.

Though he’s had that opportunity for years, Golonski has consistently failed to take advantage of it. What we’ve gotten instead from him has been years’ worth of snarkiness and ego. For lord’s sake, even the famously grouchy Ted McConkey was able to build up a public following that would always respond to his particular political concerns, whatever you thought of them, and Ted was considered to be a major antagonizer in town.

If Golonski had played his cards right, he could have helped create a huge and focused concern about preservationist issues like tree removal, or old houses, or whatever he wanted. He could have been talking about this kind of thing all the time during council meetings, or written op-ed pieces in the newspaper, which would have published them for sure.

He could have also made an effort to join in with people like Ted McConkey early on about these issues, or Bob Kramer, or Marsha Ramos, and sublimated his vanity a bit in order to do so. Or he could have used the dais as a regular bully pulpit every week or two, constantly reminding people about the importance of keeping things nice around here. At least the staff would have gotten the message.

But Golonski never did, and he never will. So that’s why when these concerns come up it’s like they are coming from Mars.

Here’s an apocryphal story that describes what we mean about Golonski’s disinclination to ever do anything really constructive. Last year we went to the library management and tried to get them to subscribe to a periodical database called JSTOR. We even wrote about it, here.

JSTOR is an academic research site that is subsidized by the Mellon Foundation back East. What they do is scan thousands of old magazines and journals and then make them available free to their online subscribers. The cost of subscribing to this database is negligible, really, certainly much less than the inferior for-profit corporate databases that our library system seems to prefer.

The total cost per year for Burbank to subscribe to JSTOR? How about $750. There’s a three-year initiation fee of $1,000, too, and then that’s it. It would be a real coup for Burbank to have this resource, too.

So when we first proposed this idea, Golonski seemed enthusiastic about it. He even forwarded an e-mail where he asked the head librarian to look into the idea and get back to him.

But when the librarian responded negatively, and claimed (dishonestly) that this was a large sum of money that they couldn’t afford– but then wouldn’t divulge the cost of their current commercial periodical database– Golonski lost interest. He wouldn’t pursue it. He never followed it up. He didn’t do anything, despite the fact that he got a bunch of bum information from his people that was incredibly easy to refute. And don’t forget, he was the one who was interested in this in the first place!

We learned two things from this quick exploration into city ineptitude. The first is that Burbank is a stupid, shortsighted town that’s being run by total numbskulls who lie all the time. The second is that Dave Golonski– the educated, thoughtful guy who should really be the one to know and care about this kind of stuff– is positively useless.

St. Robert’s tasteless, inappropriate, and politically motivated PR “mass” for BPD hierarchy

Like a lot of other people, we were appalled this morning to find out that Bellarmine gave the Burbank Police Department a special celebratory mass yesterday to honor them. Naturally, the city brass all made sure to snuggle into this deeply offensive political stunt. They made a point to all be there for the festivities and the self-congratulations.

We were once parishioners of BJ until their right wing, pro-establishment lamebrain politics became way too much for many of us to handle. You can’t tell the difference there now between the real Catholic celebrants and the fundamentalist-inspired wingnuts. Most people are unaware too that this parish was taken over a few years ago by lay nutcases who spare no effort to inject their wacky, authoritarian world view into anything they can.

We won’t mention any names, but one of the most hated and appalling of our local political figures of the last decade helps run the roost down there as the big kahuna– so nothing should surprise us about that place, especially their trying to play this off as if it were somehow the kid’s idea, too.

The fact that these mindless, asinine propaganda fests always turn up so quickly in Burbank is the reason why we have these major problems in the first place. It’s bad enough that anyone would pick right now to recognize our police department and their leadership. But to drag the kids into it and use them for moral cover is a major sin, and then to inject religion into the mix definitely earns those folks some major penance time in the bad place.

What Bellarmine did yesterday was to give a big “attaboy” to all of the major assholes in town. Their tasteless “mass” was clearly designed to step on and distract from the Neil Gunn story and the rank-and-file protest on Tuesday night. There’s nothing for anyone to praise in that police department right now, and only a brain-dead ass would try to claim that this was a good thing for them to do.

By the way, the two women who help run this city and have a long-time relationship with Bell-Jeff should not have gotten either themselves or that church involved in this. They clearly did– this offensive PR stunt did not come out of nowhere. Just look at the timing.

This is the kind of thing that the good people in town are up against. Just no sense about or cognizance of anything. It’s makes you think that most people in Burbank deserve what they get, just for being so terrifically stupid and insensitive when they join in with this crap.

These clowns give aid and comfort to the bad guys, and they do it all the time.

**UPDATE**

One wag just asked us if the guys on house arrest (er, paid suspension) were invited down to join in the celebration.

Anja Reinke is more worried about crosswalk discussions than she is BPD problems

We caught a TIVO of last week’s council meeting, where Anja Reinke showed us just how conscientious she is about things by the way she left council chambers during a previously agendized discussion about a crosswalk near Magnolia and Fairview. Seems Reinke lives near that area, and so not to appear in a horribly binding and inappropriate conflict-of-interest situation she cleared the house in a hurry.

So let’s talk about “grandstanding” and a lack of propriety here.

Under state law, Reinke had absolutely no legal conflict of interest problems when it came to putting in that new city crosswalk. Not only does she live far enough away from it, but the law only requires this kind of individual scrutiny when there is a possible material benefit for the elected representative or appointee.

Nothing like this would ever happen with a damned crosswalk, so Reinke’s actions were only silly and self-promotional, and not seconded by anything in the law books. And there was no common law conflict-of-interest for her, either. Worse, even if there was a material benefit, the fact that it would be extended to the entire class of Magnolia Park residents in that area would be enough of a difference to indemnify her from blame. That lack of universality is the threshold requirement for considering a legal action against her.

So why do we mention this? It’s because Reinke is totally full of crap. And her value system is way skewed. She’ll make a literal “grandstanding” fuss over a friggin’ crosswalk debate, but when Dr. Gordon this week merely wanted to agendize an emergency discussion to address Chief Stehr’s future in Burbank, she goes nutty on him in umbrage and disbelief. That’s how really concerned she is about things…

This woman is so phony that she doesn’t even know it.

Tactless Burbank “Leader” mars Gunn services story with a gratuitous FBI reference

They just had to do it, didn’t they?

In an otherwise respectful article about today’s Porter Ranch services for Sgt. Neil Gunn, the Leader apparently found it necessary to inject a jarring false note into the occasion. We’re not going to repeat it here, but we should have figured that they were never going to have the class or the neutrality to dispense with the establishment propaganda.

Clearly, there was no need for the paper to reference a criminal insinuation that they’ve already hammered to death all week. We pointed out a few days ago that they’re the ones that got this angle going, but you’d think they’d at least restrain themselves from the innuendo just one time.

Always keep in mind that ever since they were bought by the Los Angeles Times in 1994, the Leader by policy goes out of its way to convey the company line, no matter how many times they think they’re changing their spots.

Remember this? Or this? or this? Or this? Or this?

City intimidation successfully quelled BPD protest

We suspected last night that City Manager Flad was lying through his teeth when Dr. Gordon asked him point blank if Burbank police officers would be disciplined for wearing their uniforms during the protest. It was obvious just by looking at the guy that he was full of crap when he claimed he wasn’t aware of any such warning being given.

We have received word from several sources that such a verbal directive was indeed levied against the force by the higher-ups, and that they are lying to the council when they claim otherwise.

The sight of 40 or 50 officers showing up at city hall in their uniforms as protest would have created a very powerful image. City management figured this out right away, and because of speech issues alone they denied their BPD employees the right to wear their identifying work clothes.

Last week we held off reporting the protest plans because of concerns that the city attorney’s office would find some way to preempt the occasion. But we discovered that they found out about it on their own, and then applied pressure to both the BPOA and selected officers.

Unfortunately, this sudden concern about the propriety of wearing police uniforms to the chambers is curious, and without precedent. Many other times our uniformed police have been allowed to go to city hall en masse so they could participate in awards ceremonies or memorial honors. But apparently when it comes to speech issues, all of a sudden such an observance is legally culpable and worthy of serious disciplinary action.

The city’s blatant intimidation tactics also successfully put a damper on the group’s original plans. The idea was that uniformed police officers would take turns voicing their complaints to the council, and even Sgt. Gunn’s wife was going to speak at the podium and announce her intention to file suit against the city for wrongful death.

That’s one of the reasons why Dr. Gordon had his disciplinary request ready to go. It didn’t come out of nowhere. But plans changed in view of the city’s hardball response. It successfully let the air out of the proceedings, which of course was the intent.

What’s going to happen when Gary Bric gets an answer to his question last night, about whether or not there was indeed a disciplinary warning given to the BPD about their uniforms and speech? What if the answer is “yes?”

Sorry, but Reinke’s “a few bad eggs” version ain’t gonna fly

What can you say about tonight’s city council debacle but that we have stupid and dishonest people running this town?

One thing that was revealing was Anja Reinke’s “I have to out-talk Dr. Gordon’s” response to the latest BPD controversy over Sgt. Gunn. Since this is obviously going to be the official council-majority position on the general problem, and since it is such an evil, self-serving canard, we can’t let her or anyone else get away with this kind of nonsense.

Reinke claims that she only wants the “investigations” to end before she even “begins” to make “any determinations whatsoever” about how to deal with Burbank’s many problems. But what this woman isn’t telling you is that these so-called investigations are woefully inadequate. Worse, the council doesn’t need to have outside prosecutions in hand before they can start firing people.

What none of the council members are telling you is that neither the FBI nor the Sheriff’s Department is engaging in omnibus-style explorations of the entire police department. They are only interested in a few specific crime situations; they are not Dr. Phil and Robyn sending some dysfunctional family up to the Dr. Phil House for examination and therapy.

The city’s recent ballyhooed “internal investigation” is no solution, either, because as we’ve pointed out elsewhere, it is not a Christopher Commission style exploration of the department and all that has gone wrong. The city council-majority is lying to us when they imply that this is going to be some kind of a soul-searching exposé. It’s just the city hiring an attorney and a PI to dig up evidence and witnesses in order to defend themselves from discrimination lawsuits. That’s all.

But Reinke’s words tonight were indeed revealing. The whole city scam here will be to try to pin any ethical or criminal wrongdoing on these so-called “bad apples” in the department, and thus indemnify the higher-up management clowns, particularly the top civilians who have been behind most of these dirty deeds.

It’s such a crock to scapegoat rank-and-file police officers this way, and Reinke is either too stupid or too dishonest to admit that what Burbank is suffering from instead are systemic problems of bad faith and incompetence– if not criminality– that go all the way to the top, and in many cases originate from there.

So until the city council terminates all of these management officials there will be no peace and no change.

One more thing. The pattern has now become clear about just how the council-majority treats Dr. Gordon. Whenever he speaks up, they immediately act as if they have no idea at all what he is a getting at. Gordon could complain about a water leak outside of the building and they would all sure enough make it seem as if they had no idea what water even was in the first place, and then look at him in complete bafflement.

It’s obvious that this has become the chosen tactic to deal with him, and that the discomfiting aspect to it is intentional. What it does is to get Gordon immediately off his game, because he then has to explain absolutely everything from the ground up.

The rest of the council is clearly fucking with Gordon’s head when they play at this routine, and tonight was a great example of it. They deliberately play dumb for a reason because it makes Gordon frustrated and keeps him from going anywhere with his detailed points. In fact, it’s classic head-game behavior, and it wouldn’t surprise us if the rest of them have been specifically advised by legal counsel to treat him this way in public.

**UPDATE**

Cathy in Sonoma County (of all places) has the latest news updates right here, including an LAT interview with Gunn’s wife, who is an employee in the city manager’s office. There was reportedly a last-minute change in plans down at the council meeting — it probably avoided a riot in front of those awful, clueless people– and we’re promised an update.

Jesus, Golonski is such a prick

Remember back in the 70s when there used to be such a thing as “sensitivity training” classes? Do they still have them?

Grandstanding, Mr. Golonski? The twelfth hour? You can’t understand what the big problem is? This “doesn’t rise to that”?

You’re a total and complete asshole.

Anja Reinke says she “doesn’t get it” when Dr. Gordon wants to put Chief Stehr on administrative leave right now (!) Dave Golonski asks for reasons. Jess Talamantes says he doesn’t have all the facts. But none of them will agendize the problem in order to publically investigate it, or a least discuss the problem.

This is insanity. No wonder we have these bad situations.

And here’s a little legal tidbit, Mr. Talamantes. Neither the police chief or the city manager or the city attorney are civil service employees. They serve at the pleasure of the council. They can be fired at any time, and the worst thing that can happen– the worst– is that you’d have to buy out their contracts, if they even have ones extant. They don’t have due process like the firemen.

We’re being governed by fools. It’s actually worse than that. They are also liars- and– in at least one case, Golonski, they are corrupt. The guy is on the make from developers and has been for the last 10 years. How do you think he was able to retire at the age of 45, with apartment properties around town that he hides under different organizational names?

And Ms. Reinke– you ask what the “criteria” is for putting someone on administrative leave?

What isn’t it? You’re a complete shithead. A total nutcase. You need help.

**UPDATE**

By the way, we got a great tip a few months ago about how Golonski’s wife got in a drunken fight down at Sardos Bar one night a few years ago, and the cops had to show up. Unfortunately for the Golonskis now, it seems that our Burbank police officers are not really their friends any more, not enough to hush it up like they once did, and they are starting to speak out.