2026 Burbank General Election Voter Guide

Well, friends, it’s that time again - where Burbank tears itself apart over the issue of whether it should move solidly into the late 20th century, or remain in 1950, when as we know nothing bad ever happened. Let’s get right to the candidate slate!

Candidates We Endorse

Eddy Polon

Of the thirteen candidates running for the three seats up for election, only one candidate passes the threshold for an endorsement - Eddy Polon. We’ve appreciated Eddy’s work in Burbank with Strong Towns and Burbank Abundant Housing for several years now, and in this election he is the only candidate with a well-grounded, housing-first platform who understands how markets work. He is strongly in favor of the currently under-construction BRT line, including dedicated lanes for the bus on Olive. He understands that SB79 is not a threat to the city, but a way for Burbank to get back to its working class roots, and not be a city for the wealthy and privileged, as it has become. Eddy will guide this city into a better urbanist future where cars, bikes and pedestrians are all treated with respect. If you care about housing, or transit, or just being able to ride your bike without fear - vote for Eddy Polon.

Candidates You Should Also Vote For

The City Council slate is mostly a wasteland of candidates who do not deserve your vote, so it can be hard to find the “diamonds” in the rough. While we do not whole-heartedly endorse these candidates, we do suggest you vote for them to fill out your slate, and ensure the best possible City Council.

Mike van Gorder

Mike van Gorder’s heart is generally in the right place - he’s a strong YIMBY and pro-BRT, which is exactly the sort of leadership that Burbank needs today. In a sea of candidates who equivocate and dissemble about what they want to see in Burbank, Mike is very clear. There are plenty of areas where we disagree with MvG’s vision - he is DSA, strongly pro-rent control, overly proud of being combative, and generally too eager to put his heart ahead of a sound grounding in economics and reality. In this race, however, the one-eyed man is certainly king.

Nikki Perez

Four years ago, Councilmember Perez swept into office as a housing champion, endorsed by several major pro-housing groups and with a great deal of momentum at her back. Her record, unfortunately, has fallen far short of this. She has authored no major housing bills, has sidestepped the BRT discussion (she says she is conflicted out), and even tried to oppose a cell phone tower under the principle of local control. That principle is exactly why we have a housing shortage!

With all of that having been said, Councilmember Perez is generally reasonable on housing, transit, rent control, and Flock. She certainly won’t block any housing initiatives that Polon or Van Gorder might propose, which in this field is saying something. Hopefully a housing-friendly council will bring out the better angels in Councilmember Perez and remind her what she campaigned on in the first place.

Honorable Mentions

If any of our above endorsements do not convince you, perhaps we could offer some more alternatives? These candidates are not as strong as those above, but a vote for them would not be out of place.

JT Parr

JT is actually right up our alley on policy: he’s a strong YIMBY, supports the BRT, and understands the brokenness of rent control. Unfortunately, JT is not running the most serious campaign, and has said himself that he doesn’t think he can win! Given that JT seems to (correctly) think a great deal of Eddy, any vote for JT should first go to Eddy, but if you have issues with one of our second-level choices above, a vote for JT is a vote for good policy.

Tamala Takahashi

"What makes a man turn neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?"

Honestly, we were surprised when Councilmember Takahashi announced her run for re-election - we always had the sense that she didn’t really enjoy the job of City Council (not that we would have blamed her), and figured she would bow out gracefully at the end of her term. Instead, she is running for re-election on a very thin resume - she came into office as the YIMBY bike owner, but has done nothing to promote biking (or housing) in the city. She has said that “Olive should be for everyone,” a fairly meaningless statement that (not surprisingly) does not commit her to anything around the BRT. She has not been pro-rent control, but she’s not exactly against it, either. Ultimately, she has acted as the middle-ground on a council that is often split into two factions, but in taking the middle road has not attempted to define herself. Tamala is definitely a better vote than anyone below her on this list, but she’s a far more lukewarm vote than anyone above her.

Crazy Leftists

Nolan Southerland

Honestly, we appreciate Nolan’s clarity and directness - in the League of Women Voters candidate forum, Nolan said that as long as homelessness exists, no one should profit from housing, and that we should decouple housing from money. It’s not often that a candidate disqualifies themselves so clearly and directly with their economic ignorance, so it’s nice when one comes out and states it so directly. We don’t have space to explain economic theory about how prices are key to regulating economic interactions, or why goods and services cannot be rights, since they by definition compel labor from others and cannot be guaranteed in all circumstances. Suffice to say, if Nolan wants to be a barista or poet in the commune after the Revolution, we wish him the best.

NIMBYs

Samantha Wick

Samantha is, ultimately, a relatively inoffensive, garden-variety NIMBY. She’s opposed to the BRT (well, she wants mixed-flow, which is the same difference), talks about “protecting our neighborhoods” (which you can’t do and have sufficient housing), and wants “smart growth” (which should be distinguished from actual growth). Without state housing mandates, we can’t imagine that Wick would support any housing in Burbank - which is precisely how we got into the problem we are currently in. Don’t let yourself be fooled by vague statements to the contrary, Wick will not solve our housing problem.

Jackie Waltman

Every Burbank family deserves a stable, affordable place to live. Jackie will work toward a housing strategy that protects renters, supports responsible housing providers, and helps build more affordable homes — all while preserving the character and economic diversity that make Burbank special.

We have no idea what that sentence from Waltman’s platform means. Does she support deed-restricted housing at scale? How does she suggest providing these stable and affordable places to live? She has said she is very anti-rent control, which is fine, but her housing policy is otherwise vacuous. She has also avoided taking a position on the Olive BRT, which is odd given that it’s a driving issue in this election. It’s hard to judge Jackie on anything other than the company she keeps, and in that regard she does not deserve a vote.

David Donahue

David is one of the most infamous voices in Burbank today - he loves being divisive and stirring up trouble to focus attention on himself. He is also the former chair of Vision Burbank, a decidedly anti-growth, anti-BRT (and often pro-MAGA) NIMBY group. He is opposed to all State housing measures, including SB79, and would (if he could) drive Burbank back into its zero-build past. A Donahue+Rizzotti council would be a nightmare that no city deserves.

Who Are These People?

Every cycle, Burbank has a lot of people running for Council who have not been heard from before, and likely won’t be heard from again. While some of them may have interesting ideas, none of them have the traction or the ideas to be considered for a vote.

Jonathan Ontiveros

We appreciate a good engineering perspective on the problems we face, and Jonathan seems like someone who could be a YIMBY if he wanted to, but if your position is that R1 neighborhoods are inviolable, you are not serious about solving the housing problem. We would be interested to see Jonathan get more involved with YIMBY groups and do better next time.

Robbie Brody

As someone who appears to be anti-BRT and pro-”neighborhood character,” Robbie does not meet the threshold for a vote recommendation.

Chris Yoosefi

Aside from being strongly anti-BRT, Chris managed to show his ignorance by saying that the city needs to be run “like a business.” Let’s be very clear, the government is not a business - it does not make a profit, it does not maximize revenue, and its fundamental purpose is to own the monopoly on violence, not sell you toothpaste.

Hovanes Tonoyan

This is Hovanes’ second run for Council, but he still does not list a set of positions on his website. He’s not a serious candidate worthy of consideration.

City Measures

Measure C

Everyone loves the hotel tax, because it’s one tax that residents almost never have to pay. Voters love free stuff, so we expect this one to pass handily.

Districting Measures

Holy shit, districts just will not go away. When last we left our heroes in October 2023, then-Councilmember Nick Schultz was daring the backer of the lawsuit against the city to show themselves, and until then the city was putting districts on ice. After two years of silence, however, it appears that the city’s bluff was called, and it has been forced to settle the suit. The settlement, however, does not obligate the city to actually adopt districts, but merely vote on them. These measures are the result of that settlement.

Measure CC

This measure simply amends the City Charter to give the City Council the authority to determine the manner in which elections are held (at-large vs districts). In theory, a voter who wanted to maintain maximum roadblocks against districting would vote against this measure, but regardless of your feelings on the matter, it probably makes sense to remove the current restrictive wording from the charter.

Measure CD

This is the measure that, if adopted, would divide Burbank into districts for future City Council elections. Note that the settlement does not require Burbank to adopt this measure, and the voters can reject it with no consequences to the city. Reasonable people can disagree on whether district-based elections are good for the city, but it is the position of LANL that the city is physically small enough that most issues apply to most areas of the city, and so districts are a net-negative that prevents voters from choosing all of their representatives. Note that this is in strong contrast to the City of Los Angeles, which is practically Vincent Adultman.