BURBANK : Debate Canceled on School Bond Issue

A debate matching two vocal opponents of the $100-million school bond measure on the April 12 ballot against two equally vocal supporters that had been scheduled tonight has been canceled.

“I’m very disappointed,” said Burbank Board of Education member Denise Lioy Wilcox, who would have been one of the debaters for the televised forum. “It was going to be our opportunity to prove to the public that our numbers are sound.”

Ted McConkey, a leader of a homeowners group who would have substituted for one of the original debaters, was equally disappointed, but for other reasons. “Nobody knows what the school bond will cost,” he said.

Wilcox and Burbank Councilman Dave Golonski had agreed last week to debate Dr. S. Michael Stavropolous, a former school board candidate, and Joel Schlossman, a former Burbank City Council candidate.

Stavropolous was called out of the country on a family emergency, and McConkey had been prepared to step in to replace him, McConkey said.

But during a weekend meeting, plans for the debate, which would have been televised on a local cable television station, began to fall apart.

“We thought it important to have a presentation--prior to the debate--a factual presentation about the bond issue,” Wilcox said.

But McConkey objected to what he saw as a one-sided, 20-minute presentation, which he would not have been given equal time to rebut.

“That was absolutely silly,” McConkey said. “I’d never heard of a debate like that.”

With planning for the debate at an impasse, McConkey said he thought the idea was dead. But on Monday, Golonski and Wilcox made a counteroffer, eliminating the need for a pre-debate presentation and giving each speaker more time for opening arguments.

However, McConkey said that because he believed that the debate had already been canceled, he lost two days he would have used to prepare for the forum. Without that preparation time, he said he could not accept his opponents’ compromise offer.

“They were not acting in good faith,” Schlossman said.

He added that he will continue to oppose the bond measure by speaking out at meetings and talking about it.

“I’m comfortable that the bond will not pass,” he said.

The bond money will be used to rebuild Burbank public schools, if the measure is approved. It needs two-thirds voter approval to pass.

Wilcox said it would be difficult for her to predict the election’s outcome.

“I know we have a good solid base of support out there,” she said.