Samantha Wick First to Enter Burbank City Council Race

Samantha Wick has entered the race for a seat on the Burbank City Council, becoming the first declared candidate in the contest.

Wick is the current chair of the Burbank Planning Commission. She announced the campaign this week in a published letter, pointing to 23 years living in Burbank and a record of shaping land-use policy as the basis for her run. That’s a longer civic biography than most first-time candidates can put on the table.

“I believe local government should be accessible, and visible, in the community it serves,” Wick said. “Leadership should be active in our neighborhoods and local businesses, listening to residents and making thoughtful decisions that reflect all of us — not just the loudest voices.”

Her path to the Planning Commission didn’t start there. Before joining that body, Wick completed a Bachelor of Science in Urban Planning and spent four years on the Burbank Heritage Commission, two of them as chair. She knows the commission structure from the inside, and she’s run meetings, not just attended them.

She also built something from scratch. Wick founded the original Burbank Buy Nothing Group, a neighbor-to-neighbor sharing network that’s since expanded into six separate groups across the city. The membership stands at more than 8,500 people. That’s not a footnote. It’s one of the larger grassroots community networks in the San Fernando Valley, and it didn’t grow because anyone paid staff to run it.

Her current Planning Commission role includes serving as the body’s liaison to the Art and Public Places Commission, which puts her in regular conversations about how Burbank’s public spaces are designed and used. Anyone who’s sat through a Planning Commission meeting knows the meetings don’t always wrap up early. She’s kept agendas moving past 10 p.m. while still leaving room for public comment.

On policy, Wick’s platform tracks with issues that tend to define Burbank council races: protecting homeownership, extending some stability to renters and seniors, and keeping the city’s business base intact. The entertainment industry gets a specific mention. That’s not surprising. Warner Bros. and the production companies clustered near the airport have long defined what Burbank’s economy looks like, and any serious council candidate here can’t ignore it.

“I’m running because we have the best city services around and I want to keep them that way,” she said in her announcement. “Most of all, I’m running because Burbank deserves stable leadership that shows up, consistently, every day.”

Stability is the word she keeps returning to. It’s a deliberate choice. Burbank council races can swing on name recognition and retail politicking as easily as on substance, and Wick’s framing positions her as the steady hand against whatever field develops. She’s got the commission chairmanship to back it up, which isn’t something most challengers can claim when they announce.

Voters haven’t seen the full candidate field yet. But Wick’s in first, and she’s got a resume that will make her harder to dismiss than the average newcomer. The Planning Commission work alone means she’s sat through hundreds of hours of public testimony, wrangled contested development applications, and made decisions that ended up affecting real blocks and real neighbors across the city.

“I believe local government should be accessible, and visible, in the community it serves,” she said. That framing, accessible government, visible leadership, isn’t just campaign language for Wick. She’s been showing up to those meetings for years. The Burbank Buy Nothing Group is still running. The Heritage Commission chair years are on the record. Whether Voters decide that track record translates to a council seat is the question the campaign will answer.