Monthly Archives: October 2010

1970-1972 Firefighter and Police Union City Council Campaigns

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Mike

Former Mayors Reflect on Past Challenges

October 28, 2010

By Brian Simon

Mayor Gordon Stephens (1970-1972): Stephens sees a parallel between the current contentious labor talks between the City Council and local bargaining units and what he described as “difficulties negotiating with our safety employees” during his tenure. “They went door to door to gain sympathetic supporters,” he remembers, noting that attendance at the hearing was so large as to cause the meeting to move its location to the high school auditorium. “The council’s initial position was that after a survey of other cities’ pay and benefits, we offered the midpoint of the survey, realizing El Segundo did not have as much hazardous activity as any of the surveyed cities,” Stephens said. … Continue reading →

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Mayor Carl Jacobson provided leadership to resolve 1988 revenue crisis

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Mike

Former Mayors Reflect on Past Challenges

October 28, 2010

By Brian Simon

Mayor Carl Jacobson (1988-1996):

Though he is now back on the Council and dealing with the City’s current financial crisis, Jacobson also had a major budget dilemma to contend with when he became Mayor in 1988. Two-thirds of the City’s revenue base had previously come from use taxes collected from Chevron’s sale of fuel oil to Edison. But when the Public Utilities Commission ordered Edison to switch to the cleaner-burning natural gas, all that revenue went bye-bye.

To address the issue, Jacobson and the Council revamped the business license and utility user tax structure to provide replacement revenue streams. The tax increases were phased in over time. “It was an absolute necessity and done during a decent economy that was nothing like the condition we are in right now,” said Jacobson, who added that the Council even lowered the business license tax by the end of his tenure.

Jacobson also successfully lobbied to increase the City’s share of local property taxes from five percent to seven (since lowered by the State to 6.25). … Continue reading →

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A Stink in El Segundo Over Cadillac Salaries by Paul Teetor – LA Weekly

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Mike

A Stink in El Segundo Over Cadillac Salaries

Cops earn $175,000, firefighters $210,000, in a town with few criminals or fires

By Paul Teetor
published: October 14, 2010

The debate over skyrocketing government-worker salaries got nasty in El Segundo when a homeowner published the six-figure salaries flowing to the small town’s cops and firefighters on his Gundo Blogger website — only to have a police captain track him down by phone at his UCLA job and chew him out.

The uneasy homeowner, David Burns, tells L.A. Weekly that Capt. Robert Turnbull “called me from his office to complain about my blog. … He insisted on talking about it right now. I finally had to hang up on him.”

Burns then sent Turnbull an e-mail explaining his policy of separating his blog from his job as manager of emergency preparedness at UCLA.

In a response that would have unnerved many citizens, the high-ranking cop e-mailed Burns back: “I will continue to call you at work whenever I want, as you may do the same for me, since our numbers are publicly listed.”

Turnbull vehemently objected to Burns claiming on his blog that the captain’s total pay is $302,000, insisting it should be “only” $225,000 — the amount the city defines as Turnbull’s “total earnings.”

But as Burns explains, he included “the hidden costs. [Turnbull] was trying to exclude all the extra money and special benefits beyond his base salary, but that all comes from the taxpayer’s pocket.”

Either way, it’s a staggering sum to pay a police captain in a tiny city of 16,000 residents, with zero murders in 2009, according to FBI data — and only 36 violent crimes. By contrast, not counting benefits, the Los Angeles Police Department pays its captains an average of $168,000. … Continue reading →

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