Which El Segundo City Employee was Paid Nearly $600,000 in His Last Year?

by Michael D. Robbins
Director, Public Safety Project, PublicSafetyProject.org

March 3, 2014

(This is an updated version of the article, Highest paid El Segundo City Employee in 2009, by Michael D. Robbins, August 17, 2010.)

Firefighter and Police Unions are Breaking the City’s Budget

Generally, El Segundo sworn firefighters and police officers are by far the highest paid City employees. Their “associations” (unions) endorse, contribute money to, and campaign for the City Council candidates who will give them the biggest pay raises and increases in benefits and pensions, and then raise taxes and fees on residents and businesses to pay for it all. Their total compensation, including salary, benefits, and pension contributions paid by the City’s taxpayers, has been about $150,000 to more than $330,000 per individual per year.

The managers’ salaries, benefits, and pensions are increased along with those of their subordinates, to prevent “salary compaction”, and to maintain a minimum 5% higher level of compensation than their subordinates.

Existing sworn police and firefighter employees, including managers, can retire as early as age 50 (police) or 55 (firefighters) with a guaranteed annual pension income of up to 90% of their single highest year salary, including all the “Special Compensation” add-ons in their union contracts for things that are already a requirement of the job or are unrelated to the job.

Thus, Mayor Bill Fisher increased the employee pension income and the pension cost to the taxpayers for the police and firefighter employees (and for all City employees) every year of the Great Recession, because he gave them all excessive and unsustainable raises every one of those years!

City of El Segundo $100K Pension Club

Here is a list of retired El Segundo City employees in the “$100K Pension Club”, i.e., with CalPERS pensions paying them in excess of $100,000 per year guaranteed by the taxpayers regardless of pension fund investment performance:

http://www.FixPensionsFirst.com/calpers-database/?first_name=&last_name=&employer=EL+SEGUNDO

Highest Paid El Segundo City Employee in Calendar Year 2009

Former El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings was the highest paid City employee in calendar year 2009. He retired in 2009 with about eleven weeks left in the year, and had total 2009 compensation of about $596,657. This included his City contract income and his CalPERS pension income while he continued working as the El Segundo Police Chief after his retirement. Cummings’ post-retirement City employment contract acknowledged that he would be receiving his $210,000 per year CalPERS pension income while he continued working as the City’s police chief after his retirement.

(NOTE: David Cummings’ annual pension benefit was listed as $210,213.36 in 2009 at the CaliforniaPensionReform.com web site at http://database.CaliforniaPensionReform.com/database.asp?vtsearchname=&vtsearchemploy=el+segundo&vtquery=1&vttable=calpers (a dead link now), but now shows up as $198,272.04 in 2014 at the FixPensionsFirst.com website at http://www.fixpensionsfirst.com/calpers-database/?first_name=&last_name=&employer=EL+SEGUNDO.)

Below are two tables, one showing how former El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings was paid a total of at least $596,657 in 2009, and the second showing how Cummings’ salary, vacation and sick leave payout, and pension were all spiked by the 23% raise he was given about a year before his retirement. Following these two tables is a list of links to related documents.

Note that Cummings was probably paid more than $600,000 total in 2009, which would have been determined if further research was done to determine the value of his City-provided car and gasoline, and other perks he likely received as police chief.

The following is an in-line HTML table containing the formatted spreadsheet data of former El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings’ calendar year 2009 total compensation and pension income.

Note: This Public Records Act request data was provided by the City of El Segundo, California on December 15, 2010 in response to a PRA request made by Michael D. Robbins on December 5, 2010. It is provided here as a courtesy of Michael D. Robbins and the Public Safety Project, P.O. Box 2193, El Segundo, CA 90245, PublicSafetyProject.org. The estimated (calculated) data and additional data annotations were provided by Michael D. Robbins.

David Cummings – El Segundo, California Police Chief Paid in Calendar Year 2009

Pay and Income for the first 41 weeks (289 days) of 2009 (1/1/09-10/16/09):

Regular Earnings	225,627
Special Compensation (Uniform Allowance)	480
Regular Earnings + Special Comp	226,107
Leave Payout (Vacation and Sick Leave Payout)	199,668
Total Earnings	425,775


CalPERS Pension – Employer Contribution – Paid by the Employer (City)	48,894
Percentage of Regular Earnings + Special Comp – Paid by the Employer (City)	21.6%

CalPERS Pension – Employee Contribution – Paid by the Employer (City)	16,755
Percentage of Regular Earnings + Special Comp – Paid by the Employer (City)	7.4%

CalPERS Pension – Employee Contribution – Paid by the Employee	0
Percentage of Regular Earnings + Special Comp – Paid by the Employee	0.0%

CalPERS Pension – Employee Contribution – Total Amount Paid	16,755
Percentage of Regular Earnings + Special Comp	7.4%

TOTAL CALPERS PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS PAID BY THE EMPLOYER (CITY)	65,649
Percentage of Regular Earnings + Special Comp – Total Paid by the Employer (City)	29.0%

NOTE: CalPERS pension contributions were made for the period 1/1/09 – 10/16/09 (41 weeks)


401(a) Deferred Compensation Plan
401(a) Deferred Compensation Plan – Amount Paid by Employer (City)	11,592
401(a) Deferred Compensation Plan – Amount Paid by the Employee	0
401(a) Deferred Compensation Plan – Total Amount Paid	11,592
Annual Regular Earnings + Special Comp for period 9/27/08 – 9/25/09	231,839
Percentage of Regular Earnings + Special Comp	5.0%

Total Insurance Benefits Paid by the Employer (City)
A D & D	17
Dental	853
Life Insurance	154
Long Term Disability	692
Executive Long Term Disability	1,031
Vision	168
TOTAL	2,915

Post-Employment Health Insurance for 11/09 & 12/09	2,302

2009 TOTAL EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION	508,233


Pay and Income for the last 11 weeks (76 days) of 2009 (10/17/09 – 12/31/09):

Estimated Contract Employee Pay	43,956
(At $111 per hour x 36 hours per week average x 11 weeks)

Estimated CalPERS Pension Double-Dipping Income	44,468
(At $210,213.36 per year for 11 weeks)

ESTIMATED TOTAL 2009 EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION AND PENSION INCOME	596,657
(All pension income was obtained while “double-dipping” by working as a contract employee El Segundo City Police Chief)

Regular Earnings, Leave Payout, and Pension Benefit Spike

Police Chief David Cummings received a 23% pay increase effective October 1, 2008, about a year before his retirement, which spiked his 2009 total earnings and leave payout, and his annual pension. The raise spiked his regular earnings by $42,190 (from $183,437 to $225,627), and his accumulated vacation and sick leave payout (cash-out) value by $37,336 (from $162,332 to $199,668), for a total earnings spike of $79,527. His annual pension was spiked by an estimated $39,308 (from $170,905 to $210,213).

Police officers and firefighters are credited and allowed to accumulate and roll-over from year to year huge numbers of vacation and sick leave hours, which can be cashed out at a higher pay rate in later years and upon retirement. His total 2009 earnings was $425,775 – consisting of $225,627 Regular Earnings, $480 Special Compensation, and $199,668 Leave Payout. He retired in 2009 with a pension of $210,213.36 yearly ($17,517.78 monthly) according to CaliforniaPensionReform.com, plus medical insurance, for the rest of his life.

The following table summarizes Police Chief David Cummings’ spikes resulting from his 23% raise.

	Regular Earnings	Special Comp.	Overtime	Leave Payout	Total Earnings	Yearly Pension
Before 23% Raise	183,437	480	0	162,332	346,248	170,905
After 23% Raise	225,627	480	0	199,668	425,775	210,213
Spike Amount	42,190	0	0	37,336	80,007	39,308

The reason given for Cummings’ 23% pay increase that spiked his pay, leave payout, and pension was salary compaction, also known as salary compression, caused by large pay increases given to the police union members.

Links to Related Documents:

Click here to view or download a PDF file containing the formatted text of former El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings’ after-retirement City employment contract. (28.5 KB PDF file)

Click here to view or download an RTF file containing the formatted text of former El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings’ after-retirement City employment contract. (9.82 KB RTF file)

Click here to view or download a TXT file containing the unformatted text of former El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings’ after-retirement City employment contract. (8.36 KB TXT file)

Click here to view or download a PDF file containing a bitmap scan of former El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings’ after-retirement City employment contract. (249 KB PDF file)

Click here to view or download a PDF file containing the Public Records Act response data for former El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings’ after-retirement City employment contract. (11.2 KB PDF file)

The following table itemizes former Police Chief David Cummings’ calendar year 2009 total compensation and CalPERS pension income.

Click here to view or download a PDF file containing the formatted spreadsheet of former El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings’ calendar year 2009 total compensation and pension income. (20.3 KB PDF file)

Click here to view an HTML file containing the formatted spreadsheet of former El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings’ calendar year 2009 total compensation and pension income. (40.8 KB HTML files)

Click here to download an XLSX (Microsoft Excel 2007) file containing the formatted spreadsheet of former El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings’ calendar year 2009 total compensation and pension income. (16.6 KB EXCEL 2007 Spreadsheet file)

Click here to view or download an XLS (Microsoft Excel 97-2003) file containing the formatted spreadsheet of former El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings’ calendar year 2009 total compensation and pension income. (45.0 KB EXCEL 97-2003 Spreadsheet file)

Click here to view or download a CSV file containing the unformatted spreadsheet data of former El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings’ calendar year 2009 total compensation and pension income. (3.24 KB CSV Data file)