Category Archives: Police Union Corruption

Articles and information on police union corruption that costs the citizens more of their tax dollars and even their property and their lives.

Doesn’t like unions – Letter to The Beach Reporter by Marc Rener

Neil Snow is the epitome of naivete that unions love in their members.

He knows nothing about the payoff and kickbacks (called contributions) made by unions to the politicians who gave them these ridiculous contracts.

Union integrity? Unions can and do recruit aliens, both legal and illegal, as members? S.E.I.U. ring any bells?

So much for the English-speaking Americans workers the unions claim to protect.

The billions of taxpayer dollars to “save” GM? Stockholder shares became worthless, yet 40 percent went to protect the union pensions.

In his letter to the editor in last week’s paper, he “parrots” from union manuals every propaganda terminology and definition. He writes, “‘scabs’ . . . is an euphemism for someone who cannot get a job on their own merit.”

He writes, “Employees who would accept lower wages, no bargaining rights and no job security do an inferior job. Lateness, no show, stealing.”

“Now just imagine those types of employees who would agree to those terms. And now imagine they are firefighters and police,” writes Snow.

Tell that to the non-union waitress at the Kettle restaurant in Manhattan Beach, or the non-union Federal Express Drivers, secretaries, auto mechanics, every person in the U.S. military, the 80 percent (280 million) of Americans in this country who are non-union. Sainthood of unions? … Continue reading

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Just the Facts – Letter to The Beach Reporter by Michael D. Robbins

As Ronald Reagan said, “facts are stubborn things.” Unlike the extremist rants against me, which now include calls for censorship and threats of death by withholding emergency services, I just deal with the facts in order to prevent my city’s bankruptcy and loss of vital services. The people attacking me resort to these sorts of threats because they have no facts on their side. My information comes from official sources as documented at PublicSafetyProject.org.

If Measure P succeeds in liquidating the El Segundo Fire Department, then all other South Bay Cities will suffer reduced mutual aid emergency services. Even worse, if the voters are deceived into passing Measure P, it’s likely to start a trend of union takeovers of other South Bay cities. … Continue reading

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Unsustainable – Letter to The Beach Reporter by Bill Barks

I wish to applaud and express support for frequent letter writer Michael D. Robbins of El Segundo. Mr. Robbins is exactly correct in his comments regarding the firefighter/police unions and the fantastic compensation packages they have been able to carve out of various ill-advised city councils in the beach cities over several years. Let it also be clear that I applaud the skill and dedication of most of the firefighter and police professionals. However, this unsustainable compensation policy has to be brought under control. … Continue reading

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Rich Fireman Named in Shoplifting by Paul Teetor – LA Weekly

Rich Fireman Named in Shoplifting

In El Segundo, where firefighters make $210,000 a year, anger spills over

By Paul Teetor
published: Thursday, May 26 2011

Firefighter Michael Archambault is presumed innocent until proven guilty. But the bizarre shoplifting arrest of the El Segundo firefighter, wealthy enough to own a home in exclusive Rolling Hills Estates, has sparked a furious battle.

The hero-turns-heel allegations have made Archambault a metaphor for the El Segundo firefighters’ union, its members’ staggering $210,000 average compensation in a town so sleepy that fires are rare, and the union’s push to merge with the Los Angeles County Fire Department in order to preserve its outsized pay scale.

“Everything about this shoplifting case illustrates what we’ve been saying for years: These public safety unions have invaded our little town and taken over the political system to enrich themselves,” says Michael Robbins, a former El Segundo councilman turned civic watchdog.

“The police and fire unions have developed an incredible sense of entitlement, a feeling that they are royalty and we are just here to fund their grossly inflated salaries and lavish lifestyles. Look at the facts.”


PHOTO BY TED SOQUI
Michael Robbins, former El Segundo councilman turned civic watchdog, is fighting City Hall.

Archambault, 52, was arrested on April 12 by Torrance police after he allegedly stole $375 in electronics from a Costco in Torrance. He owns a $1 million ranch-style rambler in Rolling Hills Estates, one of the priciest suburbs in the United States.

El Segundo City Councilwoman Suzanne Fuentes says Archambault typifies the strange problem that residents of this small, middle-class L.A. suburb are confronting: “Only one of 50 members of the El Segundo firefighters’ union actually lives in this city. Yet they’re trying to control our little Mayberry-by-the-sea.”

Archambault earned $208,000 in total compensation last year. According to his arrest report, he was spotted by loss-prevention officers at the Costco at 2751 Skypark Drive in Torrance as he surreptitiously opened a box containing a trash can and stuffed it with a Belkin router, a Motorola modem, earbuds, ink cartridges and a Waterpik Water Flosser.

The fireman then allegedly purchased the trash can for $47.99 — with the electronics hidden inside. He was detained outside the store and handed over to Torrance police. A few hours later he posted $1,000 bail.

No longer blue-collar, El Segundo firefighters — who require only a GED to enter the 10-week firefighter academy program — are among L.A. County’s richest citizens.

Their total annual compensation averages $210,000 in a low-crime town of 16,000 residents, which averages fewer than two structure fires a year. Essentially, they are very well paid paramedics. More than 90 percent of their calls are for medical transports. … Continue reading

Posted in El Segundo News, Firefighter and Police Union Compensation and Pensions, Firefighter Union Corruption, Firefighters Commiting Crimes, Government Employee Compensation and Pensions, Police Union Corruption | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Rich Fireman Named in Shoplifting by Paul Teetor – LA Weekly

Ted Lieu’s campaign mailer featured 36 deceptive government employee union endorsements and 38 counterfeit badges

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

February 15, 2011

El Segundo voters received a campaign mailer for Ted Lieu, a soft-on-crime, tax-and-spend leftist politician running for state senate in the extremely gerrymandered California Senate District 28 (CA SD 28). The campaign mailer featured 36 deceptive government employee union endorsements made to look like legitimate public safety endorsements, and 38 counterfeit badges which are actually government employee union logos.

Soft-on-crime, tax-and-spend politicians frequently use the cover of deceptive government employee union endorsements to masquerade as tough-on-crime, fiscally conservative politicians.


Front side of Ted Lieu’s campaign mailer featuring 36 deceptive government employee union endorsements and 38 counterfeit badges which are actually union logos.


Back side of Ted Lieu’s campaign mailer featuring 36 deceptive government employee union endorsements and 38 counterfeit badges which are actually union logos.

Ted Lieu, a California state legislator representing the extremely gerrymandered California Assembly District 53 (CA AD 53), ran for election in a special primary election to fill the vacancy created in CA SD 28 Senate District (CA 28th SD) by the death of Democrat State Senator Jenny Oropeza from Long Beach. … Continue reading

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Taxpayers Getting Fleeced – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Mary Olinick

Taxpayers Getting Fleeced

I recently received a mailer for Ted Lieu, candidate for State Senate. On that flyer were 37 public employee union endorsements by local and state unions. There was not a single tax payer or government watchdog association. Why would anyone be foolish enough to think this man is running to represent the voters?

The flyer, in essence, is telling us that he doesn’t give a fig for us and that the unions will elect him, that they financed him and that he is beholden only to those unions. Does anyone wonder why such excessive salaries are paid to government workers? Why some public employees are retiring with multi-million dollar pensions? Are we dumb enough to believe that children’s education will not be cut while public employee pensions will remain unscathed? … Continue reading

Posted in El Segundo, El Segundo Election Coverage, El Segundo Herald Letters, Firefighter and Police Union Compensation and Pensions, Firefighter Union Corruption, Government Employee Compensation and Pensions, Letters to the Editor, Police Union Corruption, Political Corruption, Union Corruption | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Taxpayers Getting Fleeced – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Mary Olinick

Union provisions need to be changed – Letter to the Beach Reporter by Edward C. Caprielian

Union provisions need to be changed

A present provision in the Memorandum of Understanding between the city of Manhattan Beach and the Manhattan Beach Police Officers Association requires mutual agreement on changes in the city’s Employee/Employer Relations Resolution.

In effect, the city is unable, without agreement from POA, to meet its legal responsibilities mandated by state law regarding the determination of legislative and managerial policies. These policies include determining the composition of bargaining units; selection of organizations to represent employees; use of city resources by employee unions; exclusion of high-level managers and confidential employees as union members; and procedures for resolving impasses.

In essence, the POA could dissipate managerial authority by legislating a larger number of smaller bargaining units, creating administrative nightmares, multiple time-consuming negotiations, encouraging end runs to influence elected officials, and union gamesmanship to achieve the highest settlement agreements.

In addition, it creates the specter of managers as union members negotiating agreements across the table with their union employees and fostering divisiveness and competition among managers for scarce resources. Furthermore, the POA is placed to promote processes that remove managerial discretion in the resolution of contract disputes.

These are among the realities that have weakened management authority in the public sector making it the leading cause of the inordinate increases in public employee wages, pension and retirement benefits. … Continue reading

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1970-1972 Firefighter and Police Union City Council Campaigns

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

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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Laws Allowing Local Government Employee Unions and Collective Bargaining have Promoted Corruption

Public Employee Unions and Corruption

The laws that allow public employees to form unions and engage in collective bargaining have created an inherent and unavoidable conflict of interest, and massive political corruption that is driving cities, counties, and states towards bankruptcy. Public employee labor unions, especially firefighters, police, school teachers, and nurses, provide campaign support to help elect the politicians who will be their bosses and determine the terms of their labor contracts, including salaries, benefits, and pensions, and/or determine the laws that govern their labor contracts. … Continue reading

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