Tag Archives: Eric Busch

Council Votes Save Money and Lives – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Michael D. Robbins

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Mike

Council Votes Save Money and Lives

I want to thank City Council members Bill Fisher, Suzanne Fuentes, and Carl Jacobson for voting on February 15 to put the firefighter union’s Punitive Initiative, Measure P, on the latest possible ballot – in April 2012. Their votes will save taxpayer money by avoiding an unnecessary special election, and much more tax money indirectly. But more importantly, their votes may save lives – especially the lives of our seniors.

The latest election date postpones the time residents will permanently lose their City-operated paramedic transport service, and be forced to use out-of-town ambulance companies with increased hospital transport times and fees, if enough voters are misled into approving the Punitive Initiative.

The union’s Punitive Initiative cuts emergency services to lock-in and pay for their wildly excessive and unsustainable employee salaries, benefits, and pensions. The latest election date can save $90 million over ten years in excess “special compensation” and pension contributions by giving the City Council more time to implement real and superior alternatives that save twice as much money without cutting our emergency services.

I was disheartened when, after I explained these facts, the firefighter union and Council candidate Scott Houston urged the Council to enact the initiative without any election … Continue reading →

Posted in El Segundo, El Segundo Election Coverage, El Segundo Herald Letters, El Segundo News, Firefighter and Police Union Compensation and Pensions, Firefighter Union Corruption, Government Employee Compensation and Pensions, Letters to the Editor, Measure P - Firefighters Union Initiative | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Council Votes Save Money and Lives – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Michael D. Robbins

A Victory for El Segundo Residents and Residential Property Owners (House or Two Units)

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Mike

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

January 19, 2011

Congratulations! We won again! Thank you for sending in your Proposition 218 Trash Fee Protest Ballots before the deadline. A total of 1,850 unverified protest ballots were sent to City Hall, and only a total of 1,439 verified protest ballots were needed to defeat the new residential trash collection fee. The City Council voted 3-2 at its January 18, 2011 meeting, to accept the unverified protest ballots as sufficient without having the City Clerk’s staff spend the time to open all the envelopes, verify that the ballots were properly completed and signed, and count the valid ones that are not duplicates from owners and tenants of the same property.

City Council member Don Brann made the motion to accept the unverified protest ballots as sufficient. Mayor Eric Busch tried to ignore the motion and said that the City Clerk would come back to the City Council with the results after the protest ballots were verified and counted. Council member Don Brann caught this apparent maneuver to avoid a vote and move on to the next agenda item, and he stated that he made a motion. Council member Carl Jacobson seconded the motion for discussion. After brief discussion, Council member Don Brann asked for a vote. Mayor Eric Busch and Mayor Pro Tem Bill Fisher voted “NO”, and Council members Don Brann, Carl Jacobson, and Suzanne Fuentes voted “Yes” on the motion.
This vote by mail election used a strange system where properties for which no Protest Ballot is completed, signed, and returned before the deadline COUNT AS YES VOTES, and Protest Ballots from both the owner and tenant(s) of the same property COUNT AS ONLY ONE NO VOTE.

The first year of the trash fee would have cost residents an estimated $560,700, which is less than the estimated $596,657 total compensation paid to former El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings in 2009 from all sources – including his city contract and pension income while working for the city after his retirement. This is an enormous amount of compensation for any city, but especially for the City of El Segundo, California, which has about 5.5 square miles and about 16,000 or 17,000 population. … Continue reading →

Posted in California, El Segundo, El Segundo Election Coverage, El Segundo News, El Segundo Tax and Fee Increases, Elections, Firefighter and Police Union Compensation and Pensions, Fraud Waste and Abuse, Government Employee Compensation and Pensions, News, Political Corruption, Politics, Tax Policy and Issues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A Victory for El Segundo Residents and Residential Property Owners (House or Two Units)

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 →

Posted in El Segundo News, Firefighter and Police Union Compensation and Pensions, Government Employee Compensation and Pensions, Police Union Corruption | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A Stink in El Segundo Over Cadillac Salaries by Paul Teetor – LA Weekly