The following letter to the editor was published in the Beach Reporter newspaper (TBRnews.com) on Thursday, March 29, 2012 in the Letters section. The Beach Reporter has a strict 250-word limit.
City Manger’s Misconduct
New evidence of fired City Manager Doug Willmore’s misconduct was revealed with the latest public records release of city documents and emails (available at ElSegundo.org and PublicSafetyProject.org).
Willmore politicized City Hall. His secretary, Mickie Tagle, used city-paid time and public resources to do political opposition research against Chevron and against residents who criticized Willmore’s efforts to shakedown Chevron for an additional $10 million per year in taxes. One email showed she even tried to dig up dirt on me! Finance Director Deborah Cullen was also enthusiastically involved in Willmore’s shakedown efforts.
The emails show Willmore was doing Mayor Eric Busch’s bidding, taking direction from Busch in his attempt to extort more money from Chevron, without a majority of Council members even knowing about it. The city manager is legally required to take direction only from a majority vote or consensus of the City Council. Busch and Willmore targeted Chevron because they “can’t move” their refinery, and because of environmental politics.
The emails also show the fire and police unions have been behind this push to raise taxes to pay for their wildly excessive and unsustainable compensation and pensions. Willmore was desperately concerned that the City lacked the funds necessary for basic infrastructure maintenance and capital improvements.
The money for those costs traditionally came from ordinary General Fund revenues, which instead paid for about $8 million extra per year in excessive safety union compensation and pensions. Thus, the City budget is not really “structurally balanced” as Busch and Willmore have claimed.
Michael D. Robbins
El Segundo
El Segundo Police Officers' Association (ESPOA) Exposed