Daily Archives: March 3, 2014

Alert for the Tuesday, April 8, 2014 City of El Segundo General Municipal Election

EL SEGUNDO CITY ELECTION:
Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Vote “NO” on Measure A Tax Hikes.

Vote for Suzanne Fuentes and Mike Dugan.

All El Segundo residents should visit the Election Information index page regularly, preferably daily, until the April 8, 2014 El Segundo city election.


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April 8, 2014 El Segundo General Municipal Election News and Information

Last updated: Friday, May 9, 2014 at 01:45 AM PT.

This page will be updated regularly with links to informative articles about the upcoming April 8, 2014 El Segundo General Municipal Election.

Bookmark this page and review it often for breaking news and information.

(Posts are in priority order, not chronological order; newer posts appear in bold text.)


April 8, 2014 El Segundo General Municipal Election

Ballot Argument and Rebuttal Against El Segundo Measure A Tax Hikes

City of El Segundo 2014 Measure A Tax Hikes – City Attorney’s Impartial Analysis


Recapping the Election – Letter to The Beach Reporter by Michael Robbins

El Segundo Flyer #1: Vote “NO” on Measure A – Eleven Tax Hikes in One Measure!

El Segundo Flyer #3 – Vote “NO” on Measure A, and Against BILL FISHER!

Backup Documents, Photos, and Information for Statements in Recent Flyers Distributed on April 5, 2014

El Segundo City Employee Unions Contributed $17,500 to Measure A Tax Hikes Thus Far

Have the Measure A Supporters Earned Our Trust?

City of El Segundo Can Save $3.3 Million Per Year in Employee Pension Costs

Welcome to the City of El Segundo $100K+ CalPERS Pension Club!

El Segundo Herald Misreports City’s $6.3 Million Property Tax Revenue as $1 Million

El Segundo Firefighters’ Union is Bankrolling the Measure A Campaign to Hike Taxes

El Segundo Measure A Co-Chair Joe Harding was Against the Tax Hikes Before He was For Them

Wrong Time to Raise Taxes and Fees in El Segundo

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

2009-2010 City of El Segundo Separations due to Budgetary Reasons Mostly Early Retirements

Eleven El Segundo Police Department Positions “Eliminated” were Actually 911 Dispatchers Transferred to the South Bay Regional Public Communications (SBRPC) Authority


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

April 15 Council Meeting – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Mike Robbins

Post-election Council meeting – Letter to The Beach Reporter by Michael Robbins

Council pay procedures – Letter to The Beach Reporter by Marianne Fong

Fellhauer is a Union Puppet – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Marianne Fong

Can We Save Mayberry? – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Marc Rener

Recapping the Election – Letter to The Beach Reporter by Michael Robbins

Fire Union Bankrolling “Yes on A” Campaign – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Marianne Fong

No on Measure A – Letter to The Beach Reporter by Michael Robbins

Not happy with Measure A – Letter to The Beach Reporter by Marianne Fong

No on Measure A – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Mike Robbins

Something Fishy About Measure A – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Marianne Fong

NO ON “A” – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Art Lavalle

A Correction is In Order – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Mike Robbins

No on Measure A – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Helen Armstrong

Frustration – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Richard J. Switz

Measure ‘A’ – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Richard J. Switz


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Posted in Beach Reporter Letters, California, El Segundo, El Segundo Election Coverage, El Segundo Herald Letters, El Segundo News, El Segundo Tax and Fee Increases, Elections, Firefighter and Police Union Compensation and Pensions, Firefighter Union Corruption, Government Employee Compensation and Pensions, Letters to the Editor, Measure A - 5 New Taxes and 6 Tax Inceases, Police Union Corruption, Political Corruption, Politics, Public Records, Public Records Act, Tax Policy and Issues, Union Corruption | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on April 8, 2014 El Segundo General Municipal Election News and Information

City of El Segundo 2014 Measure A Tax Hikes – City Attorney’s Impartial Analysis

Introduction

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

March 3, 2014

Here is a summary of Measure A, followed by the official City Attorney’s Impartial Analysis of Measure A. The summary includes information not provided by the Impartial Analysis, which required researching the El Segundo Municipal Code and making a Public Records Act request to the El Segundo City Clerk.

Measure A will appear on the City of El Segundo, California General Municipal Election ballot on Tuesday, April 8, 2014. It was put on the ballot by a vote of the City Council, primarily to pay for past and future excessive and unsustainable City employee raises and benefits and pension increases given by the City Council – especially for the firefighter and police “association” (union) members and their managers. Mayor Bill Fisher supported those raises and increases, and Councilwoman Suzanne Fuentes voted against them. City Council candidate Mike Dugan was not on the City Council and therefore did not vote for them, and given that he is fiscally conservative, it is likely he would have voted against them also.

Measure A is a massive permanent tax increase on residents and businesses. It will cost residents and businesses $6.6 million per year for the first three years. However, all the residents will pay the business tax increases that are passed on to them as customers.

Measure A does not have a sunset clause (expiration date) as two (Suzanne Fuentes and Carl Jacobson) of the five City Council members requested. Mayor Bill Fisher, Councilman David Atkinson, and Councilwoman Marie Fellhauer rejected their request to make all the new taxes and tax increases temporary for only a few years as needed.

Measure A creates four new 2.5% Utility Users Taxes (UUTs) on residents (Electricity, Water, Gas, and “Communications Services”), nearly doubles three existing existing Business UUTs (Electricity, Water, and Gas) to to 5.5%, more than doubles the existing Business “Communication Services” UUT to 4.5%, increases the Hotel Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT, or “bed tax”) by 25% to 10%, increases the existing Business License Tax (BLT) by reducing credits from Sales Tax generation, and creates a new 10% Parking Tax.

The “Communication Services” UUT is all-encompassing and will tax every charge on every one of your bills for every conceivable existing and future technology form of communication. Per El Segundo Municipal Code (E.S.M.C.) Section 3-7-1, the “Communication Services” UUT includes voice, data, audio, or any other information or signals, using any existing or future technology including land-line, DSL, cable, wireless, cellular, broadband, VoIP, and Internet.

The Measure A “Communication Services” UUT will tax your land-line telephone, cellular telephone, cable TV, satellite, paging, security alarm monitoring, and all other communication services. It will tax your internet access whether it is via DSL, cable TV, cellular phone network, or satellite. It will tax every charge on all of your “Communication Services” bills, including service charges, charges for extra services or features, and even late fees.

Measure A taxes solar energy if the residential or business electricity user does not actually own the solar panels on their roof, as with various solar panel lease and financing plans.

Measure A also taxes electricity co-generated by businesses and residents for their own use on their own property even though that is double-taxation. The UUT is already charged on the natural gas burned to generate the electricity, and the user is merely converting the chemical energy from one form to another before using it (to heat and then to electricity).


CITY ATTORNEY’S IMPARTIAL ANALYSIS

MEASURE A

Measure A would adopt an ordinance entitled the “Consolidated Tax Measure” … Continue reading

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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

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. …
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