by Michael D. Robbins
Director, Public Safety Project, PublicSafetyProject.org
March 6, 2012
Former El Segundo City Councilman Mike Robbins delivered the following written and verbal public communications for the March 6, 2012 El Segundo City Council meeting, exposing the KCET and L.A. Times propaganda hatchet jobs against the city of El Segundo, Chevron, and the honorable Councilman Carl Jacobson. Robbins served on the El Segundo City Council during the 1994 MRC-Chevron-El Segundo tax dispute legal settlement, and knows first hand what really happened. The settlement was legal, reasonable, and by unanimous vote of the City Council.
Two or more videos on this subject will be produced in the coming days and posted on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/PublicSafetyProject
You can watch the streaming video for this city council meeting, or download the video MP4 or audio MP3 files using the following links.
El Segundo City Council meeting video and audio archives:
http://elsegundo.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2
Watch the streaming video of the March 6, 2012 El Segundo City Council meeting:
http://elsegundo.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=1636
Download the March 6, 2012 El Segundo City Council meeting MP4 video file:
http://podcache-101.granicus.com/pstore4/elsegundo/elsegundo_5eaaef9b-6d33-4361-97d3-837be1fc337f.mp4
Download the March 6, 2012 El Segundo City Council meeting MP3 video file:
http://podcache-101.granicus.com/pstore4/elsegundo/elsegundo_5eaaef9b-6d33-4361-97d3-837be1fc337f.mp3
Here is the email Mike Robbins sent to the City Clerk’s staff and all the City Council members:
Subject: My written public communications for the March 6, 2012 El Segundo City Council meeting
From: Mike Robbins (email omitted)
To: Cathy Domann (email omitted); Mona Shilling (email omitted); Cindy Mortesen (email omitted); Eric Busch (email omitted); Bill Fisher (email omitted); Carl Jacobson (email omitted); Don Brann (email omitted); Suzanne Fuentes (email omitted);
Cc: Mike Robbins (email omitted)
Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2012 6:37 PM
Here is my written public communications for the March 6, 2012 regular meeting of the El Segundo City Council:
I have had the pleasure of serving for four years on the El Segundo City Council with Carl Jacobson, from 1992 to 1996. I have known Carl for more than 20 years. I have the deepest respect for Carl. He has always been an extremely honest, dedicated, hard-working, and productive member of the City Council, giving much of his time and his life to our community. Even when I disagreed with Carl, I always knew he voted for what he believed was best for the city.
Fired City Manager Doug Willmore tried to shakedown Chevron for $10 million per year, and now it appears he is trying to shake down our city for millions of dollars.
Willmore filed a frivolous legal claim against our City, alleging retaliatory firing and age discrimination. He is demanding the City pay for his psychiatric treatment, even if it is a pre-existing condition.
I urge the City Council, now and in the future, to hold firm and not give Doug Willmore a multi-million dollar payout for his frivolous claim and threatened lawsuit.
There was plenty of good cause to fire Doug Willmore. However, when and at-will employee is fired, no reason is announced, to reduce the City’s exposure to frivolous litigation.
Doug Willmore and his political allies have enlisted anti-business news organizations, including KCET and the Los Angeles Times, to attack and smear Chevron, and Carl Jacobson, with a dishonest propaganda campaign that has no relationship to reality.
KCET producer Karen Fochay and L.A. Times writer Jeff Gottlieb both called to interview me because I was a City Council member at the time of the 1994 legal settlement to the tax dispute between MRC, Chevron, and the City.
I followed up with multiple emails to both of them to ensure they had their facts straight.
I made it clear to them that the 1994 tax dispute settlement was completely legal and reasonable.
But the KCET show on Chevron, and the L.A. Times articles, completely ignored my information because it contradicted their anti-Chevron political agenda and bias.
The L.A. Times even removed my comments correcting Jeff Gottlieb’s errors from their web site.
And now, Doug Willmore and/or his allies have been sending unsolicited SPAM emails to El Segundo residents urging them to watch the KCET propaganda hatchet job on Chevron and Carl Jacobson.
There are many contradictions in the KCET and L.A. Times propaganda pieces.
For example, Jeff Gottlieb’s January 28 L.A. Times article claimed Willmore said he found the threatening note on his car windshield outside City Hall, but KCET has Willmore on video claiming he found the threatening note on his car outside his residence in another city.
I think the El Segundo police department should investigate Doug Willmore for filing a false police report if he actually filed one.
As another example, KCET and the L.A. Times claimed or implied that Carl Jacobson alone approved the settlement. That is not possible. You need a majority. The Council vote approving the settlement was unanimous.
KCET and the L.A. Times implied Carl was somehow crooked because he signed the settlement agreement. But they knew very well that Carl was required to sign the agreement even if he voted against it, because he was the mayor.
KCET used a close-in, wide-angle camera shots to make Carl’s face look distorted and peculiar, while they long-distance telephoto studio camera shots to make Doug Willmore look good. These are standard tricks used in media hatchet jobs.
I would suggest that Carl Jacobson wear the KCET and L.A. Times attacks on his character as a badge of honor. They could not care less about our city or the truth. And all residents should cancel their KCET and L.A. Times subscriptions as a show of solidarity within our community.
If you want balanced news about Chevron, read the March 1 El Segundo Herald news story by Brian Simon, or the Daily Breeze.
Now here is what really happened in 1994.
The 18-year old legal settlement to the tax dispute involving Municipal Resource Consultants (the City’s business tax auditor), Chevron, and the City was based on the legal advice and vetting of then City Attorney Leland Dolley, with Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP.
MRC claimed that Chevron owed the Utility User Tax (UUT) on both the natural gas it burned at the refinery, and on the electricity it co-generated from burning that natural gas. Chevron reasonably argued this was unfair double-taxation on the exact same energy it merely changed from one form to another. The UUT law did not account for co-generation, but it was clear that double-taxation was never intended. The City Council agreed with Chevron, but MRC demanded a 25% finder’s fee for the unpaid second tax.
MRC was hostile and aggressive, and endangered the City’s business retention and attraction program. The City had to restrain MRC from damaging the City’s reputation as a good place to locate a business.
The City was going to get sued by MRC, Chevron, or both, and reached a legal settlement where the City paid MRC a reduced amount, Chevron effectively paid the City the amount paid to MRC, and Chevron’s future tax liability was more clearly defined.
Carl Jacobson was correct when he said it is a farce to charge business taxes based on number of acres. Business taxes should be charged based on the fair market cost of the city infrastructure and services demanded and used by businesses.
Imagine if In-and-Out Burger moved into town, was very popular, and had a high volume business in a small footprint. Then would it be fair for the City to charge all the other restaurants in town the same business tax per acre? Of course not.
Chevron is a unique case due to its massive, self-contained 951-acre piece of land. The City does not pay to provide and maintain all the city infrastructure and services on the massive Chevron property that it provides for all the other business and residential properties in town. These include many miles of roads, alleys, sidewalks, storm drains, water and sewer pipes, street lighting, trees, landscaping, street sweeping, residential trash collection, and police patrols, as well as public parks and recreation facilities. It is not fair to charge Chevron taxes for City infrastructure and services that it does not receive.
El Segundo is a low-tax city by choice, for practical reasons, and as a matter of principle and pride. Therefore, comparisons with high-tax cities are not valid, or all the residents and businesses would be paying higher taxes. El Segundo has a spending problem much more than a revenue problem, and that must be addressed by the next City Council.
Please remember to cancel your KCET and L.A. Times subscriptions.
Thank you.
Mike Robbins
Longtime city resident
(email omitted)
El Segundo Police Officers' Association (ESPOA) Exposed