November 1991 Firefighters and Police Union City Council Election Campaigns
http://articles.latimes.com/1991-11-08/local/me-994_1_police-officers
Los Angeles Times
ARTICLE COLLECTIONS
California | Local
New Players Enter Political Scene
Elections: Police officers and firefighters threw themselves into the local campaigns. Their efforts got mixed results.
November 08, 1991
KIM KOWSKY and MARC LACEY
TIMES STAFF WRITERS
In an unprecedented level of political activity, South Bay firefighters feverishly put out flyers and police officers enthusiastically pursued voters before Tuesday’s election. But the results of their efforts were mixed.
In Hermosa Beach, firefighters endorsed two City Council candidates for the first time in the department’s 85-year history. In El Segundo, the fire union jumped into its first campaign in years. And in Hawthorne, emergency workers said they campaigned in the city’s election with more intensity than ever before.
“It’s a very big trend for fire departments to get involved in politics,” said Michael Lines, president of the Hermosa Beach Firefighters’ Assn. “It’s sweeping across California. You will see more and more political action and involvement by firefighters.”
Behind the politicking was a fear that an unfriendly City Hall might meddle in department affairs or even abolish the department.
EL SEGUNDO
South Bay firefighter groups were most successful in El Segundo, where their favored council candidate, Janice Cruikshank, swept into office with a solid 44% of the vote in a four-way race.
El Segundo Fire Capt. Tom Kennedy, who serves as vice president of the El Segundo Firefighters Assn., said the group became politically involved in response to a bitter contract dispute that reduced benefits for firefighters.
Cruikshank could not say enough about the firefighters group, whose members spent scores of hours walking precincts, distributing flyers, and even transporting some voters to the polls. They also contributed $249 to her campaign–$1 under the maximum allowed by city ordinance. It was the largest single contribution she received.
“They were always there, no matter what we needed,” Cruikshank said. “Without the support from these young men, a lot of times I would have thrown up my hands and said, ‘That’s it.’ ”
Although some critics said the contributions would make Cruikshank beholden to the firefighters’ demands, both she and Kennedy denied they made any deals.
“I didn’t promise them anything except that I would listen to them,” Cruikshank said.
In response to Cruikshank’s victory, Kennedy said candidates will probably court the firefighters in future races. And the firefighters, he predicted, will greatly increase their involvement in political campaigns.
“The main thing we learned is we are a very, very viable (and) powerful force within this community,” he said.
HERMOSA BEACH
Hermosa Beach police approached the crowded race for two City Council seats with intensity this year because the current council had considered replacing police officers with Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies. And, although that plan had been abandoned by Election Day, its significance was not lost on the council candidates–all 10 of whom made it clear they opposed the dismantling of the city’s police force.
During the campaigning, the Hermosa Beach Police Officers’ Assn. commissioned a cost analysis of the two departments, sponsored a candidates’ forum and donated $100 to all 10 candidates.
Sgt. Wally Moore, the police union spokesman, said officers donated money to all the candidates instead of offering selected endorsements because all of them spoke out against bringing sheriff’s deputies to town. He also said endorsements can be the “kiss of death” in campaigns if they create a perception among voters that a candidate is beholden to special-interest groups.
The fire union–hoping to preempt any thought at City Hall of disbanding the department–was also active in this year’s campaigning but used a different approach than city police officers. Forgoing dollar donations, the firefighters instead issued public endorsements of two candidates and campaigned against a third. They also offered to drive any voters who were interested to the polls, but no one took them up on the offer.
One fire union-backed candidate, Sam Edgerton, beat out all other contenders for the council, but Mike D’Amico, the other candidate backed by firefighters, was unsuccessful. Robert Benz, who won the second seat, did not receive the union’s endorsement, but firefighters said after the election that they did not object to Benz being on the council.
Merna Marshall, whom the firefighters had campaigned against, said the fire union had a “small impact” on her unsuccessful bid for council.
“I didn’t even want their endorsement because I didn’t want the public thinking these guys have me wrapped around their finger,” Marshall said.
HAWTHORNE
In Hawthorne, the police and fire unions were inspired to unprecedented levels of political campaigning by a clash over whether the city should pay for a study comparing the cost of its emergency services with those available from Los Angeles County.
For years, City Councilwoman Ginny Lambert has favored getting a cost survey from the county. But she has always been overruled by her colleagues, who have argued that the survey is unnecessary because the city’s services are superior.
When Lambert announced her mayoral bid this summer, the Hawthorne Firefighters Assn. and the Hawthorne Police Officers Assn. decided to lobby against her and two other council candidates–Martha Bails and Ray Sulser–who also favored the study.
The firefighters contributed $1,000 to council candidates Jimmie L. Williams Jr. and Larry Guidi, as well as mayoral candidate Steve Andersen, whereas the police officers group favored Guidi and current Mayor Betty Ainsworth for council and Andersen for mayor. Although the police union initially said it would not contribute to any candidate’s campaign, it did give $1,000 to Guidi’s campaign, according to a late contribution report.
In addition to contributions, members of both political groups spent hundreds of off-duty hours sponsoring picnics, canvassing neighborhoods and distributing flyers.
Hawthorne police officer Greg Chidley, vice president of the police union, said members previously were reluctant to get involved in politics because a candidate they backed several years ago “turned out not to be a real supporter of the police after all.” But they decided to take their chances this election, he said, “because the issues are so great and have such a lasting impact on the future of the Police Department . . .”
The unions’ efforts, however, were only partly successful.
Guidi and Ainsworth won seats on the City Council, but Williams, who was supported by the firefighters, placed second to last among six candidates. And, despite the groups’ vigorous lobbying against Lambert, she is leading Andersen in the race for mayor by eight votes. Her victory, however, remains uncertain until county officials tally uncounted absentee ballots.
Lambert said Thursday that her margin probably would have been larger if the unions had not poured so much money into Andersen’s campaign. She charged that many of the unions’ flyers “twisted her words” and cost her votes.
Although Chidley and Kenneth Baker, president of the fire union, expressed surprise at Lambert’s showing, they nevertheless vowed to become increasingly involved in city politics in future races.
“It’s the first time we ever tried to do anything like that, to try to get into a campaign like that,” Baker said. “I think we’ll continue until we do it right.”
Election Notes and Analysis by Michael D. Robbins:
(Added April 22, 2014.)
El Segundo Fire Capt. Tom Kennedy, who serves as vice president of the El Segundo Firefighters Assn., said the group became politically involved in response to a bitter contract dispute that reduced benefits for firefighters.
This is an example of how government employee unions believe that salaries, benefits, and pensions must only ratchet in one direction – up, in their favor – and must never go down to adjust for past excessive increases, a bad economy with reduced tax revenue, or the cost of labor due to supply and demand in a free market without coercion. The rare times when the City employee unions make concessions, they make their concessions temporary for no longer than the term of the current labor contract, but they insist that all City employer provided increases, additions, and concessions be permanent.
The City of El Segundo has had 500 to 1,000 job applications for each firefighter job opening. Clearly, the City has been paying too much. There is no relationship between City employee union compensation and the real world. The City employee CalPERS pensions pay an income that is a fixed percentage of the single highest year salary for each year worked. That percentage is 3% per year for current firefighters and police, up to a maximum of 90%, with retirement at age 50 or 55.
In response to Cruikshank’s victory, Kennedy said candidates will probably court the firefighters in future races. And the firefighters, he predicted, will greatly increase their involvement in political campaigns.
El Segundo City Council candidates endorsed and supported by the firefighter and police unions have almost always lost, and endorsements and support from the firefighter and police unions is now considered by many candidates to be the kiss of death. This is largely due to my ongoing public education efforts since 2004, including my public information flyers distributed citywide for the 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2014 El Segundo General Municipal Elections.
I explain that the firefighter and police union endorsements have nothing to do with our safety, and that they often endorse the worst candidates for real public safety. The unions endorse and support the candidates and ballot measures that will give them the biggest pay raises, and raise our taxes to pay for it all.
There is an inherent and unavoidable conflict of interest when government employees endorse, contribute money to, and campaign for political candidates whose negotiations and votes affect their salaries, benefits, and pensions, and the amount of taxes to pay for them.
El Segundo Mayor Bill Fisher, a two-term incumbent City Council incumbent, was defeated by a large margin in the April 8, 2014 city election, largely on the basis of the endorsements and campaign support he received from the firefighter and police unions in 2004, and the 11.25% to 23% in pay raises he supported for them during the Great Recession in April 2009.
“The main thing we learned is we are a very, very viable (and) powerful force within this community,” he said.
All but one of the firefighters do not live in El Segundo as of the 2012-2014 time frame, and few lived in town in 1991. Yet at least since 1991 the firefighters union has tried to control our City Council and our city for their own economic benefit – at our expense in increased taxes and fees.
Fire Captain and union vice president Tom Kennedy incorrectly analyzed the election outcome and over-estimated the power of the firefighters union. Here is a correct analysis of that election and the union’s short-lived victory.
Jan Cruikshank won the November 5, 1991 El Segundo Special Municipal Election, to fill the City Council vacancy created by the death of Councilman Jim Clutter, due to a vote-split problem. Candidates Michael Robbins (myself) and Frank Wong both had a similar position on most issues, including their opposition to the highly controversial high-growth, high-density 20-year re-write of the city’s General Plan, which was supported by Janice Cruikshank. Robbins and Wong combined received a majority of the votes, with Robbins receiving more than Wong, but each one individually received less votes than Cruikshank.
Robbins ran for City Council again in April 7, 1992 El Segundo General Municipal Election, together with incumbent Carl Jacobson and newcomer Richard (Dick) Switz, against the two firefighter and police union sponsored candidates – Janice Cruikshank and Blake Mitchel. There were five candidates running for three open City Council seats – those of Carl Jacobson, Janice Cruikshank, and Scot D. Dannen who did not run again. Robbins, Jacobson, and Switz opposed the high-growth, high-density General Plan, and supported fiscal responsibility and independence from city employee unions.
The El Segundo firefighters union members campaigned for Cruikshank and Mitchell, walking door-to-door citywide four times wearing their “El Segundo Firefighter Association” tee shirts. After the fourth time, many voters wondered why the firefighters knocked on their door so many times. Then a flyer was distributed citywide listing the firefighters’ salaries, showing there were lowest rank firefighters getting paid more than $100,000 per year, significantly more than highly intelligent and experienced aerospace and defense engineers with one or more university degrees in difficult technical fields. Many voters took down their Cruikshank and Mitchell campaign signs and voted accordingly on election day.
Robbins, Jacobson, and Switz won that election. However, Council Members J. B. Wise, Alan West, Scot D. Dannen, and Janice Cruikshank voted to adopt the high growth General Plan before swearing in the newly elected City Council members. There were legal restrictions preventing the new City Council Members from simply voting to reverse the vote of the previous City Council after they were sworn in and seated. So Carl Jacobson voted along with the others to adopt the new General Plan, then made a Motion to Reconsider under Robert’s Rules of Order after the new Council Members were sworn in and seated. That motion passed by a 3-2 vote, effectively reversing the previous vote of adoption. (Robbins, Jacobson, and Switz voted “Yes”, and Wise and West voted “No”.)
Thus, Robbins, Jacobson, and Switz kept their most significant campaign promise the night they were sworn in and seated on the City Council. They proceeded to hold public hearings and re-write the General Plan in subsequent meetings to reduce the development density and ensure it was a community-driven General Plan rather than a developer-driven one.
The firefighter and police union members misinterpreted their short-lived victory in the November 1991 election as a result of strong and aggressive union political activism, when it was merely due to a vote-split problem.
El Segundo Police Officers' Association (ESPOA) Exposed