Category Archives: El Segundo Tax and Fee Increases

Articles on proposed and actual tax and fee increases in the city of El Segundo, California, to pay for the wildly excessive and unsustainable firefighter and police union salaries.

“Free” Trash Collection – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by George Hoopes

“Free” Trash Collection

The Feb. 3 edition of the El Segundo Herald had a front-page article entitled “Free Trash (collection) to Continue…” Let’s get one thing straight! There is no such thing as free trash collection in El Segundo and your contributing writer, Brian Simon, fully knows that; so why does he use the front page of the newspaper to perpetuate his cockamamie lies by continuously repeating “free trash collection”?

It’s not free! It never has been free! It never will be free! El Segundo property owners pay and pay dearly-through ultra-high property taxes for this service. Thats one of the reasons we have property taxes. That’s why we pay property tax. … Continue reading

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El Segundo Police Officer Applicant Requirements and Compensation

Entry Level Police Officer Qualifications

Entry level police officer qualifications are fairly minimal, and basically amount to graduating high school or having a G.E.D. equivalent document, having a valid automobile driver’s license, being in reasonably good physical condition, and having correctable vision. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist, or even an assistant to a rocket scientist to get a job as a police officer with incredibly lucrative compensation from two to five times that of a highly skilled and talented professional with decades of experience and one or more advanced degrees in a difficult technical field from a competitive big-name university.
. . .
Entry level police officer compensation is quite generous. Continue reading

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El Segundo residential trash collection fee is resolved

The El Segundo residential trash collection fee has been resolved with a 3-1 vote of the City Council to have the City continue collecting trash from residential properties with three or four units, in addition to those with one or two units. This decision departs from the current City practice of collecting trash at no fee from residential properties with one to four or more units if standard trash cans are used instead of a large rectangular trash bin. City Attorney Mark Hensley stated that it was not necessary to amend the City Municipal Code for the City to continue collecting trash for three and four unit properties. He said the City Municipal Code creates an exclusive franchise for the City to collect trash from residential properties with one or two units, all owners or tenants of those properties are required to use the City’s service, and no private trash haulers can provide this service. To amend the City municipal code to create an exclusive franchise for residential properties with three or four units is not necessary and is a five-year long process.

The affected residential properties with more than four units will have to contract with a private trash hauler and pay for the service Continue reading

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El Segundo residential trash collection fee is not a dead issue

The El Segundo residential trash collection fee is back on the City Council agenda for the February 1, 2011 meeting. At issue is whether the City will stop collecting trash from residential properties with three or four units on a lot. It has been a long-standing City practice and tradition, going back at least to the early 1990’s, for the City to collect trash without fee from single family homes, and residential properties with two to four units on a lot, as long as standard trash cans are used instead of the large rectangular trash bins. Existing taxes pay for this service.

However, there is an inconsistency between the existing practice and the El Segundo Municipal Code, which provides only for City trash collection for single family homes and residential properties with two units on a lot. The logical solution is simply to amend the city’s municipal code to be consistent with the long-standing actual practice.

Please contact the El Segundo City Council members and urge them to amend the city’s municipal code to continue the long-standing City practice of collecting trash from all residential properties with one to four units on a lot that use standard trash cans. Remind them that the residents can use a voter initiative to amend the El Segundo Municipal Code for them if they won’t do it. … Continue reading

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

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

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Mayor Carl Jacobson provided leadership to resolve 1988 revenue crisis

Former Mayors Reflect on Past Challenges

October 28, 2010

By Brian Simon

Mayor Carl Jacobson (1988-1996):

Though he is now back on the Council and dealing with the City’s current financial crisis, Jacobson also had a major budget dilemma to contend with when he became Mayor in 1988. Two-thirds of the City’s revenue base had previously come from use taxes collected from Chevron’s sale of fuel oil to Edison. But when the Public Utilities Commission ordered Edison to switch to the cleaner-burning natural gas, all that revenue went bye-bye.

To address the issue, Jacobson and the Council revamped the business license and utility user tax structure to provide replacement revenue streams. The tax increases were phased in over time. “It was an absolute necessity and done during a decent economy that was nothing like the condition we are in right now,” said Jacobson, who added that the Council even lowered the business license tax by the end of his tenure.

Jacobson also successfully lobbied to increase the City’s share of local property taxes from five percent to seven (since lowered by the State to 6.25). … Continue reading

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Laws Allowing Local Government Employee Unions and Collective Bargaining have Promoted Corruption

Public Employee Unions and Corruption

The laws that allow public employees to form unions and engage in collective bargaining have created an inherent and unavoidable conflict of interest, and massive political corruption that is driving cities, counties, and states towards bankruptcy. Public employee labor unions, especially firefighters, police, school teachers, and nurses, provide campaign support to help elect the politicians who will be their bosses and determine the terms of their labor contracts, including salaries, benefits, and pensions, and/or determine the laws that govern their labor contracts. … Continue reading

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Aren’t the Firefighters’ and Police Officers’ “Associations” really just labor unions?

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

September 27, 2010
(Updated December 7, 2010)

The El Segundo police officers and firefighters “associations” pretend they are not unions because most people know how corrupt the public safety unions have become. These “associations” avoid using the word “union” in their name and their publicity. And at least some of their members argue vociferously that they are not a labor union. Below is one such example, in a Letter to the Editor published in the September 23, 2010 edition of the El Segundo Herald newspaper, on page 12, signed by El Segundo Police Sergeant and union member Rex Fowler. Too bad he did not sign under penalty of perjury! He deceptively titled his letter, “FACT CHECK”. … Continue reading

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An Introduction to El Segundo’s Fiscal Problems: The firefighter and police unions are the primary cause

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

August 25, 2010
(Updated March 15, 2012 – corrected police union raises from 15 percent to 15 to 23 percent.)

The City of El Segundo, California is at risk of losing its City Fire Department and eventually its City Police Department as a result of greatly excessive and unsustainable salaries, benefits, and pensions for its public employees, especially its fire and police union members. The fire and police unions obtained their excessive and unsustainable labor contracts from mayors and City Council members who received thousands of dollars of their campaign support.

The fire and police union members are the primary cause of El Segundo’s financial problems, yet they refuse to take reasonable and necessary pay cuts of at least 20 to 25 percent. These cuts are necessary for the firefighters and police unions to stop doing harm to the city, its residents, and its businesses. And these cuts are reasonable given the excessive firefighter and police pay, benefits, and pensions, and given their excessive raises during the current recession. The police union members received 15 to 23 percent increases and the firefighters union members received an 11.25 percent increase during the recession that they never should have received.

The firefighters’ and police officers’ unions are only considering a small 5 percent reduction in the scheduled pay increases provided by their current union contract. Instead of reasonable and necessary pay cuts to stop doing harm to the city, they demand that the city increase business taxes, create new fees for residents, eliminate and reduce city services, and contract with Los Angeles County for a reduced level of fire and paramedic services, including a loss of paramedic transport services. This takeover of the El Segundo city fire department by the county would protect the firefighter union members’ jobs, pay, and benefits.

The firefighters and police unions demand that all city employees take equal pay cuts. This is extremely unfair to the other city employees, who are paid less than one-fourth to one-half what the firefighters and police are paid, and who, unlike the firefighters and police union members, are not the primary cause of the city’s financial problems.

The El Segundo Firefighters Association (a fancy name for the firefighters labor union) reminds its members, on its official web site, “Remember, the Local 3682 Board of Directors, work to represent the collective interest of our general membership.”

Thus, the firefighters union admits what we already know, that it does not represent the interests of the residents and businesses in El Segundo when it endorses political candidates at election time, advocates public policy, and sponsors a voter initiative to force our city to lose our city fire department and paramedic transport services, and have to contract with Los Angeles County for inferior fire and paramedic services for a minimum of ten years under state law. … Continue reading

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Eye-Popping El Segundo 2009 Police Compensation Data

SWORN POLICE OFFICERS

Generally, El Segundo sworn police officers, from lowest level Police Officer up to Police Captain, are by far the highest paid city employees except for sworn firefighters. Police Chief David Cummings was by far the highest paid city employee in calendar year 2009. … Continue reading

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