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

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Mike

The following letter to the editor was published in the El Segundo Herald newspaper (HeraldPublications.com) on Thursday, March 13, 2014 in the Letters section on page 7. The El Segundo Herald has a strict 250-word limit, including the title.

Fire Union Bankrolling “Yes on A” Campaign

Be sure to read the entire Measure A arguments and rebuttals in the Sample Ballot. Mayor Fisher put Measure A on the April ballot – BEFORE the City Council will negotiate new long-term union contracts later this year. Measure A weakens the Council’s bargaining position, and Fisher wants us to vote before we know the size of pay raises he will put into those contracts. That is bad timing!

The fire union PAC gave $5,000 to the “Yes on Measure A” campaign – just for starters. The fire and police unions spend lots of money in City elections to put a thousand times more in their paychecks and pensions. They ratchet up their pay and pensions – and our taxes and fees!

In 2009, average firefighter annual individual total compensation was $211,000. The highest was $342,000. The average for police officers was $178,000 and the highest was $304,000. Fisher supported big pay raises every year since then. Most of the employee concessions were temporary, but apparently the big pay raises were permanent – just like the Measure A tax hikes!

Fisher started his political career running with “Yes on Measure A” co-chair Sandra Jacobs as fire and police union candidates. The fire union sent a campaign letter threatening seniors with “the possibility of our paramedics not being available when you need them” if their candidates were not elected. See PublicSafetyProject.org.

Please vote “NO” on Measure A and for Suzanne Fuentes and Mike Dugan – for our City’s future.

Marianne Fong

NOTE: Heidi Maerker at the El Segundo Herald printed the above letter in the El Segundo Herald on Thursday, March 13, 2014, on page 7, but she omitted the last sentence of the fourth paragraph, “See PublicSafetyProject.org.”, because she does not want letters to contain any web links.

Posted in 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, Fraud Waste and Abuse, Government Employee Compensation and Pensions, Letters to the Editor, Police Union Corruption, Political Corruption, Politics, Tax Policy and Issues, Union Corruption | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Fire Union Bankrolling “Yes on A” Campaign – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Marianne Fong

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

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Mike

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

March 14, 2014

El Segundo Mayor Bill Fisher, and City Council Members David Atkinson and Marie Felhauer who give Fisher his Council majority, claim the City Council no control over City employee pension costs. They claim that is all determined by California state law. This is not true. They make this claim to deceive El Segundo voters into approving the massive Measure A tax increases on residents and businesses on the April 8, 2014 city election ballot.

This article explains how the City Council has significant control over employee pension costs, how the City Council increased employee pension costs, and how the City Council can save $3.3 million per year in employee pension costs.

The City Council controls employee pension costs in three significant ways:

  1. The amounts of employee salaries, which are increased by pay raises and “special compensation” add-ons;
  2. The percentage of the total CalPERS pension contributions employees are required to pay; and
  3. Which pension formula and other pension options are provided to City employees.

Every pay raise increased the City’s CalPERS pension costs.

City employee annual pension income is a fixed percentage of their single highest year salary, including all those redundant and non-job-related “Special Compensation” union contract add-ons, for every year they worked. Firefighters and police get annual pension income of 3% of their single highest year salary for each year they worked, up to a maximum of 90%, with full retirement after 30 years at age 50 or 55. This corresponds to pension benefit formulas of 3% @ 50 and 3% @ 55, respectively.

Mayor Fisher supported wildly excessive and unsustainable pay raises for the already over-compensated firefighter and police unions that helped launch his political career with lots of campaign support, and for their managers to prevent “salary compaction”. Fisher supported pay raises ranging from 11.25% to 23% for the firefighter and police unions, in three or four installments over three years, and single pay raises ranging from 14.9% to 32.3% for their managers, during the first three years of the Great Recession. All of the raises were approved well after the Great Recession started, and many included retroactive pay raises effective up to 6 and 9 months before the union contracts were approved. The firefighter and police union contracts included additional 5% annual “step raises”, and additional periodic “longevity raises”.

The pay raises were approved first in closed session City Council meetings, and then again in public as a formality at the open session City Council meetings referenced in the table below.

The total pay raises included the following (not counting compounding, which actually results in higher total raises):

JOB CLASSIFICATION PAY RAISE DATE APPROVED CONSENT AGENDA ITEM
Firefighters 11.25% April 7, 2009 E11
Fire Engineers 11.25% April 7, 2009 E11
Fire Captains 11.25% April 7, 2009 E11
Police Officers 15.0% April 7, 2009 E12
Police Sergeants 15.0% April 7, 2009 E12
Police Lieutenants 18.0% April 7, 2009 E8
Police Captains 23.0% April 7, 2009 E8
Fire Battalion Chiefs 16.9% December 2, 2008 E8
Deputy Fire Chief 14.9% December 2, 2008 E8
Police Chief 23% December 2, 2008 E8
Fire Chief 32.3% December 2, 2008 E8

In addition to the above pay raises, the firefighter and police employees were (and still are) given 5% annual “step raises” in each of the first four or five years after the year they are promoted or assigned to a new position.

In addition to the above pay raises, the firefighter and police employees were (and still are) given periodic “longevity” raises every so many years.

The City is Paying Most of the Employee Pension Contributions Although State Law Allows the City to Pay Only Half

For many years the City of El Segundo has been paying most of the total employee pension contributions, far more than required by state law. The California Public Employees Pension Reform Act of 2013 (PEPRA), enacted as AB 340 and AB 197 in 2012, became effective on January 1, 2013. Under PEPRA, cities may require their employees to pay up to half of their total CalPERS pension contributions. That is half the total of the Employer Contribution plus the Employee contribution.

The City of El Segundo can save more than $3.3 million per year by requiring City employees to pay half their total pension contributions. However, under PEPRA, the City must negotiate this with the city employee unions, and must negotiate from a position of strength, not weakness that will result from new tax increases.

I made that estimate by applying the fiscal year 2013/2014 CalPERS pension contribution percentage data to the calendar year 2012 City employee Total Earnings data, the latest available, which itemizes Regular Earnings and Special Compensation upon which the pensions are based.

Based on spreadsheet calculations made from public record data provided by the City of El Segundo in response to a Public Records Act request, the total CalPERS pension contributions for fiscal year 2013/14 are 47.384% of salary (regular earnings plus all the “special compensation” add-ons in the union contracts) for safety (police and fire) employees, and 23.975% for miscellaneous (non-safety) employees.

Based on spreadsheet calculations made from that same public record data, the City of El Segundo is paying the following percentages of the total CalPERS pension contributions (Employer Contribution + Employee Contribution) for the specified employee bargaining groups:

EMPLOYEE GROUP(S) % OF TOTAL PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS PAID BY THE CITY
All police union members 93.669%
Police Chief 87.337%
All firefighter union members 74.675%
All Fire Battalion Chiefs 91.558%
Fire Chief 81.006%
Non-executive miscellaneous (non-safety) employees 87.487%
Executive miscellaneous (non-safety) employees 70.803%

The City Can Reduce Pension Costs by Changing Pension Plan Options

The City can reduce its employee pension costs by no longer offering the maximum and most expensive pension plan options, at least for new hire employees. The City may be able to do the same for existing employees, at least for their unearned and unaccrued years of CalPERS service credit, if applicable laws, court decisions, and pension plan rules allow it.

PEPRA automatically reduced the maximum percentage and increased the minimum retirement age in the CalPERS pension benefit formulas for safety and miscellaneous employees. However, the City can do better than this by creating a new tier for new hire employees that provides less lavish and less expensive pension plan options.

The City created a new tier for new hire police officers, but that tier was a minimal reform. It changed the 3% @ 50 pension benefit formula to 3% @ 55. Thus, it only increased the full retirement age from 50 to 55, but did not reduce the most expensive part of the formula, the 3%. PEPRA reduced the percentage and increased the age more than El Segundo’s second tier.

It is now obvious that those who claimed the City has no control over its employee pension costs were not telling the truth. And why did they make these claims? To deceive El Segundo voters into approving the Measure A tax hikes on the April 8, 2014 city election ballot. El Segundo voters can vote Mayor Bill Fisher out of office at the same time they vote against Measure A. How convenient!

Posted in California, Economy and Economics, El Segundo, El Segundo Election Coverage, 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, Police Union Corruption, Political Corruption, Politics, Tax Policy and Issues, Union Corruption | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on City of El Segundo Can Save $3.3 Million Per Year in Employee Pension Costs

Ballot Argument and Rebuttal Against El Segundo Measure A Tax Hikes

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Mike

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

March 14, 2014

The Measure A tax hikes will appear on the ballot for the April 8, 2014 El Segundo General Municipal Election.

Measure A creates four new taxes on residents, nearly doubles five existing business taxes, and creates a new parking tax. Measure A will cost residents and businesses an estimated $6.6 million each year in the first three years. However, all residents will pay the business tax increases that are passed on to them as customers in addition to the four new taxes imposed on residents.

The Measure Tax hikes are permanent. There is no sunset clause (expiration date). It has become clear that most or all of the Measure A tax hikes will go to pay for excessive and unsustainable past and future City employee pay raises and benefits and pension increases – especially for the firefighter and police unions and their managers. Measure A is not intended to help the City engage in responsible spending during a temporary economic downturn. Recessions are temporary, but apparently, wildly excessive and unsustainable City employee union and manager pay raises are permanent.

Measure A was put on the ballot by a vote of the El Segundo City Council. Council Members Suzanne Fuentes and Carl Jacobson requested a sunset clause so the taxes would expire after a few years and the Council would have to come back to the voters for further tax hikes, but they were denied that request by Mayor Bill Fisher and his Council majority including David Atkinson and Marie Fellhauer.

Here are the official Argument Against Measure A and Rebuttal to Argument in Favor of Measure A that appeared in the Sample Ballot and Voter Information Pamphlet mailed out by the El Segundo City Clerk’s office.

(Click HERE to download the Sample Ballot and Voter Information Pamphlet for the April 8, 2014 City of El Segundo General Municipal Election.)

Argument Against Measure A

Vote “NO” on Measure A, the Destructive Tax Measure with Bad Timing.

Measure A creates a NEW 2.5% Utility Users Tax (UUT) on RESIDENTS and nearly doubles the BUSINESS UUT to 5.5% (4.5% for “communications”).

The UUT covers resident and business electricity, water, gas, and “communication services” – voice, data, audio, or any other information or signals, using any technology including landline, eDSL, cable, wireless, broadband, VoIP, and Internet (ESMC 3-7-1).

The utility taxes will AUTOMATICALLY INCREASE as rates increase.

And there is NO SUNSET CLAUSE!

All the taxes were bundled together as a single measure, DENYING US A CHOICE to approve or disapprove specific taxes.

Measure A will cost residents and businesses an estimated $6.6 million each year in the first three years. However, ALL RESIDENTS WILL PAY THE BUSINESS TAX INCREASES that are passed on to them as customers.

There is NO GUARANTEE any new tax money will go to infrastructure!

Even if some of the new taxes are used for infrastructure, where will the rest be spent – on even HIGHER SALARIES, BENEFITS, AND PENSIONS?

There is NOTHING in Measure A to control discretionary spending.

Bad Timing!

Measure A’s timing greatly WEAKENS the council’s bargaining position when it negotiates new long-term union contracts later this year. And we are being asked to raise our own taxes BEFORE we can see if any cost savings result from those negotiations!

Can we really afford greater taxes?

ALL TAXES COMBINED are MUCH TOO HIGH – especially in California!

Residents already voted down residential trash fees and business tax increases that were excessive. Measure A will cost residents and businesses MUCH MORE than what we already rejected.

Now is NOT THE TIME to chase more businesses and jobs out of El Segundo.

VOTE “NO” on Measure A!

Visit NoOnTaxHike.com regularly for more information.

Mike Robbins, Former Council Member
Jane Waag Friedkin, Former Council Member
Richard J. Switz, Former Council Member
Marc Rener, 19-Year Homeowner
Mike Van Biezen, 25-Year Resident

Rebuttal to Argument in Favor of Measure A

“NO” ON A!

Last year City Council raised Chevron’s taxes by more than $8.5 MILLION average per year for 15 years.

They can save millions per year in firefighter and police “Special Compensation” for things that are job requirements or unrelated to the job.

Firefighter and police total compensation has been about $150,000 to more than $330,000 per individual per year.

The City Council can come back in November AFTER IT NEGOTIATES NEW LONG-TERM UNION CONTRACTS and makes them public.

EMPTY THREATS

There’s NO ADVANTAGE contracting with Los Angeles County for services. It would reduce services – NOT compensation.

90% of voters REJECTED Measure P to contract with Los Angeles County for fire services.

We can do a REFERENDUM AGAINST an ordinance to outsource services.

PENSIONS

The City Council INCREASED PENSION COSTS through excessive raises and “Special Compensation”. Firefighter and police pensions are up to 90% of their single highest year salary!

One city employee was given a 23% raise and got paid nearly $600,000 total in his last year! (See PublicSafetyProject.org.)

PARTNERSHIP?

The Chamber of Commerce DID NOT ALLOW its general membership to vote before taking a position on Measure A!

The City Council ignored concerned residents’ repeated warnings about unsustainable compensation and pensions.

NON-BINDING RESOLUTION

The City Attorney said the resolution on how to spend the money IS NOT BINDING, and only language in the ballot measure can be binding. City Council chose the NONBINDING route!

CUSTOMERS PAY BUSINESS TAXES

Residents pay business taxes that are passed on to them.

“NO” ON A!

Mike Robbins, Former Council Member
Jane Waag Friedkin, Former Council Member
Richard J. Switz, Former Council Member
Marc Rener, 19-Year Homeowner
Mike Van Biezen, 25-Year Resident

Posted in California, Economy and Economics, El Segundo, El Segundo Election Coverage, 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, Police Union Corruption, Political Corruption, Politics, Tax Policy and Issues, Union Corruption | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Ballot Argument and Rebuttal Against El Segundo Measure A Tax Hikes

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

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Mike

The following letter to the editor was published in the El Segundo Herald newspaper (HeraldPublications.com) on Thursday, March 13, 2014 in the Letters section on page 2. The El Segundo Herald has a strict 250-word limit, including the title.

Measure ‘A’

While reviewing my sample ballot, Measure ‘A’ reminded me of an old carpenter helpers’ comment, to wit: “I’ve cut this board off twice, and it is still too short!”

Measure ‘A’ proponents say our tax structure for businesses is lower than neighboring cities… isn’t that the way it should be if we intend to attract new business? I’m befuddled to hear Council candidates tout a need for new business on the one hand, while at the same time strongly support measures for increasing taxes on the other.

Measure ‘A’ has the strong flavor of a Council wanting additional revenue, although supportive comments are weak to justify the need. Councils’ resolution mentions a fraction of the added revenue might be set aside for City projects, although this is a far cry from a Council commitment explaining how funds would be used; resolutions have no enforceable mechanism. Readers are urged to continue reading their ballot carefully to learn of several additional flaws in the proposition.

Speaking of surrounding cities I was surprised to learn, based on a simple Google search the stark difference between our current budget and that of Manhattan Beach. A rough comparison shows our budget is approximately twice that of Manhattan Beach, even though they likely have twice our population.

I hope this letter motivates you to demand that our elected officials do a better job of defining possible future revenue needs before asking us to vote for additional bondage.

– Richard J. Switz

Posted in California, El Segundo, El Segundo Election Coverage, El Segundo Herald Letters, El Segundo News, El Segundo Tax and Fee Increases, Elections, Letters to the Editor, Measure A - 5 New Taxes and 6 Tax Inceases, Politics, Tax Policy and Issues | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Measure ‘A’ – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Richard J. Switz

Decent Vote – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Donna Hooper

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Mike

The following letter to the editor was published in the El Segundo Herald newspaper (HeraldPublications.com) on Thursday, March 13, 2014 in the Letters section on page 7. The El Segundo Herald has a strict 250-word limit, including the title.

Decent Vote

I want to have decent men and women representing me on the El Segundo City Council and also representing El Segundo in the wider community. A decent person does not engineer the mid term removal from office of a colleague so that they themselves can have that office. Therefore I will not be voting for Bill Fisher for El Segundo City Council.

– Donna Hooper

Posted in California, El Segundo, El Segundo Election Coverage, El Segundo Herald Letters, El Segundo News, Elections, Letters to the Editor, Political Corruption, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Decent Vote – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Donna Hooper

Feels Measure “A” Too Important – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Scott Houston

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Mike

The following letter to the editor was published in the El Segundo Herald newspaper (HeraldPublications.com) on Thursday, March 13, 2014 in the Letters section on page 7. The El Segundo Herald has a strict 250-word limit, including the title.

The entire edition of that newspaper can be downloaded as a single PDF file (3.2 MB) here:


Icon: Front page of the Thursday, March 13, 2014 edition of the El Segundo Herald newspaper.

NOTE:

This letter to the El Segundo Herald is proof that Scott Houston supported the ELEVEN tax hikes in Measure A on the April 8, 2014 El Segundo General Municipal Electionu ballot.

Feels Measure “A” Too Important – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Scott Houston

I wanted to stay quiet. But this conversation is too important not to participate in, speak up and urge every El Segundo voter to support Measure A. We’ve been down this road before and, once again, our City finds itself in a precarious financial situation. Even with the additional revenues gained from the Chevron tax settlement agreement, our City will be running significant deficits of nearly $6 million for the foreseeable future if we do not address our structural deficit. That is why I am supporting Measure A.

Our City Council has worked diligently to maintain our services with less. And our City employees have borne the brunt of cuts due to our financial state – in fact, there are now about 20% fewer employees at City Hall struggling to provide the same levels of service we are accustomed to. Something has to give. We cannot continue cutting our way out and decimating the community we love.

While not a panacea, I believe Measure A is a major step forward in the right direction to finally address our city’s ongoing budget crisis. Let’s work together as a community to give our next Council the resources needed to balance our city budget. Please vote Yes on Measure A on April 8.

– Scott Houston

NOTE BY MICHAEL D. ROBBINS:

The City of El Segundo’s taxpayers are probably paying about $8 million per year in excess compensation to the city’s firefighter and police “association” (union) members and their managers. That is a great sum of money for small-town El Segundo. The firefighter and police unions ratcheted up their total compensation (salaries, benefits, and employer-paid pension contributions) to wildly excessive and unsustainable levels by endorsing, contributing money to, and campaigning for the City Council candidates who would give them the largest pay, benefits, and pension increases, and raise taxes to pay for it all.

That is why El Segundo firefighters (and those of many other California cities) are paid about $150,000 to more than $330,000 in total compensation each per year. When the firefighter and police union members get large unjustifiable compensation increases, their managers get even larger increases to avoid “salary compaction”.

Scott Houston is a firefighter and police union puppet. He supports them and they support him. Houston supports Measure A on the April 8, 2014 El Segundo city election ballot to pay for past and future excessive and unsustainable firefighter and police union pay raises and the resulting pension increases. The current firefighter and police union contracts expire on September 30, 2014, and the City Council will negotiate new labor contracts with the unions later this year.

If the voters reject Measure A, the firefighter and police unions will have to give back some of the excessive increases they received as rewards supporting the campaigns of City Council candidates. There is a conflict of interest when government employee unions campaign to elect their own bosses who will negotiate with them and decide their pay raises and pension increases in secret meetings.

Scott Houston ran for El Segundo City Council twice – in April 2010 and April 2012. Each time the El Segundo Police Officers Association (union) gave him their endorsement, a huge cash campaign contribution, independent campaign expenditures, and additional campaign support. Houston lost both elections due to strong grassroots campaigns against him.

Scott Houston supported Measure P, the firefighter union’s initiative (4/10/12 election), which was defeated by 90.1 percent of El Segundo voters. It would have disbanded our local fire department and transferred our fire and paramedic services, and firefighters, to the Los Angeles County Fire Department for inferior services. It would have eliminated 31 percent of our on-duty firefighters, two of three paramedic squads and all three paramedic transport ambulances, doubling hospital transport times. But it would have protected the firefighters from much-needed pay cuts.

Houston lobbied the City Council at its February 15, 2011 meeting to enact Measure P directly into law without allowing the voters to vote on it. You can watch the video of him doing this below.



Scott Houston also lobbied the El Segundo City Council at its August 3, 2010 meeting to raise the Hotel Transient Occupancy Tax and Business Utility User Taxes (UUTs), to provide more tax revenue to pay for past and future excessive and unsustainable firefighter and police union and manager pay and pension increases. You can watch the video of him doing this below.



Posted in California, Economy and Economics, 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, Measure P - Firefighters Union Initiative, Police Union Corruption, Political Corruption, Politics, Tax Policy and Issues, Union Corruption, Videos | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Feels Measure “A” Too Important – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Scott Houston

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

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Mike

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

March 8, 2014

The El Segundo Herald, a small town newspaper in Southern California, misreported the City’s $6.3 million annual property tax revenue as “about $1 million”. A correction is in order. Given that gross understatement of property tax revenue, voters may vote for Measure A, a massive tax hike on the April 8, 2014 City election ballot that will cost residents and businesses an estimated $6.6 million each year in its first three years. All residents will pay the business taxes that are passed on to them as customers.

According to the March 6, 2014 Herald article, Council Holds Off on Rec and Parks Fee Decision, by Brian Simon:

“Responding to comments from former Councilmember Mike Robbins about the City’s property tax revenues being at an all-time high, Fisher responded that those dollars still only amount to two percent of the general fund, or about $1 million annually. El Segundo receives 6.2 cents on the dollar for its share of property tax revenues, compared to a County average of about 11 cents.”

That is a strange mistake, given my statements during Public Communications at the March 4, 2014 Council meeting that El Segundo property tax revenue for fiscal year 2012/13 was at a record high of $6.3 million, and that I posted an article with a bar chart showing El Segundo property tax revenue going back to fiscal year 2000/01 at PublicSafetyProject.org, in the article titled, Wrong Time to Raise Taxes and Fees in El Segundo. That article includes a table with the revenue data used to create the bar chart, and a link to the City Hall document from which the data was obtained.

Here’s that bar chart:


Bar chart of the City of El Segundo, California property tax revenues for fiscal years 2000/2001 through 2012/2013, using data from official City of El Segundo records.

It’s worth noting that property values in El Segundo are probably significantly higher than most other cities in Los Angeles County, which helps compensate for the lower percentage of property taxes coming back to El Segundo compared to the average for cities in the county. The fact that property tax revenue is at a record high level shows property taxes are not the cause of Fisher’s budget deficits. Fisher gave big pay raises to City employees every year since the Great Recession began, including big retroactive raises. Those raises ratcheted up employee compensation and pension costs, and far exceeded the mostly temporary one-time employee concessions.

Mr. Simon went on to write:

“Fellhauer pointed out that property tax revenues don’t even cover the cost for the City’s smallest department (the Library at $2 million a year).”

I suggest to Councilwoman Marie Fellhauer that if Mayor Fisher gets re-elected on April 8 and keeps giving the City unions excessive pay raises, there may come a time when a million dollars won’t pay for a few firefighters or police officers in El Segundo. The highest paid ones get more than $300,000 per year in total compensation.

I submitted the letter below to the editor of the El Segundo Herald, to correct their misinformation and properly inform voters before they vote. However, El Segundo Herald CEO and President Heidi Maerker arbitrarily rejects letters without explanation and avoids and refuses to respond to inquiries. Let’s see if she prints this one!

It meets all of their published standards, except for the arbitrary undisclosed ones Heidi decides but won’t reveal.

The Herald prints very few letters now, perhaps a sign it’s barely hanging on to a fiscal cliff, kind of like Mayor Fisher who won’t roll back those excessive pay raises of up to 32 percent. Residents have told me they stopped reading the Herald because they rarely print letters, and the free newspapers can be seen turning yellow and collecting mold in people’s front yards and driveways.

If this sounds like sour grapes, no – it’s more like moldy newspapers. The Herald used to be a showcase for vibrant and often well-written letters from all points of view, especially during election campaign season. The Letters section used to be the best section of the paper, and many residents told me they read it first. It was part of our small town atmosphere, and a way to get information not covered in the news.

But as the Internet grows, newspapers big and small struggle to survive. Some are a victim of the economic and environmental policies they advocated, and of their alienation of much of their potential audience and customer base.

El Segundo residents can get city and election related news and information they won’t find in the newspapers at PublicSafetyProject.org. Information like the following, first publicized here at the grassroots level:

In 2009 the average annual individual El Segundo firefighter total compensation was $211,000 – and the maximum was $342,000 – before multiple large pay raises after 2009. And the average 2009 police officer annual individual total compensation was $178,000 – and the maximum was $304,000.

Letter to the EL Segundo Herald, by Michael D. Robbins, submitted via email on Thursday, March 6, 2014:

A Correction is In Order

The 3/6/14 Herald article, “Council Holds Off on Rec and Parks Fee Decision”, contained misinformation. City property tax revenue is more than $6 million – not about $1 million as the author misinterpreted from Mayor Fisher’s obfuscation.

The property tax revenue numbers I cited at the 3/4/14 Council meeting are from official City of El Segundo public record documents and are presumably correct. Based on those documents, I stated during the meeting that El Segundo property tax revenue for fiscal year 2012/13 was more than $6.3 million, is at a record high for at least since FY 2000/01, is 46% and about $2 million higher than FY 2000/01, has had an average annual increase of 3.6% and more than $166,000 per year, and has increased in 9 of the last 13 fiscal years.

See the article, “Wrong Time to Raise Taxes and Fees in El Segundo”, at PublicSafetyProject.org. In includes a bar chart showing property tax revenue from FY 2000/01 through 2012/13, the data for that chart, and a link to the City public record document that is the source of that data.

Fisher wants voters to believe property tax revenue is to blame, not big pay raises. Fisher’s number only includes residential property tax revenue to minimize tax revenue and because of his misguided and unsound belief that residents don’t pay enough taxes. Residents pay business taxes that are passed on to them as customers, and defense contractors are paid from our federal income taxes.

Mike Robbins

NOTE: Heidi Maerker at the El Segundo Herald printed the above letter in the El Segundo Herald on Thursday, March 13, 2014, on page 7, but she omitted the third paragraph because she does not want letters to contain any web links.

Posted in 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, Police Union Corruption, Political Corruption, Politics, Tax Policy and Issues, Union Corruption | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on El Segundo Herald Misreports City’s $6.3 Million Property Tax Revenue as $1 Million

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

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Mike

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

March 6, 2014

Joe Harding is one of two co-chairs identified on the “Yes on A for El Segundo’s Future” campaign committee website. Harding is also treasurer of the campaign committee as indicated on the first FPPC 460 campaign finance disclosure filed by the committee with the El Segundo City Clerk.

Harding was against the tax hikes before he was for them. He spoke out strongly against the tax hikes at the August 3, 2010 El Segundo City Council meeting when he was the General Manager of the Hacienda Hotel in El Segundo (HaciendaHotel.com). Now he is campaigning on the opposite side, for the tax hikes which hit hotels especially hard, as an ex-employee of the Hacienda. Here is an excerpt of what Harding said as a Hacienda Hotel employee:

“You must say ‘No’ to the hotel killer tax. … A TOT, and a UUT would hit us twice. That’d be like kicking us when we’re down, and then running us over for good measure. … The City must make unpopular and difficult adjustments to their payroll and expenses. Asking businesses to pick up the bill for the City and its residents in this economy is simply not a fair approach. The Hacienda has been and will remain a stellar business in this community. Help make sure this continues. Leave the TOT where it is. It’s working for us. It’s working for the City. … Thank you.” – Joe Harding, General Manager of the Hacienda Hotel in El Segundo, speaking at the August 3, 2010 El Segundo City Council meeting, before he became an ex-employee of the Hacienda, flip-flopped, and became a co-chair of the Yes on Measure A committee to raise both the TOT and UUT taxes on the Hacienda and all other hotels and businesses in El Segundo, and to impose them on residents.

Here is a video I made for the April 10, 2012 El Segundo City Council Election that includes Joe Harding’s full speech, starting at about time 3:32 to 5:46, followed by a transcript of his full speech.

Scott Houston in Raising Taxes 101 – El Segundo – Public Safety Project – T0758



Speech by Joe Harding, then General Manager of the Hacienda Hotel in El Segundo (HaciendaHotel.com), and now “Yes on Measure A for El Segundo’s Future” campaign committee co-chair and treasurer, at the August 3, 2010 El Segundo City Council meeting

Mayor Eric Busch:

“Joe, please.”

Joe Harding:

“Thank you. Joe Harding, representing the Hacienda Hotel and also a resident of El Segundo. Back again to plead our case with regards to the increase in the TOT. Most of you have seen first-hand what our industry has endured over the past 27 years, and I want to say thank you for hearing us out and understanding our position. Our industry just can’t handle any increase at this time. Not in this economy, not with the current room rate structure in Los Angeles, not with the shift in our competitive set. You simply have to take this off the table. You must say “No” to the hotel killer tax.

Our staff, mostly entry-level employees making twenty to thirty thousand dollars a year, substantially less than the City employees, have stepped up to take a 20 percent pay cut in order to keep their benefits and their jobs. They are doing their part to help us get through our financial crisis. We will survive because everyone is doing their fair share.

Today’s news is another example of where the travel industry stands. Mexicana Airlines cancelled four daily flights from Los Angeles and similar amounts from several other major U.S. cities. Was it drastic? Was it painful? Was it necessary for survival? I say smart move to stay alive.

We are already in the survival mode at the Hacienda. We can’t lose any more business to our competitors who is now every other hotel.

The current rate is a fair share and keeps El Segundo hotels in the game. We also understand a need for business community to step up and do something. Whatever this is, it needs to be fair, across the board, and not target any specific industry.

A TOT, and a UUT would hit us twice. That’d be like kicking us when we’re down, and then running us over for good measure.

We’ve heard discussion of a one percent increase in the UUT for two years. Certainly a more equitable way of sharing the burden. And trust me, any increase places a burden on our already thin margin.

The City must make unpopular and difficult adjustments to their payroll and expenses. Asking businesses to pick up the bill for the City and its residents in this economy is simply is not a fair approach. The Hacienda has been and will remain a stellar business in this community. Help make sure this continues. Leave the TOT where it is. It’s working for us. It’s working for the City. And I end with an open invitation to Scott Houston to come to breakfast, lunch, or dinner with me, so you can see the full picture about the condition of the hospitality industry. Thank you.”

Posted in Economy and Economics, El Segundo, El Segundo Election Coverage, El Segundo News, El Segundo Tax and Fee Increases, Elections, Firefighter and Police Union Compensation and Pensions, Government Employee Compensation and Pensions, Politics, Tax Policy and Issues, Videos | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on El Segundo Measure A Co-Chair Joe Harding was Against the Tax Hikes Before He was For Them

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

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Mike

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

March 6, 2014

The El Segundo Firefighters’ Association (the official name of the firefighters labor union) is bankrolling the “Yes on Measure A” campaign to create four new permanent Utility Users Taxes (UUTs) on residents, nearly double the four existing business UUTs, increase the hotel Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT, or “bed tax”) by 25%, and create a new 10% parking tax.

The “Yes on A for El Segundo’s Future” campaign committee filed its first campaign finance disclosure form, FPPC Form 460 (“Recipient Committee Campaign Statement”), with the El Segundo City Clerk on March 3, 2014. It reports $12,500.00 in total contributions received, including $5,500 monetary contributions and $7,000 in nonmonetary contributions. The committee reported spending $10,266.64. Those are large amounts of campaign money for small-town El Segundo with a population of only about 16,720 residents and about 10,784 registered voters. And that is just the beginning of their campaign!

The two monetary campaign contributions were a $5,000.00 contribution from the El Segundo firefighters Political Action Committee (PAC) and a $500.00 contribution from Sandra Jacobs, the current chairman of the El Segundo Chamber of Commerce, and a former El Segundo Councilmember and Mayor who ran as one of three firefighter and police union sponsored City Council candidates.

Here are the data entries from the Schedule A of the Form 460:

DATE RECEIVED CONTRIBUTOR AMOUNT RECEIVED THIS PERIOD CUMULATIVE TO DATE CALENDAR YEAR
02/11/2014 El Segundo Firefighters PAC (#1231824)
P.O. BOX 55
El Segundo, CA 90245		 $5,000.00 $5,000.00
02/12/2014 Sandra Jocobs
402 Hillcrest St.
El Segundo, CA 90245		 $500.00 $500.00

Click HERE to view or download the “Yes on A” tax hikes FPPC Form 460 (536 KB PDF file).

Measure A will be decided by voters in the City of El Segundo, California on Tuesday, April 8, 2014. The El Segundo firefighter and police unions have much to gain in pay raises and increased pensions if Measure A passes. The two unions have a long history of endorsing, contributing money to, and campaigning for the City Council candidates and ballot measures that will put the most money in their paychecks and pensions, and then raise taxes and fees on residents and businesses to pay for it all.

The El Segundo firefighter and police unions have used this racket to ratchet up their total compensation to about $150,000 to more than $330,000 per individual per year.

The average 2009 firefighter annual individual total compensation was $211,000 and the maximum was $342,000 – before multiple large pay raises after 2009. The average 2009 police officer annual individual total compensation was $178,000 and the maximum was $304,000 – before multiple large pay raises after 2009. The firefighter and police managers get big pay raises when their subordinates get pay raises, to avoid “salary compaction”.

Police Chief David Cummings was given a 23% raise for his last year before retirement. As a result, he was paid a total of about $597,000 in 2009, the year he retired, in total Annual Compensation plus his CalPERS pension income while working half-time for 11 weeks as Police Chief after his retirement. His annual CalPERS pension income is now listed as $198,272.04 on the FixPensionsFirst.com web site.

The firefighter and police unions in El Segundo and other California cities have been pushing their city employers down the road towards bankruptcy. The City of Vallejo, California, is just one California city that filed for bankruptcy due to their firefighter and police unions.

Sandra Jacobs is one of two co-chairs identified on the “Yes on A for El Segundo’s Future” campaign committee website. The other co-chair is Joe Harding, who is also the treasurer of the Yes on A campaign committee. Harding was against the tax hikes before he was for them. He spoke out strongly against the tax hikes at the August 3, 2010 El Segundo City Council meeting when he was the General Manager of the Hacienda Hotel in El Segundo (HaciendaHotel.com). Now he is campaigning on the opposite side, for the tax hikes which hit hotels especially hard, as an ex-employee of the Hacienda. Here is an excerpt of what Harding said as a Hacienda Hotel employee:

“You must say ‘No’ to the hotel killer tax. … A TOT, and a UUT would hit us twice. That’d be like kicking us when we’re down, and then running us over for good measure. … The City must make unpopular and difficult adjustments to their payroll and expenses. Asking businesses to pick up the bill for the City and its residents in this economy is simply is not a fair approach. The Hacienda has been and will remain a stellar business in this community. Help make sure this continues. Leave the TOT where it is. It’s working for us. It’s working for the City. … Thank you.” – Joe Harding, General Manager of the Hacienda Hotel in El Segundo, speaking at the August 3, 2010 El Segundo City Council meeting, before he became an ex-employee of the Hacienda, flip-flopped, and became a co-chair of the Yes on Measure A committee to raise both the TOT and UUT taxes on the Hacienda and all other hotels and businesses in El Segundo, and to impose them on residents.

“Yes on A” campaign co-chair Sandra Jacobs last ran for City Council together with current Mayor Bill Fisher and former Mayor Eric Busch when they first ran for City Council. They were the three-candidate slate that the El Segundo firefighter and police unions endorsed, funded, and actively campaigned for.

Mayor Bill Fisher and former Mayor Eric Busch started their political careers in El Segundo with tremendous campaign support from the El Segundo firefighter and police unions, and rewarded them well with millions of taxpayer dollars.

See the scanned images below of the campaign slate mailer postcard sent to El Segundo voters by the two unions.

The front side of the campaign mailer shows photos of a firefighter standing next to a fire engine and a police officer standing next to a police car. It reads:


“What do El Segundo Firefighters and Police Officers Have in Common?”

The back side has the photos and names of El Segundo City Council candidates Eric Busch, Sandra Jacobs, and Bill Fisher. It reads:


“Firefighters – Police Officers – Paramedics
Support
BUSH – JACOBS – FISHER
The Best Choice For Public Safety
On April 13th Support
Eric BUSCH – Sandra JACOBS – Bill FISHER
Paid For By The El Segundo Firefighters Association – PO Box 55 El Segundo, CA ID #1231824″

The firefighters and police unions claimed that they endorsed “The Best Choice For Public Safety”. That was a lie. They endorsed the candidates who would give them the biggest pay raises and pension increases, and then raise taxes and fees on the residents and businesses to pay for it all.

Click on each picture for a larger view. Then click on the BACK button in your browser to return to this web page.


Front side of the slate campaign slate mailer sent by the El Segundo firefighters and police unions for Sandra Jacobs, Bill Fisher, and Eric Busch in the 2004 El Segundo City Council Election. The firefighter and police unions spend thousands of campaign dollars each election cycle to get millions of extra tax dollars in their paychecks and pensions each year.


Back side of the slate campaign slate mailer sent by the El Segundo firefighters and police unions for Sandra Jacobs, Bill Fisher, and Eric Busch in the 2004 El Segundo City Council Election. The firefighter and police unions spend thousands of campaign dollars each election cycle to get millions of extra tax dollars in their paychecks and pensions each year.

When then Councilman Bill Fisher was confronted at a City Council meeting about the conflict of interest created from his firefighter and police union campaign support, given that he votes on their pay raises and benefits increases, he claimed he did not know the unions were supporting his campaign!

Notice how the firefighter and police union campaign slate mailer has professional studio photos with color-coordinated matching backgrounds of Bill Fisher and the other two union-endorsed candidates. Clearly, Fisher posed for his professional photo and a copy of it was sent to the unions for use in their campaign mailer. Also, Fisher wants us to believe he did not know who was distributing, installing, and maintaining his campaign signs around the city throughout the his campaign.

Either Bill Fisher is lying, or he is too incompetent to hold any elective office. In either case, is not fit to hold a position of public trust and to be entrusted with spending more than fifty million of our tax dollars every year.

Firefighters union president Kevin A. Rehm managed the delivery, installation, and maintenance of the campaign yard signs for all three candidates – Sandra Jacobs, Bill Fisher, and Eric Busch. A sticker appeared on every sign with his cellular phone number. It read:

“This sign has been placed with the permission of the owner. If you have any problems with this sign please call: (310) 422-9411 We will fix the problem ASAP. Thank you!”

I called that number during the election campaign and Kevin Rehm answered. I spoke with him and asked him questions about the firefighter union’s candidate endorsements. You can do an Internet search for the following keywords to see that this is Kevin Rehm’s phone number: (310) 422-9411 Kevin Rehm.

Kevin Rehm’s annual CalPERS pension from working as an El Segundo firefighter is $172,516.08 per year according to the CalPERS Database on the FixPensionsFirst.com website at:

http://www.fixpensionsfirst.com/calpers-database/?first_name=&last_name=&employer=EL+SEGUNDO

See the photos of the three candidate’s campaign signs with firefighters union president Kevin Rehm’s cellular phone number on them below. The first two photos show the entire signs at a distance to make it clear the close-up photos of the sticker on the corner each sign are of the same campaign signs.

The El Segundo firefighters union installed triple the campaign signs for City Council candidates Sandra Jacobs, Bill Fisher, and Eric Busch at an apartment building on the far east end of Mariposa Ave.
The El Segundo firefighters union installed triple the campaign signs for City Council candidates Sandra Jacobs, Bill Fisher, and Eric Busch at a house on the east side of town.

The El Segundo firefighters union installed double the campaign signs for City Council candidates Sandra Jacobs, Bill Fisher, and Eric Busch at a house on the east side of town.
The El Segundo firefighters union installed double the campaign yard signs for City Council candidates Sandra Jacobs, Bill Fisher, and Eric Busch at a house on the east side of town.

See the photos below of the campaign signs with firefighter union president Kevin Rehm’s cellular phone number (310-422-9411) on them as the sign placement and maintenance coordinator. His phone number sticker was on all the signs for Eric Busch, Sandra Jacobs, and Bill Fisher.

Bill Fisher's City Council Campaign Sign.
Bill Fisher’s City Council campaign sign with El Segundo firefighter union president Kevin Rehm’s cellular phone number on it.

Sandra Jacobs' City Council Campaign Sign.
Sandra Jacobs’ City Council campaign sign with El Segundo firefighter union president Kevin Rehm’s cellular phone number on it.

Eric Busch's City Council Campaign Sign.
Eric Busch’s City Council campaign sign with El Segundo firefighter union president Kevin Rehm’s cellular phone number on it.

The El Segundo firefighters union even sent out a campaign letter on their official union letterhead, signed by union President Kevin Rehm, 1st Vice President Breck Slover, and 2nd Vice President John Bilbee, threatening senior citizen voters with “the possibility of our paramedics not being available when you need them” if the three candidates approved by the union were not elected!

See the scanned image of this letter and the envelope it was sent in below.

Click on the letter below to see a larger image of it, then click the BACK button in your browser to return to this web page.


Click HERE to see a larger image of the El Segundo firefighters union campaign letter threatening senior citizen voters, then click the BACK button in your browser to return to this web page.


Letter that the El Segundo firefighters union used to send their campaign letter threatening senior citizen voters.

Click HERE for an analysis and the text of the Senior Scare Letter on our old web site. Then click the BACK button in your browser to return to this web page.

Posted in California, Economy and Economics, El Segundo, El Segundo Election Coverage, 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, Police Union Corruption, Political Corruption, Politics, Tax Policy and Issues, Union Corruption | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on El Segundo Firefighters’ Union is Bankrolling the Measure A Campaign to Hike Taxes

Wrong Time to Raise Taxes and Fees in El Segundo

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Mike

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

March 3, 2014
Updated and expanded March 6, 2014.

This is the wrong time to raise taxes and fees on residents and businesses in El Segundo, for multiple reasons.

First, the existing three-year City employee union contracts are expiring later this year, and the City Council will negotiate new union contracts later this year after the April 8, 2014 City election. Raising taxes and fees before then will greatly weaken the City Council’s bargaining position with the unions, especially the politically active and extremely aggressive firefighter and police unions, which are the primary cause of the City’s financial problems.

Second, Mayor Bill Fisher and Councilmembers David Atkinson and Marie Fellhauer have claimed that the City’s financial problems are largely due to El Segundo receiving a lower percentage of the property taxes generated from property in the City than other cities in California receive.

That claim is false for multiple reasons.

The percentage of total property tax revenue generated in El Segundo that the City receives has not changed in many years, and the last time it changed, it went up due to the extraordinary efforts of Mayor Carl Jacobson. In fact, although El Segundo gets about 6.2% of the property tax revenues generated by property in the city, compared to the average of 11% for all 88 cities in Los Angeles County, El Segundo property values are much higher than the values in many other cities. The higher property values in El Segundo help compensate for the lower than average percent of property tax revenue allocated to the City of El Segundo.

But most striking is the fact that the City is receiving the highest amount of property tax revenues it has received in any year since fiscal year 2000/2001, and probably in the City’s entire history, as shown by the bar chart below. The FY 2012/2013 property tax revenue is at a record high of $6,332,163 – up by 46% and $1,994,509 above FY 2000/2001 property tax revenue. Property tax revenue has increased in 9 of the last 13 fiscal years, with an average yearly increase of 3.6% and $166,209.


Bar chart of the City of El Segundo, California property tax revenues for fiscal years 2000/2001 through 2012/2013, using data from official City of El Segundo records.

Mayor Fisher and Councilmembers Atkinson and Fellhauer have repeatedly berated El Segundo residents for not paying enough property taxes. City residents paid about $20,770,813 in property taxes in FY 2012/2013, which is about 20.9% of the total, of which $1,287,790 came back to the City (about 6.2%). The 20.9% figure is not surprising given that only about 25% of the city’s land area is residential property and about 75% is industrial and commercial, as shown in the aerial photograph with color overlays showing residential in yellow, the Chevron El Segundo Oil Refinery property in blue, and all other industrial and commercial zoned property in the city in red.


Aerial Photo of the City of El Segundo, California with color overlays showing residential in yellow, the Chevron El Segundo Oil Refinery property in blue, and all other industrial and commercial zoned property in the city in red. Note that residential zoned property makes up about 25% of the land in El Segundo.

Also, the hotel transient occupancy tax (TOT, or “bed tax”) revenue is at record high levels, as shown in the second bar chart below. Much of this increase is likely due to new hotels in El Segundo, i.e., growing the business and tax base. So why punish hotels in El Segundo and discourage this growth by raising their TOT taxes by 25% and nearly doubling all their UUT taxes to pay for greatly excessive past and future firefighter and police union and manager pay raises and pension increases?


Bar chart of the City of El Segundo, California hotel transient occupancy tax (TOT, or

All of the tax revenue used for this analysis and the bar charts below came from City of El Segundo official public record documents that I requested under the California Public Records Act, California Government Code §6250 et seq. Click HERE to download a 1.53 MB PDF file containing the source data. I will provide links to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file soon.

So why is El Segundo having budget problems? Because of the wildly excessive and unsustainable pay raises that also increased pension costs to the point that El Segundo firefighters and police employees have been getting paid total compensation of about $150,000 to more than $330,000 per individual per year, and the City has been paying about $40,000 to more than $80,000 in CalPERS pension contributions per individual firefighter and police officer per year. Existing firefighter and police employees get up to 90% of their single highest year salary as their annual CalPERS pension income. So every wildly excessive pay raise has increased the cost of their pensions to the City.

The firefighter and police unions have endorsed and campaigned for City Council candidates, contributing thousands of dollars to their political campaigns and getting millions of excess taxpayer dollars per year in return. This has got to stop. It is now time to take back some of that wildly excessive compensation from the firefighter and police unions, not continue to give them excessive pay raises and a guarantee of no layoffs as in the current three-year union contracts.

Raising taxes and fees to give even bigger pay raises and pension increases to over-compensated politically active firefighter and police union members is immoral and counter-productive.

The following table provides the data used to generate the Property Tax Revenue bar chart, together with additional data. Each fiscal year starts on October 1 and ends on September 30 of the following calendar year. Thus, FY 2012/13 starts on October 1, 2012 and ends on September 30, 2013.

Fiscal Year Property Tax Revenues Increase from FY 2000/01 Pct Increase from FY 2000/2001 Change from Prior FY Pct Change from Prior Year
2000/01 4,337,653.88
2001/02 4,908,914.16 571,260.28 13.17 571,260.28 13.17
2002/03 5,214,911.38 877,257.50 20.22 305,997.22 6.23
2003/04 5,235,745.13 898,091.25 20.70 20,833.75 0.40
2004/05 4,523,477.13 185,823.25 4.28 -712,268.00 -13.60
2005/06 4,441,985.70 104,331.82 2.41 -81,491.43 -1.80
2006/07 5,544,221.23 1,206,567.35 27.82 1,102,235.53 24.81
2007/08 5,919,766.60 1,582,112.72 36.47 375,545.37 6.77
2008/09 6,267,592.67 1,929,938.79 44.49 347,826.07 5.88
2009/10 6,291,147.99 1,953,494.11 45.04 23,555.32 0.38
2010/11 6,125,246.62 1,787,592.74 41.21 -165,901.37 -2.64
2011/12 5,946,167.09 1,608,513.21 37.08 -179,079.53 -2.92
2012/13 6,332,163.33 1,994,509.45 45.98 385,996.24 6.49
AVERAGE 5,468,384.07 1,224,957.71 28.24 166,209.12 3.60

The following table provides the data used to generate the Hotel Transient Occupancy Tax Revenue bar chart, together with additional data. Each fiscal year starts on October 1 and ends on September 30 of the following calendar year. Thus, FY 2012/13 starts on October 1, 2012 and ends on September 30, 2013.

Fiscal Year Transient Occupancy Tax Revenue Increase from FY 2000/01 Pct Increase from FY 2000/2001 Change from Prior FY Pct Change from Prior Year
2000/01 3,162,936.38
2001/02 2,848,811.51 -314,124.87 -9.93 -314,124.87 -9.93
2002/03 2,866,810.77 -296,125.61 -9.36 17,999.26 0.63
2003/04 2,357,942.15 -804,994.23 -25.45 -508,868.62 -17.75
2004/05 3,849,782.63 686,846.25 21.72 1,491,840.48 63.27
2005/06 4,186,056.04 1,023,119.66 32.35 336,273.41 8.73
2006/07 4,862,164.67 1,699,228.29 53.72 676,108.63 16.15
2007/08 4,842,887.26 1,679,950.88 53.11 -19,277.41 -0.40
2008/09 4,109,580.93 946,644.55 29.93 -733,306.33 -15.14
2009/10 3,954,416.24 791,479.86 25.02 -155,164.69 -3.78
2010/11 4,301,696.26 1,138,759.88 36.00 347,280.02 8.78
2011/12 4,735,584.53 1,572,648.15 49.72 433,888.27 10.09
2012/13 5,156,079.60 1,993,143.22 63.02 420,495.07 8.88
AVERAGE 3,941,134.54 843,048.00 26.65 166,095.27 5.79

Posted in Economy and Economics, El Segundo, El Segundo News, El Segundo Tax and Fee Increases, Elections, Firefighter and Police Union Compensation and Pensions, Firefighter Union Corruption, Fraud Waste and Abuse, Government Employee Compensation and Pensions, Police Union Corruption, Political Corruption, Politics, Tax Policy and Issues, Union Corruption | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Wrong Time to Raise Taxes and Fees in El Segundo