Tag Archives: Deborah Cullen

City Manger’s Misconduct – Letter to the Beach Reporter by Michael D. Robbins

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Mike

City Manger’s Misconduct

New evidence of fired City Manager Doug Willmore’s misconduct was revealed with the latest public records release of city documents and emails (available at ElSegundo.org and PublicSafetyProject.org).

Willmore politicized City Hall. His secretary, Mickie Tagle, used city-paid time and public resources to do political opposition research against Chevron and against residents who criticized Willmore’s efforts to shakedown Chevron for an additional $10 million per year in taxes. One email showed she even tried to dig up dirt on me! Finance Director Deborah Cullen was also enthusiastically involved in Willmore’s shakedown efforts.

The emails show Willmore was doing Mayor Eric Busch’s bidding, taking direction from Busch in his attempt to extort more money from Chevron, without a majority of Council members even knowing about it. The city manager is legally required to take direction only from a majority vote or consensus of the City Council. Busch and Willmore targeted Chevron because they “can’t move” their refinery, and because of environmental politics.

The emails also show the fire and police unions have been behind this push to raise taxes to pay for their wildly excessive and unsustainable compensation and pensions. … Continue reading →

Posted in Beach Reporter Letters, Doug Willmore's Great Chevron Shakedown, El Segundo, El Segundo News, El Segundo Tax and Fee Increases, Firefighter and Police Union Compensation and Pensions, Letters to the Editor, Union Corruption | Tagged Chevron, City Hall, City Manager, Deborah Cullen, Doug Willmore, El Segundo, Eric Busch, finance director, fire union, letter, Michael D. Robbins, Mickie Tagle, opposition research, police union, shakedown, The Beach Reporter | Comments Off

Email – Contact – El Segundo Finance Director Deborah Cullen provided phone/address book (VCF) file for Steve Stark at MuniServices

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Mike

From: Cullen, Deborah
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 7:07 AM
To: Doug Willmore
Subject: Contact
Attachments: Steve Stark.vcf; ATT00001..txt

Steve Stark.vcf (695 B)
ATT00001..txt (292 B)

Hi Doug,

I don’t have Don’s number but MuniServices/Steve Stark would have it.

Deb Continue reading →

Posted in El Segundo Chevron Public Records Act Request | Tagged Chevron, Deborah Cullen, Doug Willmore, El Segundo, email, email archive, gas, local government, oil, Public Records Act request, shakedown, Steve Stark | Comments Off

Special Email – FW: MuniServices Gas UUT Audit for Chevron

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Mike

… There was an audit performed by MRC back in the early 1990’s. Out of that audit MRC determined Chevron owed unpaid
gas utility users tax of $3,431,600. The City reached a settlement agreement with Chevron for $800,000 and MRC received
25% or $200,000 as a result of its contract with El Segundo. The settlement agreement provided for an annual charge of
$150,000 per year subject to CPI adjustments annually in satisfaction of Chevron’s gas utility users tax liability.

Deborah and I are trying to determine … Continue reading →

Posted in El Segundo Chevron Public Records Act Request | Tagged Cathy Domann, Chevron, Deborah Cullen, Doug Willmore, El Segundo, email archive, gas, local government, MuniServices, oil, Public Records Act request, shakedown, special email, Steve Jones | Comments Off

Special Email – Doug Willmore tried to convince the next City Treasurer Chris Powell to support his proposed $10 million tax hike on Chevron

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Mike

[ NOTE: This released email was missing the preceding text. ]

them more and having them subsidize Chevron’s obligation to pay a fair share for the operations of the City).

For a variety of reasons, CA tax structures for many cities are all over the map. Cities across CA have created all sorts of different taxes to compensate for Prop 13’s impact on commercial property. As a result, you end up with taxes that inversely impact some businesses and not others. That’s what we have here in El Segundo.

According to the analyst I spoke to at Oppenheimer, CA refineries as a whole are the most profitable in the US, and this one is the highest volume and, in their opinion, the most profitable refinery in CA. I don’t buy at all the pulling up stakes and moving or shutting down argument. The CA market is a huge market and Chevron will be a player here regardless of whether their tax burden in El Segundo is $5M or $15M. The business model here in El Segundo, given the marine terminal and given the pipeline to LAX among other things, can’t be beat. The same threats of closing were made in Richmond 2 and 3 years ago. And yet, despite being the highest volume refinery in the state, their taxes here in El Segundo, by almost any meaningful measure or ratio are half of the next lowest refinery, and in some cases ¼ of other large refineries. Rod’s response to me is that he can’t verify the numbers.

I have not yet heard any argument from anyone that sincerely makes a case that the tax burden shared by Chevron and the rest of our business community is a fair split. If there is an argument that someone has to make supporting the current arrangement, I’d love to hear it. All I have heard is that we need more time to talk. Which is fine if there is a commitment to a resolution. However, Eric never heard back from Frank if there was a commitment to a resolution from Chevron on this. If there is no commitment to a resolution, where does that leave us? It takes two to tango.

Doug

From: Chris Powell [mailto:CPowell@washingtoniron.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2012 3:01 PM
To: Willmore, Doug
Subject: RE: How does this look?

Thanks Doug. I will take a look at it. This is definitely a better comparison than comparing different general plan zones within the city. Have you also been comparing M 1 zone acreage rates in various surrounding tax jurisdictions? I wasn’t sure if that was a valid comparison as well.

Chris J. Powell, CFO
Washington Iron Works
310-217-9130

From: Willmore, Doug [mailto:dwillmore@elsegundo.org]
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012 7:16 PM
To: Chris Powell
Subject: FW: How does this look?

Chris,

Attached is a summary of the five largest refineries in municipalities in CA and their resulting revenue ratios. As you can see, El Segundo lags far behind the rest when you look at their relative contribution to the city. … Continue reading →

Posted in El Segundo Chevron Public Records Act Request | Tagged Chevron, Chris J. Powell, Deborah Cullen, Doug Willmore, El Segundo, email archive, gas, local government, oil, Public Records Act request, shakedown, special email | Comments Off

Special Email – RE: Chris Powell ~ in on the Chevron Community Advisory Panel

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Mike

From: Cullen
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 2:14 PM
To: dwillmore@elsegundo.org; segundo/cn=recipients/cn=dwillmore
Subject: RE: Chris Powell ~ in on the Chevron Community Advisory Panel

Of course!

From: Willmore, Doug
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 2:12 PM
To: Cullen, Deborah
Subject: FW: Chris Powell ~ in on the Chevron Community Advisory Panel

No wonder

From: Tagle, Mickie
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 1:55 PM
To: Willmore, Doug
Subject: Chris Powell ~ in on the Chevron Community Advisory Panel

Chevron Community Advisory Panel
http://elsegundo.chevron.com/home/community/programs.aspx … Continue reading →

Posted in El Segundo Chevron Public Records Act Request | Tagged Chevron, Chris Powell, Deborah Cullen, Doug Willmore, El Segundo, email archive, gas, local government, Mickie Tagle, oil, Public Records Act request, shakedown, special email | Comments Off

Special Email – Chevron revenue comparison

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Mike

From: Cullen
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 6:32 PM
To: L Segundo/cn=Recipients/cn=cityhall/cn=Contacts/cn=EricBusch; ekbusch@aol.com;
dwillmore@elsegundo.org; dcullen@elsegundo.org
Subject: Chevron revenue comparison
Attachments: 20111130 Refinery Revenue Comparison v.3.xls

Hi Eric,

Attached is a comparison of refinery revenues that I have been working on with Doug. We have compiled information comparing the revenues collected in El Segundo from the Chevron Refinery to the Chevron Refinery in Richmond, BP West Coast Refinery in Carson and Exxon Mobile Refinery in Torrance.
We also included an analysis of the revenue per acre generated from the local refinery compared to the revenue per acre generated by the rest of the City’s commercial industrial sector. … Continue reading →

Posted in El Segundo Chevron Public Records Act Request | Tagged Chevron, Deborah Cullen, Doug Willmore, El Segundo, email archive, Eric Busch, gas, local government, oil, Public Records Act request, shakedown, special email | Comments Off

Email – RE: Chevron

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Mike

From: Willmore Doug
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 12:53 PM
To: dcullen@elsegundo.org; segundo/cn=recipients/cn=cityhall/cn=dcullen
Subject: RE: Chevron

ok … Continue reading →