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CALIFORNIA ELECTION ALERT !
Tuesday, September 14, 2021 is Recall Election Day in California.
Vote YES on the first question to RECALL GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM; and
Vote for LARRY ELDER on the second question to elect Larry Elder as governor if a majority of the votes counted voted Yes on the first question.
Vote-By-Mail ballots were mailed out to ALL registered voters, dead or alive, moved out of the state or not, legal or illegal. This was done to maximize the opportunity for election fraud and theft to keep Governor Gavin Newsom in office.
The election fraud can include stuffing the ballot box with fraudulent ballots voting NO on the RECALL and NO VOTE for the new governor, and destroying, discarding, or not counting ballots voting YES and LARRY ELDER.
You can vote by mail, but it is probably safer to vote in person at the election poll on or before September 14, 2021 to help ensure your vote gets counted.
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Tag Archives: unions
El Segundo City Employee Unions Contributed $17,500 to Measure A to Raise Our Taxes and Their Pay
by Michael D. Robbins
Director, Public Safety Project, PublicSafetyProject.org
March 31, 2014
The El Segundo City employee unions contributed $17,500 to the Measure A Tax Hike campaign, thus far, with more than a week left to make additional contributions, according to the second set of campaign finance disclosure statements for the April 8, 2014 El Segundo General Municipal Election. Clearly, the City Employee unions are trying to buy the city election to raise taxes on residents and businesses so they can get big pay raises and pension increases.
Public record city employee compensation data show that the city employee unions get millions of extra tax dollars per year by spending thousands of dollars on city elections every two years. Firefighters and police are paid about $160,000 to more than $360,000 per year in total compensation. All but one or a few firefighters DO NOT live in El Segundo. Most police officers and other City employees DO NOT live in the city.
The campaign finance disclosure statements were due by close of business on Thursday, March 27, but were not made available by the City Clerk’s office until close of business on Monday, March 31. City Hall is closed on Fridays. There is a week left before the election for the City unions to contribute even more money to raise our taxes. The final financial disclosures would normally be due on Friday, April 4. However, since City Hall is closed on Fridays, they will be due by noon on Monday, April 7 – the day before the election. This allows the unions to give more large campaign contributions without enough time for the voters to learn about them.
Wealthy real estate developers and investors who depend on City Council approval for their projects donated thousands of additional campaign dollars to raise our taxes.
Here are the major contributions:
| MAJOR DONOR | ID # | DATE | AMOUNT |
| El Segundo Firefighters PAC | 1231824 | 02/11/2014 | $5,000.00 |
| El Segundo Police Officers’ Association PAC | 960463 | 02/24/2014 | $5,000.00 |
| El Segundo City Employees Association PAC | 1363708 | 02/28/2014 | $5,000.00 |
| California Teamsters Public Affairs Council (for El Segundo Supervisory and Professional Employees’ Bargaining Unit, Teamsters Local 911) | 1363708 | 02/28/2014 | $2,500.00 |
| TOTAL CITY UNIONS | $17,500.00 | ||
| Continental Development Corp. | NONE | 02/07/2014 | $5,000.00 |
| Mar Ventures, Inc. | NONE | 03/6/2014 | $2,000.00 |
| TOTAL WEALTHY DEVELOPERS | $7,000.00 | ||
| S&S Hardware Co., Inc. | NONE | 02/07/2014 | $2,000.00 |
| S&S Hardware Co., Inc. | NONE | 02/28/2014 | $660.00 |
| TOTAL MAJOR DONATIONS | $27,160.00 |
Continental Development Corp. is owned by a billionaire (or at least a multiple hundred-millionaire) who lives in this $11.1 million 7 bedroom, 12 bathroom 15,242 square foot mansion in Palos Verdes Estates. The $6.6 million per year in new taxes on residents and businesses, and the $150,000 to more than $380,000 the City pays individual firefighters and police in total annual compensation, may seem smaller to him than to the average El Segundo resident and small business owner taxpayer.
PROOF:
Click HERE to download the 2/27/2014 Yes on Measure A Tax Hikes FPPC Form 460 (532 KB PDF file).
Click HERE to download the 3/27/2014 Yes on Measure A Tax Hikes FPPC Form 460 (799 KB PDF file).
Click HERE to download the 3/27/2014 Yes on Measure A Tax Hikes FPPC Form 497 (393 KB PDF file).
Click HERE to download the 3/31/2014 El Segundo Police Officers’ Association PAC FPPC Form 460 (372 KB PDF file).
Continue reading
No on Measure A – Letter to The Beach Reporter by Michael Robbins
No on Measure A
Mayor Fisher claims the “business community” supports Measure A, and the City Council has no control over employee pension costs. Not true.
Most El Segundo businesses oppose Measure A. Ninety percent are not Chamber members, and the Chamber board did not allow its general membership to vote before supporting the tax hikes.
City Council controls pension costs in three ways: (1) Amounts of employee salaries, which are increased by pay raises and “special compensation”; (2) Percentage of total pension contributions employees are required to pay; and (3) Pension plan options the city provides.
Firefighter and police pensions pay 3 percent of their single highest year salary for each year worked, up to 90 percent. Fisher supported firefighter and police pay raises of 11.25 percent to 32.3 percent over three years, plus additional 5 percent annual “step” raises, approved 4/7/09 and 12/2/08, jacking up pension costs.
The council can save more than $3.3 million yearly by requiring city employees to pay half their total pension contributions, as allowed under state law effective 1/1/13. The city now pays 71 percent to 94 percent of total pension contributions.
The council can save several million more yearly by eliminating automatic additional 5 percent annual “step” raises, and “special compensation” for things that are existing job requirements or unrelated to the job.
These savings must be negotiated with the city unions later this year, after the April election. The Measure A tax windfall will weaken the City Council’s bargaining position and preclude these savings.
See PublicSafetyProject.org for more information. Vote “no” on Measure A.
Michael Robbins
El Segundo Continue reading
NO ON “A” – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Art Lavalle
NO ON “A”
You already live in one of the most heavily taxed states in the country. Why would you want to add to your family’s burden? City operating costs have not gone down as claimed. They will not, until we have a council that is willing to confront the unions and demand realistic pay and retirement contracts for city employees. Look at all the new construction in town in the last few years on top of the Chevron settlement. Each provided large amounts of additional revenue to the city. Yet, the increased inflow will never be enough to pay for the city employee’s union contracts that your council has approved. Do not give the council more money to waste. Look at the candidates that receive backing from these unions. The cities unions are backing candidates that will give them more of your tax dollars.
– Art Lavalle Continue reading
Frustration – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Richard J. Switz
Frustration
Make no mistake; my ideology is conservative, and I experience frustration daily about runaway spending at the national level. However, this situation needn’t necessarily apply to residents having a 90245 zip code. Currently there is a lot of community unhappiness about the cost of doing business in El Segundo…else, why is Measure ‘A’ on the ballot? Our elected officials must be held responsible, since only they have authority to tax and spend in our town.
Candidates Fuentes and Dugan are both skilled practitioners of modern management and leadership principles used by local major corporations. Such skills are sorely needed to help right the ship, since we are clearly on an unsustainable fiscal path using current practices. Efficient management and leadership provide the key to improvement, combined with a lot of tough love to effect the changes.
Drastic improvements won’t happen overnight. After all, we have experienced nearly two decades of government wherein our representatives seem more concerned about pleasing outside interests and providing employee perks rather than serving the needs and wishes of our voters. Otherwise, how does one explain granting $150K salaries for mid-level managers and shuttering City Hall every Friday … Continue reading
City of El Segundo Can Save $3.3 Million Per Year in Employee Pension Costs
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:
- The amounts of employee salaries, which are increased by pay raises and “special compensation” add-ons;
- The percentage of the total CalPERS pension contributions employees are required to pay; and
- 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”. … Continue reading
El Segundo Herald Misreports City’s $6.3 Million Property Tax Revenue as $1 Million
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:
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 … Continue reading
Taxpayers Getting Fleeced – Letter to the El Segundo Herald by Mary Olinick
Taxpayers Getting Fleeced
I recently received a mailer for Ted Lieu, candidate for State Senate. On that flyer were 37 public employee union endorsements by local and state unions. There was not a single tax payer or government watchdog association. Why would anyone be foolish enough to think this man is running to represent the voters?
The flyer, in essence, is telling us that he doesn’t give a fig for us and that the unions will elect him, that they financed him and that he is beholden only to those unions. Does anyone wonder why such excessive salaries are paid to government workers? Why some public employees are retiring with multi-million dollar pensions? Are we dumb enough to believe that children’s education will not be cut while public employee pensions will remain unscathed? … Continue reading
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
November 1991 Firefighter and Police Unions’ City Council Election Campaigns
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. … Continue reading