If you came to this web page as a result of the city council endorsement letter sent out by the El Segundo Police Officers' Association, then you need to know these facts:
(1) That "association" is the police officers' union. Similarly, the El Segundo Firefighters' Association is the firefighters' union. You can read an excellent article on this, with proof, at the PublicSafetyProject.org web site:
(2) The police and fire "associations" (unions) endorse the candidates who will give them the biggest raises, and raise our taxes and fees to pay for it. That is the primary reason that the city is having such financial problems and difficulty during this recession.
And that is why Mayor Eric Busch and Councilman Bill Fisher have been trying desperately first to raise taxes and fees on all businesses and residents, and more recently, to raise taxes on Chevron by an additional $10 million per year -- even though the city does not provide nor maintain any infrastructure or services on Chevron's massive 951-acre refinery property as it does in all the residential and other business areas of the city.
(3) There is an inherent, unavoidable conflict of interest when city employee unions (or teachers unions) make endorsements and campaign to elect the city council members (or school board members) who will determine their increases in salaries, benefits, and pensions. They are hiring their own bosses, and telling their bosses how much of our money to give them in raises.
(4) The situation is even worse when police and fire unions make endorsements and campaign for candidates, because they are abusing their positions of authority and public trust when they do so.
(5) If the police union made honest endorsements, they would look something like the recommendations on this web site. And they would apologize for all their past and present misconduct.
(6) If the police union had any integrity at all, they would not make any endorsements.
(7) The El Segundo fire and police unions have historically endorsed the worst candidates for public safety. The fighters union even contributed money to congresswoman Maxine Waters, who is a Marxist. She threatened to nationalize the American oil companies, including Chevron.
(8) For many years now, the city's tax payers (you and me) have been paying about $8 million per year extra for wildly excessive and unsustainable firefighter and police salaries, benefits, and pensions.
(9) The 2009 firefighter and police compensation is as follows, from official City Hall records obtained under the California Public Records Act (Govt. Code §§6250 et seq.):
2009 POLICE OFFICER Annual Individual Total Compensation:
Average: $178,000 Maximum: $304,000
2009 FIREFIGHTER Annual Individual Total Compensation:
Average: $211,000 Maximum: $342,000
You may have heard about the police chief's compensation. Management employee salaries are increased even more than union member salaries, to prevent "salary compaction." Thus, there is a built-in incentive for the city manager, police chief, fire chief, and other department heads to increase the salaries of their subordinates.
2009 POLICE CHIEF Total Annual Compensation plus his Pension Income while working half-time for 11 weeks as Police Chief after his retirement:
$597,000
To see how El Segundo Police Chief David Cummings was paid $597,000 in 2009, read the article:
(10) The Police and Fire Unions have been behind efforts to raise taxes on businesses and raise fees on residents to pay for their huge raises given during the recession.
The Police and Fire Unions were given more than 11% to 23% in pay raises during the recession in their previous 3-year contracts, which were "negotiated" in secret with City Council members they endorsed and provided with thousands of dollars in campaign support (Mayor Eric Busch and Councilman Bill Fisher).
The El Segundo Police& FireUnions contributed more than $10,900 to Mayor Eric Busch in 2008:
This amount of special interest campaign money can easily determine the election outcome in a small city like El Segundo, where candidates often spend a fraction of that amount on their campaigns.
The Police and Fire Unions got MILLIONS of EXTRA Tax Dollars per year in return for their endorsements and THOUSANDS of Dollars in campaign support.
(11) Chevron is not and has not been cause of the city's financial problems. The primary cause has been the wildly excessive and unsustainable police and fire union salaries, benefits, and pensions.
The legal settlement to the 1994 tax dispute between MRC, Chevron, and the City was perfectly legal, legitimate, and reasonable, as explained below. The City has not and does not pay to provide city infrastructure and services within the massive 951-acre Chevron property that it pays a fortune to provide and maintain in the residential and other commercial and industrial areas of the city. In fact, for that reason Chevron's taxes may actually be too high.
The fired City Manager, Doug Willmore made this into an issue as a false pretense to sue the city in a frivolous lawsuit for "retaliatory firing". The police union jumped on the band wagon to smear the very honest Carl Jacobson to help get their bottom-ranked candidates elected.Fire UnionPolice UnionPoliceand Fire
Please remember to vote on April 10, 2012
After much feedback and careful reconsideration, we have come to the following conclusions.
The material on this web site has not been authorized or endorsed by any political candidate or committee, and is based on our own research and analysis with information from public records.
Here are the best recommendations for the April 10, 2012 El Segundo City Election.
Jacobson's decades of distinguished and
honorable service to our community as Mayor and Councilman speaks for itself. Jacobson
is extremely intelligent, honest, experienced, dedicated, and productive. He is
a proven fiscal conservative and independent of city employee unions and other special
interests. He strikes a fair balance between the needs of residents and
businesses that provide jobs, services, and tax revenue. He was an early
opponent of Measure P and signed the ballot argument against it.
Jacobson votes what he believes is
best for our city, rather than as a proxy for city employee unions, real estate
developers, and other special interests. Jacobson is indispensible as the City's
institutional memory, helping to avoid rather than repeat old mistakes, and
using his historical perspective and intellect to find new and innovative
solutions.
Jacobson has generously given decades
of his life to help us and our city, yet he never boasts about his numerous accomplishments.
He only asks for one thing in return – your vote at election time. That is a
real bargain.
Also, your vote of confidence in Carl
Jacobson will help repudiate the much-discredited anti-business KCET propaganda
video that is being exploited by Cindy Topar (letter to the editor, March 15,
2012 El Segundo Herald), the police union (on their official web site), and
others who have been trying to smear Jacobson to get their own bottom-ranked candidates
elected.
Jacobson always runs low-budget grass
roots campaigns without special interest money. He has never taken money from
Chevron. In fact, Chevron has contributed little or no campaign money or
support to El Segundo City Council candidates over at least the last twenty
years, while the fire and police unions have contributed many thousands of
dollars to their candidates and in return received millions of additional tax
dollars per year.
David Atkinson is intelligent and
transparent, and he has valuable experience turning around businesses. He is independent
of city employee unions and other special interests. He is a real fiscal
conservative, not a pretend one like some of the bottom-ranked candidates. Atkinson
has been up-front and center in clearly opposing Measure P from early on, actively
speaking out against it before the City Council and in his campaign literature.
Atkinson openly tells you where he stands and
what he believes, rather than telling you anything you want to hear to get
elected. But he also listens very well and accepts input. Watch the El Segundo Residents Association
(ESRA) video to get a good feel for the type of open, direct, and no-nonsense
type of representative that Dave Atkinson will be.
Therefore we SUPPORT David Atkinson as the number two choice for El Segundo City Council.
We SUPPORT Dave Burns
Photo of Dave Burns during his superb performance at the El Segundo Residents Association (ESRA) 2012 Candidates Forum.
Dave Burns is intelligent, articulate, and
transparent. His research ability and sharp analytical skills are a valuable
asset. Although Burns has public safety experience, like myself, he was an
early and outspoken critic of Measure P and the wildly excessive and unsustainable
fire and police union salaries, benefits, and pensions that have been costing
our city about $8 million extra per year.
As a result the old and new fire and
police union contracts, the safety unions have consumed funds normally used for
routine infrastructure maintenance such as resurfacing streets and maintaining
the water and sewer systems. Burns will help rectify this serious problem that
threatens our city's future. Burns is open and honest on the issues, and you
know where he stands.
Therefore we SUPPORT Dave Burns as the number three choice for El Segundo City Council.
We DO NOT Support Mike Dugan
Photo of Mike Dugan at the El Segundo Residents Association (ESRA) 2012 Candidates Forum.
Dugan is intelligent, has valuable
engineering and business experience, and he understands that the city must live
within its means just as each of us residents and taxpayers must live within
our means. But he is not committed to any specific city union contract reform,
even obvious and necessary reforms, such as reducing the percentage in the
pension formulas for a new tier for new employees. Without compensation and pension reform, there may not be enough money to pay for promised pensions to retirees, especially considering the unfunded liabilities CalPERS pension system.
Also, Mike Dugan was not an
early outspoken critic of Measure P.
Dugan's detractors claim his prior employment
with and retirement from Chevron is a liability. However, conflict of interest
laws would preclude him from voting on issues where he has a financial conflict
of interest. And it would be foolish and counter-productive to preclude anyone
who worked for Chevron or a large aerospace and defense company in town to
serve on the City Council.
Mike Dugan does not rank in the top three candidates, and there are only three City Council seats up for election.
Therefore we DO NOT support Mike Dugan for El Segundo City Council.
Marie Fellhauer's campaign literature citing her appointment to the Planning Commission as her primary example of her "Commitment to Community".
Marie Fellhauer claims in her campaign literature that her appointment to the El Segundo Planning Commission is an example of "Marie's Proven Commitment to Community." However, Fellhauer has been absent for a third (32%) of all the Planning Commission meetings she was supposed to attend over the last two years, and absent for a fourth (25%) of all the meetings over the last four years.
We find several problems here.
First, Fellhauer failed to meet her commitments for a very important city function for at least four years.
Second, once she realized she could not or would not meet her commitments, she should have had the decency to resign. However, it appears that Fellhauer retained her seat on the Planning Commission solely to use it as a stepping stone to higher office, i.e., City Council.
And third, Fellhauer misrepresented her record in writing on her own campaign literature with blatant disregard for the truth.
Fellhauer is a police officer in Los Angeles, and her lack of integrity reflects poorly on all police officers.
Cindee Topar lacks the basic analytical ability and awareness necessary to serve on the city council and set city policy that determines the city's future.
While the city council was faced with urgent problems, including multi-million dollar budget deficits due to declining revenues combined with ever-increasing city employee payroll and pension costs, and the risk of losing our fire department, Cindee Topar believed the most important problem facing the city was the need to ban plastic bags.
Topar is an official and a member in
the militant Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) union, which targeted
customers, canceled randomly selected flights without notice, and stranded
passengers to create "CHAOS" for the customers and the employer.
How would you like it if Topar's militant
union caused you to miss a job interview, business meeting, expensive vacation
cruise, or an important once-in-a-lifetime event such as a family wedding, bar
mitzvah, or funeral?
Their stated goal was to scare away
customers to sabotage their employer's business. Her union was so proud of
stranding airline passengers that they trademarked the name CHAOS™! The name
CHAOS™ stands for "Creating Havoc Around Our System." If Topar gets
elected, we may have CHAOT – Creating Havoc Around Our Town.
We cannot endorse Cindy Mortesen. She has been an absentee city clerk for many years, although she always manages to collect her paycheck. She works full-time in the Redondo Beach city clerk's office, and is almost never seen in the El Segundo city clerk's office where she is supposed to be.
For many years, Mortesen has collected paychecks for TWO government jobs, but has only shown up to work for ONE of those jobs -- her Redondo Beach job.
Only in government can someone NOT show up to work for years and still get paid!
Therefore we DO NOT support Cindy Mortesen for El Segundo City Council.
We Hereby REPUDIATE Scott Houston
Scott Houston at the February 15, 2011 El Segundo city council meeting, urging the council to enact Measure P, the fire union's initiative, directly into law without allowing the voters to vote on it.
We cannot support Scott Houston because it turns out he has lied about almost every aspect of his campaign. Houston claims in his campaign literature that he is for "low taxes." However, he urged the city council to raise two of your taxes at the August 3, 2010 city council meeting.
Also, Scott Houston claims in his campaign literature that he wants to "maintain local control of our fire department." However, Houston strongly urged the city council to enact Measure P directly into law without allowing the voters to vote on it at the February 15, 2011 city council meeting. In fact, he read a script nearly identical to the script read by El Segundo firefighter union representative Bryan Partlow who sponsored Measure P.
Had the city council listened to Houston, we would no longer have a fire department, and we would have lost all three of the city's paramedic ambulances. Houston claims he changed his mind on Measure P, but he cannot change the fact that he tried to deny voters their right to vote on Measure P.
Also, it has come to our attention that Scott Houston has been the Director of the South Bay Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Center, located next to a massage parlor a few blocks from El Camino College. It operates the South Bay Outlet LGBT youth group advertised on their web site asyouth "18 and UNDER welcome!!!"
Scott Houston's mission statement for his South Bay LGBT Center is stated on his main web page: "The mission of the SOUTH BAY CENTER: The Lesbian, Gay, Bi & Transgender Community Organization is to provide a focal point for ... political power ... ."
Thus, it appears that Scott Houston may be using El Segundo as a stepping stone to higher office to promote gay political power and the gay political agenda, including legislation such as California Senate Bill SB 48 (2011-2012 legislative session).
SB 48 creates mandates that are very plainly another step toward complete normalization of transgenderism, homosexuality and bisexuality through the public schools prompting open discussions, in classrooms of all ages, about the sexual practices of one to three percent of the population. ( http://www.cwfa.org/images/content/casb48tp.pdf )
Scott Houston signed an open letter calling for the repeal of Proposition 8, which defined marriage in California as being between one man and one woman, in November 2010. That letter appears on The Liberal OC web site.
If you have any doubts that same-sex marriage is reckless and damaging to Western Civilization and to the status of women in society, then you should read the following excellent article on the subject by Dennis Prager, the great Jewish scholar, teacher, author, and commentator, and then reconsider your position:
In America, consenting adults have the freedom to choose their intimate partners and intimate behaviors with those partners.
However, we cannot condone such activities with regards to minors and between adults and minors, especially considering the risks that it poses.
Furthermore, Houston has been disingenuous by hiding his affiliation with and leadership of this
organization. He has been eager to divulge and even exaggerate every other kind of community involvement. Why not this significant one?
Houston lacks transparency in his true politics, agenda, and allegiance.
Therefore, for all of the reasons stated, we cannot support Scott Houston.
We apologize for our past mistakes and regret any imposition we have caused you and any distrust you may now feel by past endorsements of Scott Houston.
We Apologize
We apologize for the KCET SoCal Connected video attacking Chevron and Councilman Carl Jacobson. We knew all along it was propaganda and none of it was true.
The legal settlement to the 1994 tax dispute between Municipal Resource Consultants (MRC), Chevron, and the city was perfectly legal, legitimate, and reasonable, and we knew that all along.
1) The City Attorney did his job and ensured everything was legal and proper.
2) The legal settlement was approved by a unanimous vote of the city council in an open and public meeting.
3) Councilman Carl Jacobson was the city's mayor at the time, and as mayor, he would have had to sign the agreement document even if he had voted against it.
4) MRC, the city's tax auditor, was trying to collect a double-tax on the same energy for which Chevron had already paid the Utility Users Tax (UUT), in order to collect a 25 percent commission on the allegedly unpaid tax.
5) The final settlement was reasonable, because the city does not pay to provide all the infrastructure and services within the massive 951-acre Chevron property that it pays a fortune to provide and maintain in the residential and other commercial and industrial areas of the city. In fact, for that reason Chevron's taxes may actually be to high.
Here is some more background on the 1994 tax dispute.
Municipal Resource Consultants (MRC) was trying to force Chevron to pay double taxes on the same energy for which it had already paid the UUT tax, so it could collect a 25 percent commission, or "finder's fee," on the allegedly unpaid UUT tax.
Chevron co-generated its own electricity by burning natural gas, for which it paid the UUT tax. But MRC wanted Chevron to pay the UUT again, on the electricity that it co-generated by burning that natural gas.
MRC also wanted Chevron to pay a UUT tax on natural gas that Chevron did not burn for energy, but instead used as a chemical ingredient in the oil refining process.
Chevron reasonably argued that both of these applications of the UUT tax were unfair and illegal taxation. MRC threatened to sue the city if they were not paid their 25 percent commission, and Chevron threatened to sue the city if the city collected the double tax. Therefore, the city council settled with MRC and Chevron in a perfectly legal, legitimate, and reasonable agreement.
Regarding the firing of city manager Doug Willmore, it was bound to happen sooner or later. He really was not qualified for the job, and many who have observed him developed the opinion that he was a pathological liar. In fact, the entire basis for the KCET video is Willmore's accusations, which are simply not true.
Willmore is now trying to sue the city for millions of dollars in a frivolous "retaliatory firing" lawsuit, which will only take money away from the tax payers and from city employee raises.
Here are two good articles to read about the firing of Doug Willmore:
El Segundo police officers have received much criticism about the high cost of our salaries benefits, and pensions, as have the firefighters. However, in defense of police officers, the salaries and pensions are not quite as high as those of firefighters, and we do not get paid to sleep.
Here is the data for comparison.
2009 POLICE OFFICER Annual Individual Total Compensation:
Average: $178,000 Maximum: $304,000
2009 POLICE OFFICER Annual Individual Total Pension Contribution paid by the City:
Average: $41,000 Maximum: $77,000
2009 FIREFIGHTER Annual Individual Total Compensation:
Average: $211,000 Maximum: $342,000
2009 FIREFIGHTER Total Annual Individual Pension Contribution paid by the City:
Average: $42,000 Maximum: $80,000
You may have heard about the police chief's compensation, but please realize that was an exceptional case.
2009 POLICE CHIEF Total Annual Compensation plus his Pension Income while working half-time for 11 weeks as Police Chief after his retirement:
$597,000
Thank You
Thank you for visiting our web site. We provided this information for El Segundo police officers and any interested members of the public.
Please send the link to this web page ( http://ElSegundoPOA.com/ ) to all of your friends, neighbors, and relatives in El Segundo so they will make the correct choices when voting.
