Everyone in El Segundo must defeat the greatest threat facing our city - the firefighters union initiative

January 19, 2011

All El Segundo residents and business owners must work even harder to defeat the greatest threat facing our city and our safety - the firefighters union initiative. If their union initiative passes, we will permanently lose our Paramedic Transport Service, and depend on out-of-town ambulances with increased hospital transport times and fees. This is dangerous for everybody who lives, works, or does business in El Segundo, but it is especially dangerous for the elderly in our city. Almost all of the fire department calls are paramedic calls. El Segundo has few fire, and zero, one, or two major structure fires (with $100,000 in damage or more) per year.

The El Segundo City Council will decide at its February 15, 2011 meeting which election date the very dangerous firefighters union initiative will appear on the ballot for El Segundo voters.
The firefighters union initiative, which was circulated almost entirely by firefighter union members who do not live in the city, will force our city to give up local control over our city fire department and contract with Los Angeles County for a minimum of ten years. The L.A. County Fire Department will be the Employer of Record for all the firefighters and paramedics, and our city will not be able to fire any of them for incompetence or dishonesty.

The only reason the union circulated their initiative petition is to protect and lock in their wildly excessive and unsustainable compensation and pensions by going to the L.A. County Fire Department - and dragging all of us with them. The firefighters union president, Christopher Thomason, had total 2009 compensation of at least $256,131. The "proponent" of the initiative, Bryan Partlow, is the only firefighter (or one of two) living in the city. He is one of the lowest paid firefighters, yet his total 2009 compensation was at least $134,674.
The L.A. County Fire Department does not provide Paramedic Transport Service. They rely on out-of-town private ambulance companies. The L.A. County Fire Department paramedics drive utility pickup trucks that cannot transport an injured person to a hospital. El Segundo will permanently lose its legal grandfather status under state law and court decisions that allow El Segundo to regulate and operate Paramedic Transport Service in the City of El Segundo.

Also, all of the city's expensive, high quality fire department vehicles, apparatus, and equipment will become the property of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, or will be sold at a significant discount as surplus or for salvage value. If the we wants to regain local control over our fire and paramedic response services (no more paramedic transport service), we will have to wait until the ten-year contract expires, and then spend many millions of dollars at one time to purchase a new fire truck and new fire engines and utility vehicles. This will place a tremendous burden on our city, and we will never regain the most important part of our fire department - our Paramedic Transport Service.

Furthermore, if the dangerous firefighters union initiative is not defeated, the Los Angeles County Fire Department will have no reason or incentive to negotiate with our city in good faith for the level of service, price, or contract terms, because they will know that El Segundo has no choice but to contract with L.A. County.

Helicopter crash into Raytheon Buillding E-1 in El Segundo on March 13, 2011 proves that El Segundo already has Mutual Aid and it works

March 13, 2011

The emergency response to the helicopter crash into Raytheon Building E-1 in El Segundo last Sunday proves two significant points. First, it proves our existing Fire Department mutual aid system works exceptionally well. El Segundo Fire Chief Kevin Smith answered questions during a press conference attended by ABC, KTLA, and FOX television news, and myself.

Chief Smith stated that 70 firefighters responded to this incident, including mutual aid from the L.A. County Fire Department and all South Bay fire departments, including Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, and Torrance (see photos at PublicSafetyProject.org).

Second, the quick and effective emergency response by 70 firefighters proves that Measure P, the firefighter union's initiative, is absolutely unnecessary because we already have effective mutual aid. It shows how deceptive the firefighters' claims are. It debunks their fundamental ballot argument claim that Measure P will "put 72 firefighters on call" (including out-of-town stations). Interestingly, Chief Smith signed the ballot argument for Measure P, along with the only (or one of two) firefighter union member who lives in El Segundo, and Councilman Don Brann, the most enthusiastic advocate of tax and fee increases on businesses and residents.

The other claims in their ballot argument are equally false. Measure P is a permanent takeover of our Fire Department by L.A. County that eliminates paramedic ambulances and local control, insulates the firefighters from accountability to any city official, and protects their wildly excessive and unsustainable $150,000 to $350,000 salaries, benefits, and pensions that caused El Segundo's budget problems.

The photos below were taken by Michael D. Robbins on March 13, 2011, and are copyright © 2011 by Michael D. Robbins. They show El Segundo Fire Chief Kevin Smith, fire vehicles from the Los Angeles County Fire Department and from other fire departments outside El Segundo that provided mutual aid, and the news helicopter above the helicopter crash site.

The helicopter crash occured between Raytheon Co. (legacy Hughes Aircraft Co.) Building E-1 and E-4, which is surrounded by Building E-1. Raytheon security prevented access to the crash site, which is understandable, and the only view of the wreckage itself was from above by helicopter. There was one news helicopter overhead, which is shown in the photo below.


(PHOTOS WILL BE UPLOADED SHORTLY)

El Segundo residential trash collection fee is resolved

February 3, 2011

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

The affected residential properties with more than four units will have to contract with a private trash hauler and pay for the service, however, the City will include in its upcoming trash collection contract Request For Proposal (RFP) a requirement to offer trash collection service to the affected properties at the same cost as the City would have paid. The trash hauler that is awarded the contract, and not the City, will bill the affected residential property owners that choose to use the City's trash hauler.

At first, City Council member Don Brann made a motion to continue the existing City practice of collecting trash without fee from residential properties with one to four or more units that use standard trash cans. His motion was seconded by Council member Suzanne Fuentes, and won by a 3-1 vote with Brann, Fuentes, and Mayor Pro Tem Bill Fisher voting "yes" and Mayor Eric Busch voting "no". Councilman Carl Jacobson abstained due to a conflict of interest (he owns a four-unit residential property in the city).

But then the Director of Public Works spoke and muddied the waters, causing some confusion. Mayor Pro Tem wanted to take back his vote. He made a motion to reconsider, which was seconded by Fuentes and passed by a 3-1 vote with Fisher, Fuentes, and Busch voting "yes" and Brann voting "no". Suzanne Fuentes then made a motion to direct staff to include three and four unit properties in the next trash collection contract. Bill Fisher seconded the motion, and it passed by a 3-1 vote, with Fuentes, Fisher, and Bran voting "yes" and Busch voting "no".

There was discussion about including an option in the RFP for the trash hauler awarded the contract to offer service for a fee at the City's rate to residential properties with more than four units that use standard trash cans.

Mayor Eric Busch was visibly upset that he did not have enough votes to support his agenda to discontinue the City's residential trash collection service to properties with more than two units in order to save an estimated $130,000 per year at the expense of the residents. Cost increases to apartment building owners would likely and reasonably be passed on to the tenants.

The current residential trash collection system works fine. If it is not broken, then don't fix it, and certainly don't break it.

Mayor Eric Busch's attempt to discontinue city trash collection service for residential properties with more than two units that use standard trash cans might have broken the system for the older buildings that have no space to accommodate a large rectangular trash bin. It may also have resulted in many more trash trucks from different companies driving routes through our residential neighborhoods to service the affected properties.

Mayor Eric Busch's priorities are in the wrong place if he really wants to stop squandering taxpayer money. He wants to "save" $130,000 per year by cutting City services to residents, at the same time he is wasting at least $9 million per year in wildly excessive and unsustainable firefighter and police "special compensation" ($3 million excess per year) and CalPERS pension "employer contributions" and "employee contributions" paid by the City ($6 million excess per year). But then again, the firefighter and police unions endorsed him, contributed money to his City Council campaign, and campaigned enthusiastically for him.

A victory for El Segundo residents and residential property owners (house or 2 units)

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.

This is our second victory in our effort to stop the City Council majority from imposing City of Bell-style taxes and fees on businesses and residents to pay to continue enriching City employee union members and their managers - especially the firefighter and police union members and their managers - with wildly excessive and unsustainable salaries, benefits, and pensions that threaten to bankrupt our city.

Our first victory was the defeat of Measure O on the November 2, 2010 election ballot by 55% "NO" to 45% "YES". Measure O was the $4 million business Utility Users Tax increase that would have been passed on to the customers as a cost of doing business. Measure O would have increased business electricity, water, gas, and telephone Utility Users Taxes by $2 million per year for two years and then it would have sunset. It was put on the ballot by a 5-0 vote of the City Council as a misguided attempt to balance the city budget, and resolve a more than $8 million budget shortfall that was caused primarily by the wildly excessive and unsustainable salaries, benefits, and compensation of the firefighter and police union members and their managers.

Ted Lieu's campaign mailer featuring 36 deceptive government employee union endorsements and 38 counterfeit badges

February 15, 2011

El Segundo voters received a campaign mailer for Ted Lieu, a soft-on-crime, tax-and-spend leftist politician running for state senate in the extremely gerrymandered California Senate District 28 (CA SD 28). The campaign mailer featured 36 deceptive government employee union endorsements made to look like legitimate public safety endorsements, and 38 counterfeit badges which are actually government employee union logos.

Soft-on-crime, tax-and-spend politicians frequently use the cover of deceptive government employee union endorsements to masquerade as tough-on-crime, fiscally conservative politicians.