Page 4 June 17, 2021 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Elias Sassoon from front page
everyone’s face who has crossed my path. I
love this beautiful city!”
Most managers develop an organizational,
pyramid-shaped chart, with the boss man or
lady perched at the top of said chart. Sassoon
said he does have a chart, but he has flipped
the script on that management tool.
He places himself at the bottom of the pyramid,
a “servant leader,” he said, whose goal is to
maximize the talents of his assembled team, and
calling on his engineering background, solve the
challenge at hand in the most efficient manner.
“When I resolve an issue, it energizes me,”
Sassoon said, who, it has been noted by past
and current employers, is often the first to
arrive at work, the last to leave, and has been
known to venture out and visit projects on the
weekend to keep tabs on their progress.
Too much time on the job?
“I try to be the best at anything that I do,”
the Pacific Palisades resident said, noting
that sometimes work has “interfered with my
personal life” and that he is striving to “keep
a balance” in his work and personal life.
Sassoon relishes his post working for the citizens
and the City of El Segundo. Upon his hiring,
City Manager Scott Mitnick noted Sassoon’s
“passion for public service, his high level of
customer service, and his depth of experience.”
Mitnick touted Sassoon’s prior experience,
reiterating that the hiring of Sassoon was a
“tremendous asset to the city.”
Speak with folks who have worked with Sassoon
over the years, a constant theme emerges. A
caring man, who pays attention to detail, works
tirelessly, and, said Greg Porter, who worked
with Sassoon in Texas for eight years, “one of
the most remarkable human beings that I have
ever had the pleasure to work with.”
Continued Porter: “He is exceptionally giving,
with the knowledge of people, culture, and his
ability to listen, which makes him the absolute
perfect fit for municipal government.”
Porter related that Sassoon was effective not
only in dealing with and shepherding multimillion
dollar municipal projects in the Dallas
area, but could seamlessly pivot to giving his
full attention to a local resident who may have
an issue relating to her crumbling driveway
concrete.
Porter lamented the day Sassoon decided to
relocate to California. “It broke my heart,”
he said.
Jill Jordan has been associated with Sassoon
for more than three decades. The two rose
through the municipal management ranks in
Dallas. “El Segundo is lucky to have him,”
Jordan said. “He is always dedicated, sees the
job through, and is creative in coming up with
solutions. Y’all are lucky to have him; his heart
is in public service,” she said. “He is going to
watch out for his community.”
Gabriella Yap was a colleague of Sassoon’s
during his three-year stint in Rancho Palos
Verdes. She called Sassoon a “deeply
knowledgeable engineer, with his heart in
public service. He is generous in every sense
of the word, very authentic, really wants to
help people,” while noting his show-up-early,
stay late work ethic.
Mitnick said he did not doubt that Sassoon
would be an asset to El Segundo. “Elias has
done a great job in his first several months
with the city,” Mitnick said. “He maintains
a tremendous “can do” attitude. He is always
upbeat and positive. He is a problem-solver
who seeks to understand a challenging issue
and works toward coming up with a resolution.
I like how he comes to me with “solutions”
and not “problems.”
Regarding those flower poles, Mitnick shared:
“A small sample of how he finds solutions and
implements them in short order involves the
Downtown decorative flower poles. There are
over 55 of these that sat unused in disrepair
for years and had become a visual eyesore. I
had asked previous staff why we let these poles
deteriorate and go unmaintained and unused. I
was provided with several excuses, including
The water lines are broken, cannot obtain the
necessary parts to fix, too expensive, no one
likes them, not a priority, etc.
“When Elias was hired, I told him that one of
his first priorities had to be to fix these flower
poles. He immediately set out to research each
pole, worked with his new staff, developed a
plan within his existing budget, and within a
short period had every single pole refurbished to
look like new, fixed the water lines, planted each
pot with beautiful flowers, and the Downtown
merchants and community love the result.
“On a bigger scale,” Mitnick continued, “Elias
is working on developing a multi-year Capital
Improvement Program (CIP). This is coming
along nicely. He is also working with the City
of LA to improve the drainage and landscaping
within the medians on Imperial Highway just
north of El Segundo and adjacent to LAX. He
is awfully close to obtaining a positive outcome.
“Elias is a true team player. He puts the
needs of the city ahead of his own. He is an
effective member of the City’s Executive Team
(Department Heads).
“He leads by example. He works as hard as
any of his department employees. He is often
the first one into the office early in the morning
and the last one to leave in the evening. He is
frequently in the office or out in the field on
weekends to make sure the facilities that his
department are responsible for are working. He
has an incredible work ethic and commitment
to all things El Segundo.
“He will not ask any of his employees to do
something that he would not do himself. He
has a strong depth of experience and knowledge
of the Public Works profession. He does not
complain, and he figures out a way to gets
things done without seeking credit for the
result. He loves public service and to make
the community better.”
When he is not putting in the extra hours at work,
Sassoon said he enjoys playing racquetball (he
even invited this old scribe, who probably has
not played racquetball in 30 years, to join him
as his guest at his racquetball club), swimming,
pondering movements on the chessboard, and
reading, specifically history and biographies.
Sassoon said he had not regretted his intrepid
American venture that he undertook when he
was a teenager, which, he said, was inspired by
watching John Wayne movies that extolled the
virtues of America. “By birth, I am Persian, by
choice, American.” He said that, in his opinion,
the American dream is still within reach. “If
I, with all these barriers, could make it, there
is no reason others cannot.” •
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Council Talks Finances,
Covid and Future
By Liz Spear
It was a heavy agenda for the El Segundo
City Council at its most recent regularly
scheduled meeting last Tuesday night.
Discussions on the city’s financial state and
moving forward toward securing a possible
AAA rating from Standard & Poor’s,
accomplishing much-needed facility upgrades
at parks and pools, with a sense of urgency
and a commitment to getting things done
for residents, while also spending taxpayer
dollars well.
City Council members were charged with
looking at and approving a proposed operating
budget for the fiscal year 2021-2022, a
Capital Improvement Program budget, and
reviewing staffing, and adding a part-time
special projects administrator to help shore
up city operations.
The meeting, which spanned nearly 5-1/2
hours, began with a special acknowledgment
and presentation to the El Segundo High
School girls’ soccer team for winning the CIF
Southern Section Division 4 championship,
the school’s first for its girls’ team. The
Cinderella season for the team saw them
overcome a third-place finish in league
competition, soaring in CIF playoffs with four
wins that advanced them to face undefeated
San Dimas for the CIF division championship.
They then lost to San Dimas in CIF regional
competition shortly thereafter.
The council’s discussion of finances took
an interesting turn when council member Scot
Nicol wanted to learn more about why the
newly renovated fire station 1 needed new
carpet at a projected cost of $85,000 after
just four years.
Council also honed in on asking city staff to
come back with a $1 million reduction in the
proposed budget after a lengthy conversation
and settled on the city operating with a 20%
reserve level. According to a staff report, the
lowest reserve level allowed for a city is
slightly over 16%, said city staff, and 20%
is considered a “Best Management Practice”
by municipal financial advisory firms and
bond rating agencies. Reserves can be used in
case of natural disasters like fires, floods, and
earthquakes, as well as economic recessions.
Mayor Drew Boyles was not “bullish” on the
post-COVID-19 recovery, especially given El
Segundo’s reliance on people occupying office
spaces and hotels being booked to capacity.
City Council entertained the idea of asking
the El Segundo Unified School District to
help pay for crossing guard services (the
cost is $130,950) but, for now, decided to
approve the funding from city coffers. Council
member Carol Pirztuk said, “… the safety of
our children should be our focus,” and urged
the council to bear that in mind. Mayor Pro
Tem Chris Pimentel believed there was room
for discussion and negotiation with ESUSD
and noted that they probably have “an
understanding that we are in this together,”
saying he didn’t think the city and school
district were in an “acrimonious position.”
Da Vinci Schools CEO/Superintendent Matt
Wunder, a founder of Da Vinci, which opened
in 2017, thanked the city for its All-Hazards
Incident Management Team’s efforts during
COVID-19 and for vaccinating Da Vinci staff.
He called out the team’s “professionalism,
service, and quality.”
The city’s Director of Information
Technology Services, Charles Mallory,
told the council the South Bay Fiber Ring
Network, a regional broadband, fiber-optic
network designed to keep South Bay cities
on the leading edge of luring companies to
the area as a technology-savvy community,
had been completed last November and that
El Segundo was the first city to connect to
the network, which cost the city “zero” and
saved the city approximately the $20,000
it was spending to provide wi fi at the city
library.
Mayor Drew Boyles read a proclamation
for Juneteenth, an acknowledgment of Jun.
19, 1865, when the last slaves in Galveston,
Texas, became aware of their freedom, a
freedom the US had recorded as law on Jan.
1, 1863, after an official proclamation was
made in September of 1862.
Shad McFadden, the city’s Diversity,
Equity, and Inclusion committee chairperson,
came forward to tell the council in person
at the microphone (city council meetings
are currently still being held on Zoom) his
thoughts about Juneteenth. He noted that
growing up, he’d interpreted Juneteenth as
a sad day because the time lapse between
the issuance of the US proclamation versus
when the last slaves heard about it contained
such a gap. He urged all “to celebrate our
diversity” and said that having sometimes
See City Council, page 6