The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo Herald Publications - El Segundo, Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 105, No. 26 - June 23, 2016 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.....................14 Classifieds............................4 Crossword/Sudoku.............4 Film Review..........................6 Legals......................... 6,12,13 Pets......................................14 Police Reports.....................2 Real Estate...........8-11,15,16 Seniors..................................2 Sports....................................5 Weekend Forecast Boy Scout Troop 762 at a Flag Retirement Ceremony on Flag Day Scout Troop 762’s Flag Retirement ceremony on Flag Day, June 14th. The boys retired 10 flags in all, saluting and saying the Pledge of Allegiance one last time to each flag. Many people stopped by while walking through the park. The ceremony was quite nice and reverent. Photo by Neal Boushell. • Friday Sunny 76˚/63˚ Saturday Mostly Sunny 79˚/64˚ Sunday Mostly Sunny 80˚/65˚ City Council Gives El Segundo Co-Op Nursery School a Dollar Deal By Brian Simon The operators of the longstanding El Segundo Charitable Giving Takes a Dive, New Study Finds By Rob McCarthy The ground is shaking beneath 35,000-plus charities based in Los Angeles County, and it’s not the San Andreas’ doing. Residents are donating $1 billion less to local causes than before the housing crash, and gifts from wealthy donors are going elsewhere. Charitable giving steadily declined in Southern California after the housing crash and never recovered, according to researchers at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Policy. Using IRS tax data, they know that Los Angeles County residents donated $7.1 billion in 2006, the year before the subprime mortgage crisis. People at every income level gave less from 2008 to 2013 than they did before the crash, regardless if they earned $25,000 per year or had six-figure salaries. “This report presents evidence that historical patterns of local generosity are changing, and not for the better,” wrote Bill Parent, project director for “The Generosity Gap: Donating Less in Post-Recession Los Angeles County” report. “The Generosity Gap” expands on earlier work that identified L.A. giving patterns by zip codes. People living on the Westside and in the lower-income South Los Angeles are bigger donors than folks living near the beaches. The team found a correlation between regular attendance at religious services and charitable gifts. See Charitable Giving, page 3 Co-Op Nursery School received some very good news on Tuesday night when the City Council voted to reduce the non-profit’s annual fee to use the bottom portion of the George E. Gordon Clubhouse Building at Recreation Park---dropping the amount from $3,000 down to just one dollar. Co-Op Board President Sara Whelan explained that the school occupies the space 10 months out of the year on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8:30 to noon. It had never paid any fees from 1947 to 2014, but that changed after the Council implemented comprehensive new hourly rate policies for all users of Recreation and Parks facilities. Assigning a “market rate” of $15 per hour, staff determined the normal annual fee for the group to reserve the Clubhouse should be $6,000 based on 400 hours of usage per year. Considering the school’s limited resources, staff met with Co-Op officials in June 2014 and the parties agreed on a $3,000 annual fee to be phased in at $750 for fiscal year 2014/15, $1,500 in 2015/16 and $3,000 in 2016/17. However, Whelan reported that the school currently has only 16 students who pay between $95 and $145 a month, with the monies going towards two teacher salaries, supplies and field trips. Even with a Casino Night fundraiser, the Co-Op only managed $33,100 in total revenues in 2015/16 compared to expenditures of $34,900. With that in mind and noting the negative impacts on the already scant field trip and supply budgets, Whelan asked the Council to shave the fee back to $1,500. “We are simply trying to stay afloat,” she said. After stating that he didn’t understand why the City would need to impose fees after negotiating a “$115 million agreement” with Chevron, Councilmember Don Brann made the motion to set the Co-Op rate at $1. His colleagues agreed with the exception of Mayor Suzanne Fuentes, who argued that the fee structure helps keep El Segundo in line with other cities while still being lower comparatively. She felt the deal to charge the school half of the regular rate was fair. Fuentes also pointed out that while the Chevron tax in-lieu settlement certainly helps, it doesn’t make the City solvent. In See City Council, page 6
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