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The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 107, No. 37 - September 13, 2018
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................14
Classifieds............................4
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Film Review..........................6
Legals.......................10,12-13
Letters...................................2
Pets......................................15
Police Reports...................11
Real Estate..................7-9,16
Sports....................................5
Weekend
Forecast
Kids Learn About Fire Safety
El Segundo Fire Department Engineer Andy Powell was honored to be able to give a fire safety demonstration to a group of preschoolers recently. Photo: ESFD.
City Council Fine-Tunes Budget
By Brian Simon
In its third and final budget study session,
the El Segundo City Council pinpointed where
to spend a hefty surplus for the 2018/19
fiscal year. At the beginning of the presentation
To Catch a Thief…
Dear Readers,
Our distributor has notified us that
someone(s) stole our Heralds from newspaper
racks along Main Street. Naturally,
we are not happy about this and have
taken steps to address this crime. Yes,
crime. The newspapers may be free to
the public, but you can’t take a whole
stack or bundle. It’s a misdemeanor crime
under California Code, Penal Code 490.7
and the first violation is $250.
Under this code, our legislature saw
that free newspapers provide a key
source of information to the public
and that unauthorized theft of multiple
copies of free newspapers – whether
done to sell them to recycling centers,
injure a business competitor, deprive
others of the opportunity to read them,
or for any other reason -- hurts the readers,
writers and publishers while also
impoverishing the marketplace of ideas
in California.
We have filed a police report with the
ESPD, but we need your help to stop this.
It takes a village! If anyone sees somebody
taking large quantities of newspapers out
of our racks, please alert the police and
us. More than likely, the offenses take
place late at night or during early morning
hours. Take a photo! It would be great to
get a photo of them or the vehicle they
are driving -- even better, get a photo of
their license plate. We appreciate everyone’s
help on this. Thank you. All of us
at the El Segundo Herald. •
from Finance Director Joe Lillio, the
group received a dose of even better news
than previously reported: The excess monies
available for the coming year jumped up to
$7.1 million as compared to the $6.8 million
figure presented at the previous budget
meeting. Savings from staff vacancies, plus
revenue spikes from sources such as transient
occupancy taxes were among the chief reasons
for the positive bottom line.
With the windfall -- a welcome opportunity
that won’t likely repeat anytime soon
as future projections predict deficits in just
a few years – the Council looked to divvy
up allocations between department head
requests, capital improvement projects,
pension trust contributions and pay-downs
of the City of El Segundo’s unfunded
CalPERS liability, as well as an employee
engagement program. Councilmember Don
Brann did not attend the meeting. Among
other issues, he disagrees with his colleagues’
support for what he feels is a higher-thanwarranted
reserve policy (19 percent versus
his preference to lower that to 15 percent
in order to free up monies to provide more
services). He also contends that the bulk of
the coming surplus should go towards potential
LAX litigation costs and renovation of
The Plunge, with a portion also addressing
the pension.
On the list of department head requests,
Mayor Drew Boyles called for the various
directors and chiefs to find funding
internally for personnel additions/upgrades
and to not apply any of the general fund
surplus towards those expenditures. The
exceptions were one-time costs for certain
consultants (such as $241,000 to ensure
Information Services projects already in
the pipeline can be completed) who don’t
get future benefits like full-time employees
do; and an $18,000 allocation to fix a prior
clerical error that incorrectly calculated the
number of part-time library staffing.
The Council members present agreed
with the mayor’s strategy, feeling it more
prudent to run lean and maximize existing
personnel. “We want to do more with
the employees we have here,” Boyles said.
Though he said he will follow the direction
to crunch the numbers with the department
heads, City Manager Greg Carpenter predicted
the task at hand will be extremely
difficult. “We’re not gonna find $900,000
in a $7 million budget,” he warned, adding
Friday See City Council, page 11
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Saturday
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Sunday
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