The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 106, No. 49 - December 7, 2017
Inside
This Issue
Best of the Best..................7
Calendar of Events.............2
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................16
Classifieds............................4
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Entertainment......................6
Legals..................................14
Police Reports...................17
Real Estate.........10-13,18,19
Sports....................................5
Weekend
Forecast
Chevron Fuel Your School Funds
Key El Segundo Unified Projects
El Segundo High School hosted El Segundo Unified School District Board Members, Superintendent Dr. Melissa Moore, El Segundo Mayor Suzanne Fuentes and Chevron representatives for a celebration
thanking the refinery for helping fund necessary school projects through the Fuel Your School Program on Wednesday, November 29. Chevron provided $65,000 to fund a total of 68 projects in the
District. (Matt Sayles/AP Images).
Council Talks Sales Tax Measure,
Acacia Street Closures and More…
By Brian Simon
On Tuesday night, the El Segundo City
Council continued discussions about placing
City Approves Legal Settlement
with Airport on LAMP Project
By Brian Simon
Almost exactly 12 years after announcing
a since-expired legal settlement with
Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) that
provided funding for residential sound
insulation (RSI) while also constraining
growth at LAX, the El Segundo
City Council last week approved a new
agreement that will bring critical road
improvements to the area. Under the
terms of the settlement with LAWA and
the City of Los Angeles, El Segundo
will not pursue legal action against the
airport’s Landside Access Modernization
Program (LAMP).
“The City of El Segundo applauds the
final approval of our settlement agreement
with the City of Los Angeles and Los
Angeles World Airports regarding the
Landside Access Modernization Project,”
Mayor Suzanne Fuentes said in an official
statement. “This agreement will bring
long-sought improvements to a primary
road serving El Segundo and will start
to deal with other LAX impacts on our
residents. Through this agreement, L.A.
has agreed to fix Imperial Highway, parts
of which are well-known to El Segundo
residents as being in terrible repair.”
The work on Imperial Highway will
address more than 16 miles of street area,
including nine-plus miles of resurfacing
and roughly seven miles of new slurry seal.
a three-quarters of one percent sales tax
increase on the April ballot that the members
only wish to implement should Los Angeles
County pass a similar measure in the future.
Under this scenario, El Segundo would effectively
beat the County to the punch and
recoup all the extra revenues—an estimated $9
million per year if the sales tax goes up 0.75
percent (three-quarters of one percent) from
the current 9.50 percent to 10.25 percent (the
maximum cap). If the City does nothing and
the County proceeds to raise the sales tax with
its own measure, then all those monies go to
the County instead of El Segundo. “So that
three-quarters is first-come, first-serve,” City
Attorney Mark Hensley explained. “Whoever
takes it first gets that tax.”
At the same time, Hensley described this
proposal as “the first of its kind” and with
that comes potential confusion about how to
phrase the ballot language. He advised against
a provision for the tax to take effect simultaneously
with the official passage of any future
County measure out of fear there could be a
legal challenge as to who was actually first.
Hensley thought it safer for El Segundo’s tax
to kick in at the point the County places its
own measure on the ballot (versus waiting for
the vote to occur). And if the County measure
fails, the City would simply suspend the
increase. “The worst case is we collect two to
three months of sales tax,” Hensley said. “If
it passes, it would stay in place.”
A third option, suggested by Councilmember
Carol Pirsztuk, authorizes the tax to be automatically
implemented either when a County
measure goes on the ballot or in “X” number
of years—whichever is earlier. Hensley felt this
idea presented even more safeguards for the
City since it shows intent and makes it highly
unlikely the County could challenge the move.
Hensley will provide verbiage for each option
at the next Council meeting. The deadline
to place the initiative on the ballot is 88 days
before the April 10 election. Speaking of which,
the Council on Tuesday also approved that
date as the next municipal election, in which
See City Council, page 17
See LAMP Project, page 14
Friday
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