The Beach Reporter – At quiet hearing, officials explain fire salaries

The reason that El Segundo has a budget problem is the contract that was “put in place by the late former El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon” per the El Segundo Director of Finance Deborah Cullen.

I just want to point out here, again, that the policies of Mike Gordon were detrimental to the city of El Segundo and were put in place for the advancement of his own political career. The city will survive with the leadership of the current management, but it was a blow that we need to recover from.

So why does the El Segundo Fire Department have 19 full-time staff, with an average salary of $150,000?

Previous to the new contract, both police and fire had been given a five-year contract from 2003-08, put in place by the late former El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon. The contract enabled a raise in both base salary and special compensation. Cullen explained that this resulted in a 38-percent growth in salary payout over that period.

Smith said running two short will have a minimal impact and added that in terms of structure fires, the city experiences an average of less than one per year.

“We are not putting the city at danger with these cuts,” El Segundo Mayor Kelly McDowell said.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.tbrnews.com/articles/2009/09/08/el_segundo_news/news04.txt