Rockwell and Hughes Join Ballot Battle in El Segundo

Hughes Aircraft, Rockwell International and several other major El Segundo corporations are spending thousands of dollars and seeking employee support to defeat a city ballot measure that could restrict their ability to build and expand.

Campaign disclosure reports filed this week show that the companies have contributed the lion’s share of the $34,940 in cash collected so far by Community Outreach, a political action committee set up earlier this year by the El Segundo Chamber of Commerce.

Letters Sent Out

Both Hughes and Rockwell, which together have donated $20,000, also sent a letter to their employees who live in El Segundo stating their objections to the measure, company officials said.

Although Rockwell stopped short of advising its employees how to vote, Hughes urged its employees to vote against the measure.

Hughes also supplied absentee ballot applications to the workers and conducted an opinion poll of El Segundo residents to determine, among other things, how residents feel about the measure, which will be decided in the municipal election Tuesday.

The companies’ actions indicate the intense opposition to the proposal, known as Measure C, that has developed within El Segundo’s business community.

Density Limits

The initiative, proposed by a residents organization known as Group United for Residential Rights, would prohibit a developer from circumventing existing density limits through city-approved zone changes or development agreements unless voters approve.

The measure also would require builders to include parking structures when calculating a building’s total square footage, which could result in smaller buildings to meet density limits.

If it becomes law, the measure would be retroactive to projects approved since February, 1987. City officials say they do not know how many projects would be affected.

Nestor Synadinos, co-chairman of the residents group and one of seven candidates seeking a seat on the City Council next week, said his group has spent about $1,500 to promote the measure and expects to spend about $2,200 by Tuesday’s vote.

$8,523 in Campaign Debts

Campaign disclosure reports indicate that the group has about $6,000 but its debts total $8,523. Synadinos said the money is owed to the group’s attorney, which represented it during a successful initiative campaign last year aimed at a local developer. The developer, Continental Development Co., was forced to scale back a large office complex.

Synadinos said he suspects that the money being raised to defeat the current measure could hurt its chances of passing. Last year, however, Continental spent more than $105,000 in its unsuccessful effort to defeat the ballot initiative on its project, whereas Synadinos’ group spent about $30,000.

Synadinos said he is not surprised that the big companies are contributing large sums of money to the chamber’s committee.

“I am practical,” Synadinos said. “A company has to look out for what it considers its interests. However, they overpower us with money looking out for their interests.”

Besides Hughes and Rockwell, the disclosure reports show that among firms with facilities in El Segundo, Xerox and Computer Sciences Corp. have contributed $5,000 and $2,000, respectively. Continental Grand Associates of Los Angeles donated $2,000, while Pacific Corporate Towers of Beverly Hills contributed $2,500. The Hacienda Hotel in El Segundo contributed $500.

George Wiley, director of human resources for Rockwell in El Segundo, said a letter signed by him was sent to about 225 company employees who live in El Segundo. The letter was intended to make the workers aware of the measure, and urged them to consider carefully how they voted on it, he said.

Wiley said Rockwell believes it has a corporate responsibility to become involved in local issues. He said the company, which employs about 5,000 people at its El Segundo facilities, is concerned that if the measure passes, it could face numerous legal challenges that could translate into big legal bills for the deficit-ridden city. For the past five years, El Segundo has had to dip into its reserves to balance its general operating budget, and has imposed an employee “head tax” on large businesses.

Concerned About Disaster

Wiley also acknowledged that Rockwell is concerned about what would happen if a disaster such as an earthquake or fire struck its El Segundo facilities. The way the measure is written, he said, it is unclear whether the company would be able to rebuild existing buildings.

Hughes, in a “Dear Fellow Hughes Employee” letter mailed March 30 and signed by J. Allen Hollingsworth, the company’s senior vice president of human resources and administration, urged an estimated 1,400 employees who live in El Segundo to vote against the measure. Hughes employees make up nearly a tenth of the city’s 14,600 residents.

The letter warned that passage of the Measure C would result in a “huge downzoning” and affect “hundreds of businesses” by hampering their ability to improve and upgrade their properties. Enclosed with the letter was an absentee voter application, according to Hughes spokeswoman Daralyn Reed.

Reed said Hughes also paid $1,925 to Gary Lawrence Co. of Santa Ana to conduct a public opinion poll of El Segundo residents. The expenditure is listed on the disclosure forms as a non-monetary contribution to the committee.

Reed said residents were asked a few questions about Measure C, but such information is deemed “proprietary” and is not released to the public. However, she said the poll’s results “told us a campaign needed to be waged on this issue.”

“Most of the people in El Segundo didn’t know about the measure when the chamber decided to set up its committee,” Reed said.

According to the disclosure forms, the chamber’s political action committee has paid $22,000 of the funds it has raised to George Young & Associates, a Los Angeles-based political consulting company. The company has prepared brochures and other campaign materials for the committee, said chamber President Floyd Carr.

Also, the committee has paid $2,000 to the Sacramento law firm of Nielsen, Merksamer, Hodgson, Parrinello & Mueller to take care of its bookkeeping chores, Carr said.

“We are being very up front about it,” Carr said, referring to the committee’s fund raising and spending activities.