El Segundo Chamber Spent $68,000 to Halt Slow-Growth Measure

With large contributions from major industries, the El Segundo Chamber of Commerce spent more than $68,000 to defeat a slow-growth ballot measure last April, according to campaign contribution reports.

Community Outreach, a political action committee established by the chamber, received its largest contributions from a handful of major El Segundo corporations, said Charles Bell Jr., a Sacramento attorney who serves as the committee’s treasurer.

The largest contributor was Hughes Aircraft, which spent $13,138 to defeat the measure, including $943 for a “Dear Fellow Hughes Employee” letter sent to an estimated 1,400 of its workers who live in El Segundo. The letter urged the workers to vote against the measure.

By contrast, the Group United for Residential Rights, a residents organization that worked to place the measure on the ballot, spent $3,205, according to contribution reports.

Initiative Defeated

The initiative, which appeared on the April 12 ballot as Measure C, was voted down, 2,072 to 1,527.

Had it become law, Measure C would have restricted the ability of some companies to build and expand in El Segundo. For example, it would have prohibited developers from circumventing density limits through city-approved zone changes or development agreements unless voters approved.

The measure also would have required builders to include parking structures when calculating a building’s total square footage, a provision that could have resulted in smaller buildings.

Under state law, the contribution reports had to be postmarked by last Monday, although El Segundo City Clerk Ron Hart said Friday that his office had not yet received the chamber’s reports.

Bell, a partner with the Sacramento law firm of Nielsen, Merksamer, Hodgson, Parrinello & Mueller, said the reports had been mailed by the deadline.

Operated at a Deficit

In a telephone interview, Bell said the committee operated at a deficit, raising $59,603 and spending $68,421.

After Hughes, the next largest contributor was Rockwell International, which donated $10,000. Chevron USA Inc. gave the committee $5,370, while Kilroy Industries, a development company, and Xerox contributed $5,000 each. All of the firms have major facilities in El Segundo.

Nestor Synadinos, co-chairman of the residents group, said he wasn’t surprised by the amount of money spent by the chamber to defeat the initiative.

“It’s their usual tactic, to try to blow you away,” Synadinos said. He said his group, which last year successfully used an initiative to force a developer to scale back a large office complex, has been inactive since the spring election but has not dissolved.

“If needed, we’ll get going again,” he said.

Hughes and Rockwell officials said their companies were concerned that the measure would have hampered their freedom to develop or otherwise alter their facilities.

Feared Litigation

Additionally, the officials said, the companies thought that the measure was badly written and would have been challenged in court, exposing the city to costly litigation.

“We felt we had an obligation to speak out on something we felt was poorly drawn up as law,” said George Wiley, director of human resources for Rockwell.

Chevron spokesman Rod Spackman said the oil company was against the measure because it would have been retroactive to projects approved since February, 1987. The company also believed that the measure would have removed city employees, such as planners, from the decision-making process, he said.

Bell said Community Outreach was formed “to be an ongoing committee that will support and oppose measures of interest to the business community in El Segundo.” About 300 companies belong to the chamber.