Fisher ousts Jacobson to become mayor of El Segundo

The El Segundo City Council at the Ed! Foundations annual gala at Chevron Park earlier this month. From left to right, Marie Fellhauer, Suzanne Fuentes, Carl Jacobson, Bill Fisher, and Dave Atkinson. See more photos on page 36. Photo
The El Segundo City Council at the Ed! Foundations annual gala at Chevron Park earlier this month. From left to right, Marie Fellhauer, Suzanne Fuentes, Carl Jacobson, Bill Fisher, and Dave Atkinson. See more photos on page 36. Photo

The El Segundo City Council at the Ed! Foundations annual gala at Chevron Park earlier this month. From left to right, Marie Fellhauer, Suzanne Fuentes, Carl Jacobson, Bill Fisher, and Dave Atkinson. See more photos on page 36. Photo

El Segundo has a new mayor. Bill Fisher, citing an urgent need for the city to proactively court new businesses, made an impassioned call for the replacement of Carl Jacobson as mayor and was subsequently chosen by his colleagues to take the city’s helm in a contentious 3-2 vote.

In an unusually dramatic council meeting on May 21, Fisher, who has served on the council since 2006, came forward with a recommendation to interrupt Jacobson’s two-year term as mayor, originally slated to run through next April. He emphasized the move was not about Jacobson inadequately performing his duties, but rather about a need for the mayor’s office to take a new and more aggressive approach to attracting business to help the city rebound from the economic recession.

“All of us are really tasked with a lot of different things that make the city run, and we all put in great effort,” Fisher said. “This is not an indication of any personal issues. This is just an indication, me bringing this forward, of what I think the city needs to do to move forward….One thing we are desperately in need of is a voice, someone who will tell the story of El Segundo. And it is urgent.”

Fisher noted that the city’s revenues have decreased from $60 million to $50 million annually, with a corresponding reduction in the city’s workforce and across-the-board salary cuts. “What we have gone through in this city in the last five years is unprecedented,” he said. “No other councils, no other mayors, have seen this.”

As the economic downturn came to an end, Fisher said that he recognized that “we needed to make the city of El Segundo run again. Way ahead of anyone else talking about this, I saw that we had to move to an aggressive economic development mode, to get business revenues up because we’d lost so much in the downturn.”

Fisher said he and the council have made strategic moves, promoting the Smoky Hollow area as a new technology incubator district and hiring an economic development analyst for the city. But he said more needed to be done, and vowed that if he became mayor he would call for an economic development summit.

“We need someone championing El Segundo, to market our city before the recovery wave passes us by….Time is precious,” he said. “It’s a precious commodity, and I know Carl doesn’t have any more [time], and I know it would be difficult to do what I am describing.”

“I can do this work at this critical and really unprecedented time.”

Jacobson, who has lived in El Segundo 42 years and served on the council 21 years, defended his record. He argued he’d played a key role in both attracting business and saving jobs, and said he’d attended a recent real estate meeting at which Fisher was not present.

“So I don’t know about your time,” Jacobson said. “You haven’t had that much. I have the time. I have a flexible schedule. There is a lot to be done, and I agree we need to work as a team, and not just one person…It takes everybody.”

Fisher said that he’d recommended Jacobson take positions on two key committees – involving negotiations with Chevron, and with the Centinella Unified School District – that he served on. But he stopped short of criticizing his colleague.

“I think we are all doing what we need to be doing up here,” Fisher said. “I just think there is a lot more that could be done.”

“We should be Silicon Beach,” Fisher added. “That is what we should be doing. That is what we should be promoting, and we are not doing it. And the mayor needs to do it.”

Councilwoman Suzanne Fuentes defended Jacobson. She said she’d received a lot of phone calls and suggested a word-of-mouth campaign had been circulating that questioned Jacobson’s health.

“They are being told it’s declining, and he has to be replaced for his own good and the good of the city because he has a hand tremor and bad eyesight,” she said. “Which, we all up here wears glasses….I hope the real reason behind this change is ego, because I would be very disappointed if somebody with a physical disability was being discriminated against. It’s against the law, state and federal. So the will of the council will prevail tonight, and life will go on, but it will give the public some insight into the hearts and minds of people. I’ll continue to work with my colleagues and respect them, but I will hope that they continue to live in a perfect world, where nobody gets sick, or has a disability, or has a family member that requires more attention than council deems acceptable.”

Councilwoman Marie Fellhauer said that as far as she was concerned, health issues had nothing to do with the proposed change. She backed Fisher’s recommendation for the reasons he’d offered.

“To echo what Bill said, this is nothing personal, Carl,” she said. “I believe you are an honorable, good, and just man, and you love the city of El Segundo as much as anyone else who lives here. I know you spent many years serving this city and I don’t know anyone else who has served more years. But our city is changing.”

Fellhauer said that El Segundo could no longer depend on the defense industry economically and needed to actively seek out new business.

“I just think at this point our city needs more leadership, and I personally believe Bill Fisher has the qualities that we need. And I know he has the passion and enthusiasm to reach out businesses.”

The deciding vote belonged to Councilman Dave Atkinson, who’d remained silent on the issue as his colleagues tussled. “Not a happy feeling,” Atkinson said. “…I’ve been tossing this for quite a while, and I personally don’t like my position.”

Atkinson ultimately backed Fisher’s recommendation, but not in its original form, which would have changed the mayoral term from two years to one. “So as much as it hurts me to say this, I believe we do need a change,” he said. “But not the two year term. I think that Carl is probably the best overall person I know on this council, nothing intended fellows and girls. I’ve known him a long time. But I feel it’s time.”

In a 3-2 vote, with Jacobson and Fuentes opposing, the mayoral position was declared vacant. Fisher was subsequently voted mayor in another 3-2 vote. Jacobson then requested a revote “to make it unanimous,” and the council voted 5-0 to make Fisher mayor. Jacobson took a long look at Fisher, silently, as the votes were cast.

“I think I am doing good, but obviously you guys don’t,” Jacobson said.

Fisher nominated Jacobson as mayor pro tem.

“I would be honored to have him as mayor pro tem,” he said. “I think he provides so much information, and has such a great history.”

The council voted unanimously for the former mayor. Fisher then directed staff to prepare a proclamation in honor of Jacobson’s long history and body of work on behalf of the city.

“He’s an institution and a wonderful person, and I want the city to know that,” Fisher said.

As the meeting neared conclusion, 55-year El Segundo resident Loretta Frye took the podium, livid. Holding an oxygen bag, she said she was a stage four cancer patient, diabetic, and a survivor of open heart surgery.

“But I was still able to suit up and do taxes for this community,” she said. “We are not brain-dead because we have physical problems…Those of us who have a disability or who have had surgery, it does not mean we are not capable of functioning as a human being.”

“I think this is unfair to our citizens,” she added. “And to interrupt a mayor serving in the middle of his term? He hasn’t done anything wrong. What is he guilty of? Getting old? I am guilty of that. I just think what was done here was rude.”

Fisher reiterated that health issues had nothing to do with the mayoral change.

“What we did here tonight was no impeachment of Carl Jacobson,” he said.

 

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