Chevron's El Segundo Refinery

In El Segundo, California, a city manager is fired after finding a secret, possibly illegal, backroom deal with Chevron to pay unusually low taxes in this company town.

One morning after a council meeting in December, Doug Willmore, El Segundo’s city manager, walked outside to his car and found a note. It was a warning for him and his family to get out of town.

“Who does something like that?” says Willmore, who had relocated from Salt Lake County, Utah, earlier that year. He says had he known the city had such close ties to Chevron Corporation, he probably would not have taken the job.

Tucked between a waste treatment plant and the largest oil refinery in California, the city of El Segundo just south of Los Angeles International Airport has earned a reputation over the years as a sort of “Mayberry by the Sea.” The town’s picturesque little league fields, antique streetlights and quaint holiday parades all help give it a hometown feel despite its beachfront industrial development. Continue reading Chevron’s Huge Tax Break Cost City Manager His Job