Severance Package

In a move that promises to spark a battle over who governs development in Los Angeles, City Council members John Ferraro and Zev Yaroslavsky on Thursday urged the council to seize control of the Community Redevelopment Agency from Mayor Tom Bradley and his appointed commissioners.

Spain's new conservative government announced drastic changes to the country's labor system Friday, in some cases altering contract terms that have been untouched for 50 years, in a bid to bring down Europe's worst unemployment rate. Under the new labor rules, companies doing business in Spain will be able to hire and fire workers more freely, negotiate pay independent of national contract mandates and score tax breaks for hiring people younger than 30. Severance packages long deemed among the most generous in Europe will be cut by more than a quarter, from 45 days' pay for every year on the job to 33. Temporary workers, a full third of the Spanish workforce, will be entitled to permanent status, with better pay and benefits, after two years rather than the current three.

I am deeply disturbed that Mattel's board of directors would approve such a disgraceful severance package for Matthew Bousquette ("Ex-Executive to Receive $6.9 Million From Mattel," Dec. 29). The board's decision reflects a total disregard for equity at a time when some Mattel employees have been laid off and our society is in the midst of a crisis of a growing gap between the haves and the have-nots. As a society we need to find equitable solutions to this disgraceful, if not unethical, decision making.

Rudolf Montiel seemed remarkably sanguine last spring, sitting in a meeting room at the Los Angeles Housing Authority headquarters as he was publicly castigated by tenants just before being fired as the head of the largest public housing operation west of the Mississippi. He even smiled slightly as he threaded his way through an angry crowd. Before he stepped into the elevator, Montiel coolly suggested that his ouster had "an air of retribution and retaliation. " Montiel may have had reason to smile.

Re "Top L.A. Unified Attorney Is Fired," June 10: When a school district seemingly as poor as the L.A. Unified School District fires a man and grants him a severance package of more than $342,000 I begin to wonder who gave him this contract and how many others like it are out there. It is criminal that this type of situation exists while programs are being cut and school employees are being told that they will be furloughed to cut expenses. Now the district may use more private firms to do its legal chores, at a greater expense.

The agency that oversees Logan Airport in Boston cut the severance package for its executive director from $175,000 to $128,000 in response to public criticism and a prod from acting Gov. Jane Swift. Virginia Buckingham, 36, resigned from the Massachusetts Port Authority two weeks ago in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. The hijacked jetliners that brought down the World Trade Center twin towers had taken off from Logan.

The Lawndale City Council has approved a $23,700 severance package that includes half of the $5,000 in benefits the council had refused to pay ousted City Manager Daniel P. Joseph last week. Joseph said he would accept the offer, which substantially complies with a proposal he made in a letter to City Atty. David J. Aleshire last week. The offer, approved at a special meeting Thursday night, includes four months' salary of $20,808, two months' benefits--about $2,500--and a $400 car allowance.

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to offer to pay the salaries of more than 40 employees through July 1, when they are scheduled to be laid off. If the group of targeted employees accepts the offer, the city will also provide them with health insurance through Sept. 1 and career counseling. The cost of the severance package is estimated at $28,000, said Orv Placial, personnel director. The workers would be eligible for the benefits even if they resign before July 1.

Hughes Aircraft workers who get pink slips won't be leaving empty-handed, but they won't be getting nearly as generous a severance package as their predecessors got two years ago. In announcing this week the shutdown of its Fullerton plant by the end of 1995, Hughes said an estimated 800 to 1,000 of the 6,800 workers there would be laid off. The first wave of pink slips is due in about six weeks.

George Kadonada walked away from his job as chief executive of US Facilities Corp. last year with nearly $1.6 million in cash and property, according to the company's recent proxy. Kadonada, who parted ways with the Costa Mesa medical and casualty insurer amid a hostile takeover attempt, received more than three times the amount believed paid when the company said it would take a $500,000 charge to pay for his severance package.

The board of First 5 LA will give its former chief executive officer an expensive severance package even after she resigned earlier this month following a critical audit of the agency. Evelyn V. Martinez submitted a letter on Nov. 10, saying the commissioners had required her to resign instead of being fired without cause from the independent Los Angeles County agency, which uses state cigarette taxes to fund health, safety and educational programs for children from birth to age 5. In her letter, Martinez said she was entitled to a lump sum payment equal to 12 months of salary and health benefits and her unused vacation.

British Prime Minister David Cameron faced more questions about his judgment Tuesday amid reports that one of his top aides continued to receive money from the News of the World even after quitting the tabloid because of the phone-hacking scandal and signing up to work for the Conservative Party. Cameron hired Andy Coulson as the party's chief communications guru in 2007, shortly after Coulson stepped down as editor of the News of the World. His resignation followed the conviction and imprisonment of the newspaper's royal affairs reporter for illegally accessing voice mail messages left by Princes William and Harry.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou faced a political rebellion Thursday when two of his Socialist party lawmakers resigned and a clutch of others challenged his leadership as the country teeters on the verge of financial collapse. Though the resignations — which followed another defection by a Socialist lawmaker this week — did not end the party's majority in the Parliament, the crisis upstaged Papandreou's vow to overhaul his Cabinet in the midst of swelling social unrest and violent protests against deep budget cuts.

Even on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, one of the world's most expensive stretches of commercial real estate, the nation's economic woes have claimed a longtime employee. Because of budget problems, the city's visitors bureau has laid off its official ambassador, who has welcomed hundreds of tourists and visitors on Rodeo Drive for the last 11 years. Gregg Donovan, 51, the top-hat-wearing former hotel concierge, got his walking papers last month. No longer will he stroll Rodeo Drive, welcoming tourists to such high-end stores as Gianni Versace, Jimmy Choo and Battaglia.

Hewlett-Packard Co. agreed Monday to end a lawsuit aimed at preventing its recently ousted chief executive, Mark V. Hurd, from going to work for rival Oracle Corp. Under the settlement, Hurd agreed not to disclose HP's trade secrets to his new employer and waived his rights to nearly 345,000 special stock units he was entitled to as part of his severance package. If sold today, they would be worth close to $14 million. In addition to the stock units he gave up, Hurd's severance package included more than $12 million in cash and 775,000 stock options that vested on the day of his resignation, worth tens of millions more.

The union representing workers at a Fremont auto production plant slated to close next month said Wednesday that it had reached an agreement on a severance package worth $278 million. The workers were voting Wednesday on whether to ratify the pact with New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., which runs the plant, and results were not expected until Thursday. About 4,700 employees work at the facility, known as NUMMI. The severance package would amount to at least $21,175 per person.

Friday was Mark Finucane's last day of work as Los Angeles County health director. But it will not be his final day on the public payroll. A severance package approved by the Board of Supervisors allows him to work as a consultant for the county for the next year. He will continue to earn his $241,000 salary, receive full benefits and enjoy free county office space, his county-issued laptop, cellular phone and gasoline credit card.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Wednesday accused Sears, Roebuck & Co. of discriminating against older employees in the way it offered severance packages to its workers. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, said Sears has been cutting its work force by offering employees a severance package if they sign a document waiving their right to bring an age-discrimination suit.

'Nothing's going on here," Board of Water and Power Commissioners President Lee Kanon Alpert insisted at Tuesday's meeting, sounding woefully similar to a certain Wizard urging Dorothy and friends not to peek behind the curtain. Alpert's intent was to convince onlookers that there was nothing nefarious about plans by the Department of Water and Power to pay its outgoing chief, H. David Nahai, his full salary through the end of the year in exchange for "consulting" services. After all, Alpert said, smaller city departments have made similar deals with departing executives for even longer terms.

The Hotel Bel-Air closed quietly Wednesday, shutting for two years of renovations without agreeing to a severance package with its unionized employees. The garden-shrouded resort -- for more than 60 years a retreat for presidents, movie stars and others -- has refused to commit to rehire 250 union employees after its multimillion-dollar face-lift is complete in 2011. Leaders of Unite Here Local 11 have accused the hotel's managers of using the renovation project to rid itself of the union.