Revisiting Bell, CA

The City of Bell, CA, a quiet blue-collar locale in SoCal, where one in six live in poverty, were able to see their corrupt city officials arrested and charged with crimes for money that was ripped from the city bank accounts.

Chief among the perpetrators is the former City Manager, Robert Rizzo. According to the Associated Press, "Rizzo, who was making nearly $800,000 a year, was booked on 53 counts of misappropriation of public funds and conflict of interest."

In all, Rizzo evidently "made $4.3 million by paying himself through different employment contracts that were not approved by the City Council."

Whether or not the council would have done anything is up for speculation as "council members paid themselves a combined $1.25 million for what (District Attorney) Cooley called 'phantom meetings' of various city boards and agencies."

Immediately after the various leaders were taken into custody the council, most of whom were paid $100,000 annually, voted to lower their pay to $8,000.

With that amount of reduction, it is clearly obvious to all that the members of the Bell City Council knew what they were doing was wrong. 

One high-paid person, the former Chief of Police, Randy Adams, was not arrested as there has been no evidence that he participated in anything illegal. That he was being paid $150,000 more a year than the Chief of the LAPD, at a whopping $457,000, does not make him a criminal, according the District Attorney Steve Cooley. "Being paid excessive salaries is not a crime, illegally obtaining those salaries is a crime."

That last statement begs the question, what about any possible retirement or benefits any of these people may be able to attain?

It is hoped that there is some piece of law that will supercede each of the contracts these people had in place with Bell, as, otherwise, they may still be stealing money from taxpayers.

Over For Now.

Main Street One

Not restricted to the city of Bell CA

The Associated Press reports on the extremely high pay that three "public servants" earned working in Bell, CA.

Suffice it to say that if one were to tour every city in Main Street USA, Bell would not be alone in this salary crisis.

Nor would it be limited to those working for a city.

Investigative reporters across the country should blow the lid off of how much money taxpayers shell out to everyone on "our payroll."

In a city of less than 40,000 people, even having built a surplus of over $22.7 million when other cities may be suffering, the Chief Administrative Officer should NOT be making almost $800,000 with a retirement package to be paid from the state of California of about $650,000 annually for life (as reported by the Los Angeles Times). See the full article here: Bell Salaries.

That is, simply put, criminal.

While the AP article compares the Bell CAO salary as twice that of President Obama, there are millions more in benefits when one serves as #1 in the USA. However, that Bell CAO salary is far higher than any pay reported for any Governor in the country, though it is not as high as some tenured professors in universities.

This AP article begs the question: How can any city allow salaries of their officials to achieve such stratospheric heights? (As this certainly did not happen overnight.)

Also, How Big Can Big Government Get?

Food For Thought.

Over For Now.

Main Street USA