Bell salary scandal

A Times re­port on the huge salar­ies of top ad­min­is­trat­ors and elec­ted of­fi­cials in the small, work­ing-class city of Bell has ig­nited com­munity an­ger, calls for resig­na­tions at City Hall and con­dem­na­tion from politi­cians and civic groups.

Most coun­cil mem­bers are earn­ing nearly $100,000 for part-time work, far more than the $400-a-month sti­pend re­com­men­ded for a city the size of Bell. The Los Angeles County dis­trict at­tor­ney and the state at­tor­ney gen­er­al have opened in­quir­ies.

Read The Times com­plete cov­er­age of the Bell salary scan­dal.

De­pos­ition of Bell’s former chief of po­lice, Randy Adams — once among the highest paid law en­force­ment of­fi­cials in the United States.
Six former Bell coun­cil­mem­bers are fa­cing vari­ous cor­rup­tion charges.
In a scath­ing 10-page rul­ing, Judge Kath­leen Kennedy re­jec­ted a mo­tion to drop cor­rup­tion charges against six former Bell City Coun­cil mem­bers, dis­miss­ing their ar­gu­ment that they were en­titled to an­nu­al salar­ies as high as $100,000 and say­ing that serving in the small, work­ing-class city was “some­what akin to win­ning the lot­tery.”
Six former Bell coun­cil­mem­bers are fa­cing vari­ous cor­rup­tion charges in a tri­al ex­pec­ted to start this week.
Nov. 1, 2011  By Abby Sewell
Former Bell city ad­min­is­trat­or Robert Rizzo filed a law­suit against the city, al­leging breach of con­tract. Since Rizzo has not been con­victed of a crime, the law­suit states that the city has no ‘cause’ to fire him.
The state re­tire­ment sys­tem has slashed the be­ne­fits of scores of top-paid loc­al gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials as part of a re­view of overly gen­er­ous pub­lic pen­sions promp­ted by the Bell scan­dal.
High court rul­ing in Sut­ter County case could be be­ne­fi­cial to Bell 8 as they fight charges that they looted the treas­ury of small LA County city.
May 11, 2011  By Kimi Yoshino
The state re­tire­ment sys­tem has asked Bell to in­vest­ig­ate the valid­ity of dis­ab­il­ity pen­sions giv­en to at least 10 po­lice of­ficers — in­clud­ing four chiefs — that could reap them mil­lions of dol­lars in ex­tra be­ne­fits.
The grand jury in­dicted former Bell ad­min­is­trat­or Robert Rizzo and his as­sist­ant An­gela Spac­cia on vari­ous charges re­lated to pub­lic cor­rup­tion.
Feb. 28, 2011  By Ruben Vives and Jeff Gottlieb
A memo dis­covered in Bell po­lice files out­lines a game in which po­lice of­ficers com­pete to is­sue tick­ets.
Dec. 15, 2010  By Paloma Esquivel and Robert J. Lopez
Bell ex­trac­ted thou­sands of dol­lars from plumb­ers, car­pet clean­ers and scav­engers by seiz­ing vehicles and prop­erty for al­leged code vi­ol­a­tions and pres­sur­ing the own­ers to pay fines. City of­fi­cials cre­ated doc­u­ments that looked like of­fi­cial court pa­pers — in­clud­ing this ex­ample, which fol­lows the case of plumb­er Frank San­ti­ago.
Dec. 7, 2010  By Ruben Vives and Paloma Esquivel
In a rul­ing that dis­ap­poin­ted many Bell city act­iv­ists and res­id­ents, Los Angeles County Su­per­i­or Court Judge Robert H. O’Bri­en re­jec­ted a re­quest by the Cali­for­nia at­tor­ney gen­er­al to ap­point an of­fi­cial to mon­it­or their scan­dal-plagued city. The rul­ing adds a new level of un­cer­tainty in a city where all but one coun­cil mem­ber faces crim­in­al charges and the city man­age­ment re­mains un­der fire. O’Bri­en had ex­pressed mis­giv­ings about court ...
Dec. 1, 2010  By Ruben Vives, Kimi Yoshino and Maloy Moore
In­ter­im City Ad­min­is­trat­or Pedro Car­rillo de­scribes the steps he has taken to ad­opt “good gov­ern­ment” meas­ures in the wake of the city’s scan­dals as well as ef­forts to as­sist res­id­ents by rolling back tax rates and in­creas­ing trans­par­ency.
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