"City’s manager earns an annual salary of almost $800,000.... the city manager, assistant city manager, and police chief salaries total more than $1.6 million a year.... Rizzo would be entitled to a state pension of more than $650,000 a year for life.... Adams could get more than $411,000 a year.... Spaccia could be eligible for as much as $250,000 a year"
And I'll bet they get paid health coverage.
No wonder California has a budget crisis!
The place is FULL of SELF-SERVING LOOTERS!!
"Residents protest pay of California city manager; Official receives nearly $800,000" by Christopher Palmeri, Bloomberg News | July 21, 2010
LOS ANGELES — Hundreds of residents of one of the poorest municipalities in Los Angeles County shouted in protest Monday night as tensions rose over a report that the city’s manager earns an annual salary of almost $800,000.
An overflow crowd packed a City Council meeting in Bell, a mostly Hispanic city of 38,000 about 10 miles southeast of Los Angeles, to call for the resignation of Mayor Oscar Hernandez and other city officials. Residents left standing outside the chamber banged on the doors and shouted “fuera,’’ or “get out’’ in Spanish.
It was the first council meeting since the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo earns $787,637 — with annual 12 percent raises — and that Bell pays its police chief $457,000, more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck makes in a city of 3.8 million people. Bell council members earn almost $100,000 for part-time work.
Edward Lee, city attorney, said the council members couldn’t discuss salaries in public without advance notice. The council then adjourned for a private session. About an hour later, the council members returned, and Hernandez read a statement saying the city would prepare a report on the salaries and seek public comment at the next council meeting, scheduled for Aug. 16.
Residents shouted in protest. Lee said he would have the room cleared if people continued to speak out of line. Police Chief Randy Adams said the Fire Department wanted to end the meeting because the crowd outside was blocking the door.
Then, in what appeared to be an effort to ease tensions, Hernandez announced that the meeting to discuss salaries would be held Monday instead.
After the meeting, Bell resident Ali Saleh read a statement from a newly formed group called the Bell Association to Stop the Abuse. He called for an independent audit of city salaries and contracts.
California law limits the salaries of council members to several hundred dollars a month, depending on the size of the city, according to Hector De La Torre, a state assemblyman. De La Torre said that after that bill passed, Bell’s City Council voted to operate under its own charter, rather than adhere to state laws on how cities should be run.
“It seems obscene to me,’’ he said in an interview. “People making $30,000 a year are paying taxes so that their council members can make $80,000.’’
It SURE as HELL DOES!
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"Residents threaten recall if council members stay on job; 3 in poor town in Calif. earned $1.6m combined" by John Rogers, Associated Press | July 24, 2010
BELL, Calif. — City Council members who make nearly $100,000 a year for governing this small, poverty-plagued suburb of Los Angeles must resign immediately or face a recall campaign, a community group warned yesterday.
The threat came hours after it was announced that the city manager, assistant city manager, and police chief were stepping down following a public outcry over their salaries, which total more than $1.6 million a year.
You see which side the pro-government paper is coming down.
In the wake of that scandal, residents have lost trust in Mayor Oscar Hernandez and three other council members, said Ali Saleh, cofounder of the Bell Association to Stop the Abuse.
“We are happy that all three resigned but the fight doesn’t end here,’’ Saleh said.
The group, whose acronym is Spanish for “enough,’’ said if the council members don’t step down by Monday’s council meeting, it will begin working for their recall....
Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo was the highest paid at $787,637 a year, nearly twice the pay of President Obama, for overseeing one of the poorest towns in Los Angeles County....
Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia makes $376,288 a year and Police Chief Randy Adams earns $457,000, 50 percent more than what Charlie Beck, Los Angeles’s police chief, earns....
As if they actually made or earned it!
Pfffft!
Rizzo would be entitled to a state pension of more than $650,000 a year for life, according to calculations made by the Times. That would make Rizzo, 56, the highest-paid retiree in the state pension system.
Not for long:
Adams could get more than $411,000 a year.
Maybe.
Spaccia, 51, could be eligible for as much as $250,000 a year when she reaches 55....
I don't think she's going to get there.
When Rizzo arrived 17 years ago, Hernandez said, the city was $13 million in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy.
Rizzo obtained government grants to aid the city, the mayor said.
So that entitled him to some skim, didn't it?
Jerry Brown, California’s attorney general, said his office has launched an investigation in conjunction with the state’s public employee retirement agency into pension and related benefits for Bell’s civic leaders.
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