Tempers flared last night at a meeting of one of the poorest municipalities in Los Angeles County. Why? Its residents, who average $25,000 annually, discovered their city administrator earns a salary of almost $800,000, as reported in the Los Angeles Times on July 15. Bell, the city of 38,000, which is more aptly described as a town, is mostly Hispanic as is its mayor, Oscar Hernandez, who had no answer for the shouting crowd.
Apparently, Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo earns $787,637, with annual 12% raises. That's not all. Bell's Police Chief makes $457,000, which is more than the police chief of Los Angeles or New York. Even Bell's council members earn close to $100,000 for part-time work.
Hilariously, Bell's Police Chief said that he was brought in to end corruption in the police department as some of its former officers were serving time in prison. I wonder how much money they stole from the city? More than $500,000?
Hernandez stupidly answered the Los Angeles Times' inquiry and defended the salaries saying that, “Our streets are cleaner, we have lovely parks, better lighting throughout the area, our community is better. These things just don’t happen, they happen because he had a vision and made it happen.” I wonder how many votes Hernandez will received in the town's next election?
More importantly, in a state with such critically serious deficits, I wonder who will have the gonads to root out corruption in every Californian town and reduce the massive amount of bureaucracy and entitlements necessary to stave off a statewide bankruptcy?
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