Bell Salary Scandal Causes Dilemma for Other Cities
This banner was put up in front of the Bell Community Center where a council meeting was scheduled for Monday evening.
Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley is stepping up a broad investigation into allegations of voter fraud and conflicts of interest in the city of Bell.
Although the salary scandal, which revealed the now-resigned city manager of Bell was paid nearly $800,000 a year, just broke a few weeks ago, the district attorney says his investigators have been gathering evidence since March.
The original investigation only focused on the $100,000 salaries collected by four of the five Bell City Council members.
Now, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that prosecutors are expanding their efforts in a full-fledged investigation.
Meanwhile, the cities that previously employed the city of Bell's now-resigned police chief, Randy Adams, are concerned they make be on the hook for thousands of additional dollars to pay his retirement.
Before coming to Bell where Adams earned $457,000 a year (or nearly twice what the police chief of Los Angeles earns) Adams worked for police departments in Simi Valley, Ventura and Glendale, the Glendale News-Press reported.
He spent five years in Glendale and officials there have learned under the state's complicated CalPERS retirement system, their taxpayers may have to pay an extra $500,000 to $600,000 in additional benefits, or about $40,000 a year for the length of his retirement.
Officials in Ventura and Simi Valley also expect a similar hit.
The cities are working together to see if they can forestall this, although the CalPERS system not yet determined Adams' exact retirement costs.
The system determines retirement payout based on the year of highest earnings so even though Adams earned only $215,000 a year in Glendale, it is his Bell salary that may figure in these calculations.
The cities have asked Attorney General Jerry Brown to look into this.
The High Desert city of Hesperia may find itself in a similar situation when it comes to Bell's former city manager.
Before coming to Bell, Robert Rizzo spent four years as the city manager of Hesperia.
His starting salary in 1988 was $76,000. In 1992 when he was prevailed upon to resign, he was making $95,000 -- a 25 percent pay raise in four years.
Then, according to the Victorville Daily Press, Rizzo got a $108,414 severance package -- a payout that local residents criticized.
In fact, several Hesperia city councilmen even asked to the then-Attorney General to investigate after it was discovered that Rizzo had left behind a city with a multi-million dollar deficit. An auditing firm even raised concerns about possible misappropriation of funds. State prosecutors declined to pursue this.
The CalPERS retirement system announced Wednesday the three highly paid Bell administrators will not be allowed to draw any retirement funds until the attorney general determines whether the city of Bell broke any laws in giving them such hefty paychecks.
