[Vision2020] Bell, Calif. City Council Salaries Cut by 90 Percent

[Tom Hansen]

"City Council members in Bell unanimously agreed Monday to give up their
controversial $96,000-a-year salaries . . . "

"City Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo made $787,637 a year, . . . "

Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times at:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bell-salaries-20100727,0,1970663.story

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Bell council members cut salaries 90%; some will forgo pay

Council members agree to take $8,000 a year, and the mayor and vice mayor
say they'll finish their terms without pay. Meanwhile, attorney general
subpoenas documents and D.A. continues its probe.

City Council members in Bell unanimously agreed Monday to give up their
controversial $96,000-a-year salaries and instead draw $673 a month — a
90% decrease.

Council members in the small, working-class city southeast of downtown Los
Angeles have been under mounting pressure since the salaries for the
part-time jobs were reported in The Times this month.

Mayor Oscar Hernandez and Vice Mayor Teresa Jacobo went a step further
Monday and said they will finish off their terms without pay.

Hernandez also apologized to residents for the high salaries the city paid
to administrators, a reversal from the defiant tone he struck last week.

"Since my first day as mayor, my priority has been to make Bell a city its
residents can be proud to call home," he said. "I apologize that the
council's past decisions with regard to the indefensible administrative
salaries have failed to meet that test." Hernandez said he will not seek
another stint as mayor.

A Times report revealed that the city's top officials received some of the
highest municipal wages in the nation. City Administrative Officer Robert
Rizzo made $787,637 a year, almost twice the salary of President Obama;
Police Chief Randy Adams made $457,000, 50% more than Los Angeles Police
Chief Charlie Beck; and Assistant City Manager Spaccia made $376,288, more
than the top administrator for Los Angeles County.

All three resigned last week.

In agreeing to sweep back their salaries, Councilmen Luis Artiga and
George Mirabal put themselves on par with Lorenzo Velez, who has been paid
$673 a month since he was appointed to the council last summer. Velez said
he was unaware his colleagues were making so much.

Ali Saleh, a member of the Bell Assn. to Stop The Abuse said Monday that
the group welcomes the salary cut. But he added, "It's not enough. The
people don't trust them anymore. They lost complete trust from the
community, and for the better of the community, they should resign."

The group also demands "a full disclosure of administrative salaries, and
any retainers or project contracts provided by outside consultants,
followed by a forensic audit by a neutral third party."

Saleh threatened council members with a recall effort if they did not
order a forensic audit of the city's books and disclose administrative
salaries as well as contracts awarded to outside consultants.

Council members drove up their salaries by earning stipends for serving on
various boards or commissions, all of which generally met — often very
briefly — during council meetings. In their agreement Monday, council
members said the $673-a-month salary will reflect their total pay.

Earlier Monday, state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown had subpoenaed hundreds of
documents from Bell as part of his office's investigation into the high
salaries.

"How did they come to the conclusion that public officials should make
that much money?" Brown said at a news conference at his Los Angeles
office.

Among the documents Brown has demanded are e-mails, employment contracts,
ordinances and resolutions, some going back to January 2003. Some must be
turned in by Wednesday, and others by Aug. 6.

"Hundreds of thousands of public dollars were paid out under suspicious
circumstances," said Brown, the Democratic nominee for governor.

The Los Angeles County district attorney began an inquiry into the
council's salaries several weeks ago. Former Councilman Victor Bello, who
resigned in August for undisclosed reasons, said district attorney
investigators took documents from his home Monday.

Almost immediately after he left the council, Bello became the only
full-time employee at the city food bank, the first person to hold the
job, Rizzo said.

Documents show that Bello was being paid $96,000 a year there, roughly the
same salary paid to most council members. He has continued to be paid for
sitting on four city boards, even though city resolutions say
commissioners must be council members.

Bello last week showed The Times the three white boxes he said the
district attorney took from him. He said they included council agendas, a
list that showed payments the city had made to vendors and contractors,
fliers of community events and other documents.

Dave Demerjian, head of the district attorney's Public Integrity Unit,
said he could not comment.

The mayor's apology was a turnaround from his comments last week when he
praised Rizzo, even after the council announced that the city manager,
Adams and Spaccia were resigning. Hernandez said Rizzo's salary was
appropriate considering the excellent job he did.

He also sharply criticized The Times' reporting of the issue.

Over the weekend, Velez called on fellow council members to reduce their
salaries to the $8,000 a year he is receiving. Jacobo, the vice mayor, has
said Velez was being paid substantially less because he had been appointed
to finish Bello's unexpired term and had not been elected to office.

Velez said if council members refused to cut their salaries, they should
resign immediately. He also called for an independent accounting of
business dealings council members have had with the city and argued that
they should reveal how much they will earn from their city pensions.

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Vice Mayor Teresa Jacobo, second from left, and Mayor Oscar Hernandez,
third from left, will finish their terms without pay. The salaries of
Councilmen George Mirabal and Luis Artiga, far right, will be cut to
$8,000 a year.

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2010-07/55189767.jpg

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom "Just another retired working stiff" Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown