Bell admits more hefty city salaries

[mike r]

Source: Los Angeles Times

The city of Bell, already under fire for paying unusually high salaries to three top administrators, acknowledged Friday that two more officials were earning over $400,000.

The city's director of administrative services, Lourdes Garcia, was earning $422,707, and the director of general services, Eric Eggena, earned $421,402, officials said. In addition, Bell's director of community services, Annette Peretz, earned $273,542, a deputy city engineer earned $247,573, the business development coordinator earned $295,627, a police captain earned $238,075 and a police lieutenant earned $229,992...

The city's acting administrator released the compensation numbers at a raucous afternoon news conference that was interrupted several times by furious community activists. Los Angeles County prosecutors said they would add the salaries to their existing investigation into the city. Documents obtained Friday by The Times also revealed that both Garcia and Bell's former assistant city manager, Angela Spaccia, had received additional payments of at least $100,000 beyond their salaries...

The city has been the focus of national attention ever since The Times revealed that City Manager Robert Rizzo was being paid $787,637 a year, Police Chief Randy Adams' salary was $457,000 and assistant city manager Spaccia's was $376,000. All three resigned amid public uproar...

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bell-salaries-20100807,0,1905126.story

[seattleblue]

1. No wonder California is drowning in red ink.

All these local salaries should be required to be on the internet. If they have nothing to hide they should be willing to do this.

[savalez]

2. They will be. Read this:

Following pay scandals, California controller says all cities and counties must disclose salaries

The California state controller is ordering all cities and counties to disclose their salary information, following two corruption investigations into exorbitant municipal salaries in Bell, California:

Link:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/following-pay-scandals-california-controller-says-all-cities-and-counties-must-disclose-salaries-99944929.html

[SocialistLez]

3. Good NT

[CreekDog]

13. that's not why California has financial problems --IF ONLY IT WERE!

would be a heck of a lot easier to fix than the actual problems, which are basically that the most stable form of revenue the state has is the property tax (which took a beating thanks to the real estate recession). however that most stable form of revenue is capped for much of the property in the state --basically, your assessment cannot go up more than 2% per year. this causes the state to rely more heavily on the sales tax, which is very volatile and dependent upon favorable economic conditions --of which we have none.

oh that and that kids need to go to school (we spend around 7000/kid/year --less than almost any other state) need health care (we have a very high uninsured rate) --of which not all actually get what they need.

[MichiganVote]

4. Jeebus!

[SharonAnn]

5. They didn't "earn it". They were paid that money, but they didn't "earn" it.

[Warpy]

6. I'm sure the argument went that they had to be paid that much money

so they could afford to live in California, complete tommyrot. Yes, it was that expensive to buy property during the insanity, but rents had remained at bargain levels in most areas when compared to the ridiculous mortgage payments on inflated property prices.

They were all thieves, IMO. I'm surprised they were allowed to resign without the addition of tar, feathers and a rail.

[shanti]

7. AND

they stole this money from a working class community, jacking up their property taxes to pay their salaries! off with their heads!

[shanti]

8. AND

they stole this money from a working class community, jacking up their property taxes to pay their salaries! off with their heads!

[exboyfil]

10. Don't forget the huge bond issue for parks that never

materialized. The money is gone without the parks being built. I do think the state of California will be on the hook for making up those bonds - nice present to an already challenged state.

[denbot]

9. Bell is a low income, working class neighborhood.

These people got in to office just to enrich themselves.

[Lagomorph]

11. That seems to happen in Congress, as well....

A lot of Congressional politicians come out of their political careers in much better financial shape than when they entered.

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. Rizzo was paid 1.5 million a year when his benefits are figured in, the head cop was 700K

outrageous. Foxes in charge of the chicken coop, paying themselves any amount they wanted.

[Vinca]

14. Wonder if they need a dog catcher.

I would entertain offers in the $300 - $400,000 range.:banghead: