City Officials Accused of ‘Corruption on Steroids’ in Bell, Calif.
- Posted on September 21, 2010 at 9:09pm by
Meredith Jessup
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After an investigation revealed that a number of city officials of Bell, Calif., were receiving grossly inflated salaries, eight city officials were officially charged with wrongdoing Tuesday, including the former city manager who was arrested on 53 various counts of corruption. District Attorney Steve Cooley called the scandal “corruption on steroids” — a scandal that has cost the blue-collar town of 40,000 more than $5.5 million.
Cooley said the group of eight Democrats was able to get away with the corruption because the citizens of Bell weren’t paying attention.
Ex-city manager Robert Rizzo was making nearly $800,000 a year and is expected to be arraigned Wednesday on 53 counts of “misappropriation of public funds” and conflict of interest. If convicted, Cooley says Rizzo could face several years in prison.
Others taken into custody were former assistant city manager Angela Spaccia, Vice Mayor Teresa Jacobo, council members George Mirabal and Luis Artiga, and former council members George Cole and Victor Bello.
Rizzo stands accused of making $4.3 million by paying himself through various employment contracts that were not approved by the City Council. In turn, council members are accused of paying themselves a combined $1.25 million for what Cooley called “phantom meetings” of city boards and agencies. Rizzo is also accused of giving $1.9 million in loans to himself, Spaccia, Hernandez, Artiga and dozens of others, authorities said.
“They used the taxes of the hardworking citizens of Bell as their own piggy bank, which they looted,” the district attorney said.
Rizzo, Adams and Spaccia resigned and the council members reduced their salaries to about $8,000 following the disclosures and angry public reaction. The four remaining council members are currently being targeted by a public recall campaign. In the meantime, they continue holding the “official” duties of running the city.
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denny15037
Posted on September 22, 2010 at 7:03pmThese fools in Bell see other politicians lining their pockets in the same manner and it appeared to them that the more blantant the corruption the less likely to get charged In most other instances they get an opportunity to deny it and after threats of criminal charges they just annonce that they are stepping down and all is forgotten
Report Post »Hammerun
Posted on September 22, 2010 at 4:02pmMore of this needs to be happening. Look at the people of Bell, they stood and made a difference.
Report Post »inferno
Posted on September 22, 2010 at 2:27pmIsn’t it strange that the news reports mention nothing about the political affiliation of the people who
Report Post »have ripped off the citizens of Bell. Since no party is mentioned, I would bet my house that they are
all associated with the Democrat party. Being somewhat familiar with Bell, since I once lived in a neighboring community, of the 38,000 people who live there, no doubt a large marjority of voters are registered Democrats. I would also bet very few under the age of 55 are Republicans. Also very few Angelos live in that city. Typically, in a Democrat stronghold, people vote for those who promise evereything in the way of free largess.. Ultimately, the citizenry is seeing the true cost of all those free “goodies”. I digress, if these offendors were Republican, the media would lead every news story with the heading….the Republican leaders of Bell Ca., etc. etc.
jrcess
Posted on September 22, 2010 at 10:13amWow, were these Obama appointed council persons? Thank God they were under the jurisdiction of the State cause Eric Holder would not have heard the case. He backs unions and elected officials of this kind.
Report Post »boycottlamestreammedia
Posted on September 22, 2010 at 8:52amNotice how the media never published anything about these thugs being democrats. Please write to your local paper ie LA times or local news and let them know how irresponsible they are not to publish their party. It’s huge and so important especially during these elections in California. We need facts and exposure to all these liberal agendas who harm our society. Spread the word to let people know who runs the ghettos…. the democrats!
Report Post »baldwin4freedom
Posted on September 22, 2010 at 8:37amThe progressive mindset continues to prove that it is naturally prone to oppressing those around them. It is true that the people get what they deserve by how they vote. This story also proves that the people have the power to change their representatives.
Hopefully the people will understand why they made these mistakes to begin with, all over this great nation.
Report Post »paladin252
Posted on September 22, 2010 at 8:03amboy, those dems sure do care about the poor people…
Report Post »Rob
Posted on September 22, 2010 at 7:36amI can leave my home in southern CA and drive for one mile and not see a white person or a sign in English. My wife and I play the game, “spot the white person”.
Report Post »needanotherReagan
Posted on September 21, 2010 at 11:53pmI am shocked to learn that all of the eight thieves are democrats. This should provide some good ammo for Whitman and Fiorina. Democrat = Corruption.
Report Post »wheresmystick
Posted on September 21, 2010 at 11:18pmWhile these scumbags will never get all they deserve, the citizenry bears some responsibility in what went on here. We all need to do our DUTY at the ballot box. Vote for a-holes, you get crapped on. I bet the folks in Bell take a closer look at local politics from now on.
Report Post »seayalater73
Posted on September 22, 2010 at 12:00amToo true. I think the most glaring issue here was that the constituents were not paying attention. As long as no one cares to look anyone can claim transparency. California is not the only state on the left coast with this issue. You don’t even want to hear about the entrenched democrat corruption in Western Washington State. Don’t ask Glen about it, he’s probably had to blank it out for fear of his eye-balls exploding.
Report Post »The Bees
Posted on September 21, 2010 at 10:14pmThis isn’t going to look good for Jerry Brown. I mean rounding up a bunch of his buddies and prosecuting them for stealing from the people…. You know like he’s been doing the last 30 years!
This is like the Pot calling the Kettle Black.
I hope Meg jumps all over this one!
Report Post »megansmom
Posted on September 21, 2010 at 10:13pmRedistribute the wealth: take it from the corrupt politicians and give it back to the district. Give them free housing and 3 square meals a day in return. Do we have enough cells for that many crooks?
Report Post »flamedone1968
Posted on September 21, 2010 at 11:18pmI would like to see a new sentence levied on those who would go against the constitution and misuse power… EXILE! No bill for the people for incarceration. They intern would have to live somewhere that may have laws more to their kind… wonder how much they would end up liking that as few of them I imagine would find themselves in power. After of course stripping them of their ill goten gains and fines.
Report Post »Ga. Tea Party
Posted on September 21, 2010 at 9:57pmThis is the way to go. Arrest the public officials. When found guilty, and we know there are many public officials guilty. So that part won’t be hard. Take their ill gotten gains. Fine them for the remainder of their fortunes and jail them with the hard criminals. Offer some sort of amnesty for those who would rat out their comrades. Scare the other politicians as there are no statesmen. We will see the trash theives all the way to the Whitehouse shaking in their boots. Threaten them with trials to come and mean it. We could see their defeat now instead of waiting for their damage they are going to do to us in their lame duck section. These people are at best worthless to us and more they are a very dangerous yet. Let’s use our strength to accomplish something now. Lets be offinsive rather than defensive. They are going to hurt us and a lot of innocent people.
Report Post »broker0101
Posted on September 21, 2010 at 9:18pmWhen can we officially declare the entire “experiment” of the State of California a failure and foreclose upon it?
Report Post »motomatt
Posted on September 21, 2010 at 10:14pmAs a third gen californian, I feel compelled to respond. California was just fine until the east-coast, ivory-tower liberal elites got ahold of this place. California absolutely ROCKED in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s…then came the hordes of east coast cretins that wanted to establish their version of utopia. Out-of-control spending…ENORMOUS expansion of bureaucracy, greater control/influence by the unions, and millions of illegals cashing in on the “greatest” government giveaway…welfare. California has 1/3 of this nations welfare recipients…one-frikkin’-third! As california goes…so does the union. The eighth largest economy in the world, driven into the dirt by a liberal legislature…and led by those east-coast ignoramuses, Pelosi and Boxer….whom haven’t done diddly-squat for this once great State except shove their liberal ideology down our throats. Oh yes…change is coming all right. Perhaps THE best answer to rid ourselves of those completely corrupt union pensions and entitlements is to declare bankruptcy…the only problem with that, is we have a bunch of liberal activist judges that would probably rule in the unions favor like what happened with the GM BK judgement. It all starts, but clearly must not end this November. There’s simply too much cr@p to haul away to handle in one or two election cycles.
Report Post »flamedone1968
Posted on September 21, 2010 at 10:32pmI live in California and agree 100%. I bought an acre in Arizona near the Grand Canyon and want to start building next year. At the same time I hate to see California go down the drain as it has some beautiful country and resources. The only way I see to fix it is to get rid of all the roaches. Those in idealists in government that refuse to see to the laws as they were writen and intended, and those who refuse to follow those self same laws.(yes that would cover illegals too)
Report Post »Ellie
Posted on September 21, 2010 at 11:55pmI came out to SoCal from Okie about 10 years back and my friends back there and in Tx keep asking why I stay in such a Conservative unfriendly state. I stay because Cali remains great for all the same reasons that it was such a magnet to immigrants during the last century. The weather, the resources, etc. and those things will remain and draw people and companies back as soon as the liberal political climate is corrected to free up what was once the 6th largest economy in the world.
Just in case it all goes sideways (as in Greese) before Cali gets back on track, I keep some farm land in Ok as well as a few acres in NV where I can retreat to for a while if need be. ;)
Report Post »faktchekr
Posted on September 22, 2010 at 8:22amMotomatt, I lived in CA in the 70′s and it was a great place to live…but East coast liberals didn’t just walk in and establish a dictatorship, the people of California continuously VOTED them in, decade after decade until the welfare class out numbered the tax paying class. By the time the tax paying class realized what they had done, it was too late, now the upper tax paying class is leaving in droves along with small business…sooner or later, California will have to pay the piper…perhaps the rest of CA should go to Hollywood and ask the celebs for money since it is them that seem to be educating the people on who to vote for…
Report Post »IthinkandIvote
Posted on September 22, 2010 at 9:19amWhen the people of California decide to wake up and rid themselves of the entire liberal establishment please send them west into the ocean – not east to try to infect the rest of us.
Report Post »poverty.sucks
Posted on September 21, 2010 at 9:13pmRight out of DNC playbook.
Report Post »Beckofile
Posted on September 22, 2010 at 1:03pmAnd what is the difference between these thieves and the Regime, Congress and most of our courts????
Report Post »VegasGuy
Posted on September 22, 2010 at 5:02pmWhile I think these guys are getting what they deserve, I have one additional observation: As the media has reported, Bell, CA, residents are mostly poor, many below the poverty level. We can only speculate on how many of these people are receiving some form of government assistance. Now they are celebrating their victory. Good for them. But clearly they only have a problem with income redistribution when flows out of their pockets into someone else’s.
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