Speaking of inflated compensation, the city officials of Bell, California who paid each other utterly outrageous salaries (about whom I’ve posted in the past) have been arrested and face prosecution:
At least eight city of Bell officials were arrested Tuesday morning, a source said, as L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley prepared to announce criminal charges in the municipal salary scandal.
[Updated at 10 a.m.: Former Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo, whose high salary sparked the outrage that led to the investigations of the city, was among those arrested in the sweep. No details have been released, but a source not authorized to speak publicly about the case said that Rizzo; former Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia; Mayor Oscar Hernandez; Councilmembers Luis Artiga, Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal; and former Councilmembers George Cole and Victor Bello were among those arrested.
[Updated at 11:22 p.m.: Cooley filed charges against eight Bell officials Tuesday, alleging that they misappropriated $5.5 million in public funds. Rizzo has been charged with 53 counts of misappropriation of public funds and conflict of interest.
It will be interesting to see if they can make these charges stick.
IMO this is merely throwing the baby off the back of the troika to the wolves. The states attorneys who sought the indictment, the judge who granted the warrant, and the law enforcement officers who arrested the erstwhile Bell officials are all probably over-compensated, too, albeit not as outrageously as those being arrested. If we were to incarcerate every public official who has paid himself or herself an outrageous salary at taxpayer offense, where would we find the jails to hold them?
Not all of them are “former officials”, on the radio this morning it was pointed out that they could all post bail and return to work on the city council….as they can only be removed in a recall election, voluntary resignation, losing the next election or by being convicted of a crime.
I can’t help but think that some will take protracted vacations. For their health, of course.
Paid vacations probably.
While I hope they manage to punish these guys somehow, someone should point out that unless they were hiding their salaries, their pay should have been a matter of public record. All of those overpaid cops and judges have pay that is a matter of public record. If people do not want them paid that much, they should make it a campaign issue and vote into office those who will pay them less.
Steve