Posted on 07/20/2010 9:14:14 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Welcome to the city of Bell. Average income: $24,800, $8,000 less than the national average. Public debt per capita: $1,972, up from $599 six years ago. Average wage for the city’s leaders?
Well, that’s where things get nuanced.
An overflow crowd packed a City Council meeting in Bell, a mostly Hispanic city of 38,000 about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, to call for the resignation of Mayor Oscar Hernandez and other city officials. Residents left standing outside the chamber banged on the doors and shouted “fuera,” or “get out” in Spanish.
It was the first council meeting since the Los Angeles Times reported July 15 that Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo earns $787,637 — with annual 12 percent raises — and that Bell pays its police chief $457,000, more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck makes in a city of 3.8 million people. Bell council members earn almost $100,000 for part-time work…
Bell’s general fund revenue declined 4.6 percent to $14.1 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2009, according to the city’s financial statement. The city’s expenses rose 2.3 percent to $15.9 million in same period.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has begun an inquiry into Bell council member pay, according to Dave Demerjian, head of the office’s Public Integrity Division. He said Bell council members were receiving $8,083 a month, mostly by serving on city-related commissions…
“It seems obscene to me,” De La Torre said in a telephone interview. “People making $30,000 a year are paying taxes so that their council members can make $80,000.”
Mayor Hernandez’s defense: “Our streets are cleaner, we have lovely parks, better lighting throughout the area, our community is better.” Worth every penny, baby. As enraged as most of you will be by this, you really should be grateful: This is precisely the sort of jawdropping freak-show case of government at the trough that concentrates the average voter’s mind on spending. A hundred posts about the myriad ways in which the public sector is fleecing the private sector aren’t as effective as one news story about a poor little city struggling to keep its municipal overlords rolling in dough. Thanks, Rizzo!
My friends, I fear there’s only one man capable of dealing with this situation. Via Cubachi…
Where do I send my Resume?
Who elected these elected officials?
You get what you vote for.
You have to remind me again? obamma comes to mind!
Anyone who is honest with their taxes is a nitwit. We have a civil and moral duty to cheat on our taxes so that useless leftist vermin can’t roll in dough.
This is nothing that can’t be handled by Bastille Day. If the French could do it, so could the people of Bell.
Bell is Obama land. Sane people don’t want to live there.
The other side of the story, is that Bell’s neighbor is Maywood, California, a sanctuary city that conducted its Council meetings in spanish, had a police department that was sued so frequently that the city couldn’t get insurance, and was so poorly managed that it recently had to layoff almost its entire city staff and contract out its city services to someone who knew what they were doing. That someone? Bell.
Sometimes people get big bucks because nobody competent will take on the job for less.
I’m truly humbled by the sacrifice these public officials
and politicians make through their public service. /s
$15,000 +/- per WEEK ?????
Anyone elected to office or appointed by them, should be paid a percentage of the average wage in America, minus the inflation, unemployment, and prime interest rates. Also subtract from their pay, the same percentage as the number of persons receiving public assistance in their district (if applicable). They should also be taxed at the top tax rate regardless of income bracket. This would effectively put them on commission so their actions actually affect their pay, just like in the private sector.
I understand this is about Bell, but I can tell the entire state is bankrupt in more ways than one.
I grew up there, went though two manjor recessions there and always was able to find work. I left when I started seeing the gang bangers invade my sleepy little town, just south of Riverside. Some times I get that California dreamin and think about what a great place it used to be, wishing I could go back. But it just doesn’t exist anymore. In some ways I think it’s more messed up than my new home state of New York, and New York is pretty tough to beat.
Let November 2010 be a pogrom on the public sector!
Government workers are the welfare state’s panzer division.
why do states and nations collapse?
one reason is corruption from within.
California is a good example.
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