Posted on 12/28/2010 1:47:29 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
..Bell officials who hired him did not dig deeply into his past. They needed someone fast, and Rizzo, then 39, came cheap. His starting salary was $78,000, which was $7,000 less than his predecessor had made.
"He was willing to work for the least amount of money," said then-Councilman Rolf Janssen. "That was what attracted me and several other council members."
Now Rizzo and seven other Bell leaders past and present are charged with looting more than $5.5 million from one of the county's poorest municipalities. It is a hydra-headed scandal that has spawned seven federal, state and county investigations and transformed a forgotten suburb into a synonym for rogue governance. It has resonated as a morality tale in which Rizzo is cast as a greed-crazed, cigar-chomping puppet master who cheated his way to an $800,000 salary and a 10-acre horse ranch.
How Rizzo evolved from an obscure civil servant into what a prosecutor called an "unelected and unaccountable czar" may never emerge in granular focus. But the broad contours are clear. Ambition and opportunity aligned in a place that allowed him to be both ever-present and invisible.
The normal checks and balances, from a robust local press to engaged civic groups, had largely vanished before or during Rizzo's long reign as city administrator. And the grim climate in which he arrived made him seem, for a time, like the man Bell needed.....
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
But the LA Times DID go on about how the Chamber of Commerce was purged and replaced by the Bell Business Assn. whose members had to come forward, raise their right hands and “solemnly promise to preform their duties honestly.”
From top left, Luis Artiga, Victor Bello, George Cole, and Oscar Hernandez;
from bottom left, Teresa Jacobo, George Mirabal, Robert Rizzo, and Peir'Angela Spaccia.
bases on looks alone, NONE of them should of even been considered for their jobs...
Rizzo belonged to a very exclusive party, The Cosa Nostra.
Doesn’t get any more exclusive than that.
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