For sure. How could the citizens not have known about this earlier? The information is public and aren’t salaries approved by City Council every year? There’s got to be more to this than meets the eye.
Most people don’t go to city council meetings. I don’t blame them, for the most part they are mind-numbing. A couple of decades ago, this little town would have had its own modest newspaper, and the expenditures of the city government would have been routinely reported. The situation would never have gotten so far out of hand, because the city council would never have dared knowing it was all going to come out in the wash. But those days are long gone. Now, for some unknown reason, the LA Times turns its mighty attention on this little place and reports what’s going on. I suspect someone tipped them off, probably a city employee disgruntled about something.