posted
That dude has got have the biggest melon on him that I have ever seen!! Plus...bunch of thieves in the article.
8 current, former Bell, California officials arrested By the CNN Wire Staff
Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Eight current and former Bell, California, city officials were arrested Tuesday in connection with a probe conducted by the Los Angeles County district attorney.
District Attorney Steve Cooley said the charges allege the officials misappropriated more than $5.5 million, including being paid for phantom meetings and making illegal personal loans.
High salaries paid to officials of the city sparked local outrage and national attention when they came to light in July. Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo, Police Chief Randy Adams and Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia resigned after media reports that they were making several hundred thousand dollars a year each.
"We are alleging they used the tax dollars collected from the hard-working citizens of Bell as their own piggy bank, which they looted at will," Cooley said in a written statement.
Arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday.
Last week, California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown sued eight current and former officials "to recover the excess salaries" that Bell officials were being paid. He also was pursuing a reduction of their pension benefits.
"This is a very serious matter when public officials breach their duty to the public and enrich themselves with enormous obscene salaries which then trigger pensions of similar magnitude," Brown said.
Named in the suit were Rizzo, Adams, Spaccia, council members Oscar Hernandez, Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabel and former council members Victor Bello and George Cole. The suit accuses the eight of fraud, civil conspiracy, waste of public funds and breach of fiduciary duty. It also alleges they deliberately misled citizens about the accurate amount of their pay.
Brown's suit demanded that the eight return all excessive compensation and asked the court to set "appropriate salary levels for pension purposes."
Bell, located in southeast Los Angeles County, had 36,624 residents as of the 2000 census. The median annual income is less than $35,000.
Rizzo's last annual base salary was $767,638, Adams earned was $457,000 and Spaccia received $336,000, according to Brown's office. Before recently cutting their pay, Bell city council members received $96,000 a year, compared to $4,800 a year earned by council members in similar-sized cities.
Since 1993, the council raised Rizzo's salary 16 times, with an average jump of 14 percent yearly, the attorney general said. In 2005, he received an increase of 47 percent. Since 2001, city council members also awarded themselves 16-percent raises yearly.
Brown said Rizzo prepared a memo for the public saying council members received $673 a month and he was paid $15,478 a month. In reality, council members earned more than $7,600 a month and Rizzo earned more than $52,325 a month.
Rizzo's attorney, Jim Spertus, said last week he was not surprised by the lawsuit or the actions of Brown, who is running for governor. Rizzo's salary, he said, was approved by the city council. "There's nothing wrong there."
He said Rizzo would have retired before, but the city wanted him to stay on, and he was paid through negotiations similar to those taking place in private companies.
"It's a misguided effort to assign blame in the wrong place," Spertus said. "Mr. Rizzo is not at fault for the problems of Bell."
Brown, who said his suit was separate from a criminal probe, said he plans to widen a statewide investigation of public salaries and benefits, and called for legislative reform. He said he was serving a subpoena on the city of Vernon, which is near Bell, "to obtain compensation records for city officials and employees."
News articles have reported one Vernon city official received an annual salary of $785,000, and another received a total of $1.6 million in compensation in a single year, according to Brown. Vernon has a population of less than 100 people.
Also last week, acting California Gov. Abel Maldonado signed legislation to return "illegal and excessive taxes" to Bell residents.
California State Controller John Chiang said last month that property owners in Bell paid and estimated $3 million in extra taxes over the past three years. Bell passed an "illegal resolution in 2007 that resulted in a 50 percent increase in the tax rate over the course of three years," according to the governor's office.
Chiang said Bell began raising property tax rates in 2007 to pay for pension obligations, even though state law caps those taxes at the rate used in fiscal year 1983-84. The lower rates would deliver, for example, an estimated $250 in annual savings on a property worth $275,000.
The new law requires the city to send the money to Los Angeles County by December 31 so the county can begin issuing tax refunds to homeowners.
-------------------- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. Posts: 3311 | From: St. Louis | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
What a bunch of crooks I wonder where they are going to be doing time?
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
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quote:Originally posted by raybond: What a bunch of crooks I wonder where they are going to be doing time?
Yea...but did you notice that guy's giant noggin?!!?!? Holy crap.....that is one major melon he has goin on there! He reminds of one of those puffer fish..after they been caught. Kind of appropriate actually....
-------------------- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. Posts: 3311 | From: St. Louis | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
He certainly looks the part. I remember we had a guy for a while just a sweet looking kid but he killed 5 people that we know of. Drugs and money they sure do bring out the worst in some. Never can tell by looks. But what a head I wonder how much it weighs?
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
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Somehow I doubt they are the only ones doing this. I am sure by now other places have taken reviews, or at least tried to cover certain things up. I do not think the probability of something this EXTREME is very high, but abuse is out there.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:Originally posted by CashCowMoo: Somehow I doubt they are the only ones doing this. I am sure by now other places have taken reviews, or at least tried to cover certain things up. I do not think the probability of something this EXTREME is very high, but abuse is out there.
Yep....your true colors show yet again Cowpoop. Damn those Democrats for that! How dare they wanna save lives in other countries! *******s!!
-------------------- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. Posts: 3311 | From: St. Louis | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
More efficient stoves can be purchased for $10 to $100, according to one senior U.S. administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of Clinton's funding announcement.
the sad part is that 25 years ago? somebody in the US would have gotten the contract (still will) and hired Americans to make them...
now, somebody in America will get the contract and buy them from china.. net US job creation? 1 for 50 million...
25 years ago it would have made US a dozen or more jobs...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by CashCowMoo: Somehow I doubt they are the only ones doing this. I am sure by now other places have taken reviews, or at least tried to cover certain things up. I do not think the probability of something this EXTREME is very high, but abuse is out there.
Yep....your true colors show yet again Cowpoop. Damn those Democrats for that! How dare they wanna save lives in other countries! *******s!!
Pagan, you really dont get it. The point is while we are a broke nation, spending out of control we give the UN 50 million for stoves in other countries in the name of the green revolution? Apparently you could care less about those stoves being put in American low income homes. What a jerk. I dont think they should spend any of that 50 mil, but if they just have to then keep it in house. 50 million could build a nice new factory to make those stoves in one of the 50 states in an area with high unemployment. Your ideology is so sickening and counterproductive. You come off as needing a big underclass, because without an underclass the far left ideas just dont make sense to ANYONE and have no merit.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: 50 million could build a nice new factory to make those stoves in one of the 50 states in an area with high unemployment.
yeah but then the Unions would ruin it
You dont need a union to ensure safe working conditions in a plant that makes stoves. It isnt a smelter! Besides, unions are a companies by themselves, they make profits off their members....many of them make big profits. So why do they need to get rich off their own members? They are exploited plain and simple.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: 50 million could build a nice new factory to make those stoves in one of the 50 states in an area with high unemployment.
yeah but then the Unions would ruin it
You dont need a union to ensure safe working conditions in a plant that makes stoves. It isnt a smelter! Besides, unions are a companies by themselves, they make profits off their members....many of them make big profits. So why do they need to get rich off their own members? They are exploited plain and simple.
posted
Tex, you and glass should both run for office I have decided, one of you has to be the others running mate.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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