Jae C. Hong / AP
People chat as they wait in line for food outside Bell Food
Station in Bell, Calif., Thursday, July 22, 2010. The City Council in this small
Los Angeles suburb is meeting Thursday to consider firing the police chief and
two top administrators over their huge salaries, including Chief Administrative
Officer Robert Rizzo who makes more than $787,000 a year, nearly twice the
salary of President Barack Obama. Revelations about the pay in Bell has sparked
anger in this blue-collar town that is one of the poorest in Los Angeles County.
The council also will consider firing Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia, who
makes $376,288 a year, and Police Chief Randy Adams, whose annual salary of
$457,000 is 50 percent more than that of Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie
Beck.
(07-23) 05:40 PDT Bell, Calif. (AP) --
Three administrators whose huge salaries sparked outrage in this small
blue-collar suburb of Los Angeles have agreed to resign, the City Council said
Friday.
Council members emerged from an hours-long closed session at midnight Friday
and announced that they'd accepted the resignations of Chief Administrative
Officer Robert Rizzo, Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia and Police Chief
Randy Adams.
Rizzo was the highest paid at $787,637 a year — nearly twice the pay of
President Barack Obama — for overseeing one of the poorest towns in Los Angeles
County.
Spaccia makes $376,288 a year and Adams earns $457,000, 50 percent more than
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck.
The three will not receive severance packages, the Los Angeles Times reported
Friday. Rizzo will step down at the end of August and Spaccia will leave at the
end of September. Adams will also leave at the end of August, after completing
an evaluation of the police department, the Times said.
"I'm happy that they resigned but I'm disappointed at the pension that
they're going to receive," said Ali Saleh, a member of the Bell Association to
Stop the Abuse or BASTA.
Rizzo would be entitled to a state pension of more than $650,000 a year for
life, according to calculations made by the Times. That would make Rizzo, 56,
the highest-paid retiree in the state pension system.
Adams could get more than $411,000 a year.
Spaccia, 51, could be eligible for as much as $250,000 a year when she
reaches 55, though the figure is less precise than for the other two officials,
the Times said.
Saleh said the crowd applauded after the announcement but immediately yelled
out questions about what would happen to the council members. Four of the five
of them are paid close to $100,000 annually for part-time work. When the crowd's
questions were not answered, they shouted, "Recall!, Recall!"
Revelations about the pay in Bell has sparked anger in the city of fewer than
40,000 residents. Census figures from 2008 show 17 percent of the population
lives in poverty.
Enraged residents have staged protests demanding the firings and started a
recall campaign against some council members.
"Woo-hoo, the salaries. Wow. What can I say? I think that's unbelievable,"
Christina Caldera, a 20-year resident of the city, said as she stood in line at
a food bank.
Caldera, who is struggling after recently losing her job as a drug and
alcohol counselor, said she generally was satisfied with the way the city was
being run but felt high-paid officials should take a pay cut.
"What are they doing with all that money?" she asked. "Maybe they could put
it into more jobs for other people."
Attempts to leave messages seeking comment from Rizzo and Spaccia failed
because their voicemails were full. A message left for Adams was not immediately
returned.
The county district attorney's office is investigating to determine if the
high salaries for the council members violate any state laws. The City Council
also intends to review city salaries, including those of its own members,
according to Councilman Luis Artiga and Mayor Oscar Hernandez.
"We are going to analyze all the city payrolls and possibly will revise all
the salaries of the city," Artiga said.
However, both men said they considered the City Council pay to be
justified.
"We work a lot. I work with my community every day," the mayor said, as he
shook hands with and embraced people leaving the food bank Thursday.
Council members are on call around the clock, and it is not uncommon for them
to take calls in the middle of the night from people reporting problems with
city services, Artiga said.
Though many residents are poor, Hernandez said they live in a city they can
be proud of, one with a $22.7 million budget surplus, clean streets, refurbished
parks and numerous programs for people of all ages. He pointed proudly down a
street to a park filled with new exercise equipment.
When Rizzo arrived 17 years ago, Hernandez said, the city was $13 million in
debt and on the verge of bankruptcy. Rizzo obtained government grants to aid the
city, the mayor said.
Rizzo was arrested near his home in Huntington Beach in March and charged
with misdemeanor drunken driving. He pleaded not guilty and is due back in court
for an Aug. 5 hearing, said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County
district attorney's office.
The Los Angeles Times reported the salaries last week, prompting a large
protest Monday at City Hall in which residents shouted and demanded that Rizzo
be fired.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown said his office has launched an
investigation in conjunction with the state's public employee retirement agency
into pension and related benefits for Bell's civic
leaders.