Local Corruption

A lack of checks and oversight over city management resulted in the recent city council embezzlement scandal in the city of Bell. According to the National Public Radio, the Los Angeles Times in June of 2010 uncovered the story when one of its reporters learned of an investigation into the city councils' salaries. For years the mayor, the city manager, and the city councilmen misappropriated public funds for their private gain. Facing a lack of accountability, the public officials of Bell managed to defraud the city and its citizens millions of dollars.

Bell is a small cashed-strapped city located in Los Angeles County. It lies approximately twenty minutes southeast of downtown Los Angeles. Its population is composed of forty-thousand working-class citizens, most of them immigrants. More than a quarter of Bell's citizens live below the poverty line.

The absence of oversight allowed Bell's city officials to defraud the city by instituting illegal taxes and giving themselves substantial pay raises. They managed to double the taxes for city services such as trash and sewage without voter approval. As the state controller John Chiang explained, "The city's purse strings were tied to only one individual, resulting in a perfect breeding ground for fraudulent, wasteful spending." The one individual Chiang referred to was the city manager Robert Rizzo. With this power, Rizzo was able to divert the revenue generated by the tax increases to pay for the increase in salaries for the mayor, the city councilmen, as well as for himself and his assistant. Consequently Rizzo was able to make $1.5 million in salary and benefits annually. In all more than $50 million in tax revenue were mismanaged.

The city is currently facing foreclosure on a piece of property as it defaulted on a $35 million debt. Its credit rating also dropped to junk status as a result. Without public scrutiny over its officials, corruption will continue to happen.