For those of you who assume that at some point cooler heads will prevail and that we will eventually get a handle on the city’s fiscal crisis, look no further than the city of Bell as to why that might not happen.
The city of Bell for those who do not know, and I had to look it up myself is located in the Central portion of urban Los Angeles County. A small town in the midst of metropolis it had a population in 2000 of just 36,664. Bell is not an affluent community, in fact it is one of the poorest in Los Angeles County.
Worse yet, it compounds yearly, the CAO receives a 12% pay increase each July, as does his top deputy.
When the LA Times interviewed him for their big story, he was unapologetic. “If that’s a number people choke on, maybe I’m in the wrong business,” he said. “I could go into private business and make that money. This council has compensated me for the job I’ve done.”
According to the LA Times, Bell Mayor Oscar Hernandez defended the salaries. “Our city is one of the best in the area. That is the result of the city manager. It’s not because I say it. It’s because my community says it.”
Indeed the Mayor attempts to defend a situation that seems indefensible.
“Hernandez and other council members said the city was near bankruptcy when Rizzo came aboard 17 years ago. Since then, they said, he has put Bell on sound financial footing, with its general fund nearly tripling to about $15 million,” the Times article said.
“Our streets are cleaner, we have lovely parks, better lighting throughout the area, our community is better,” Mr. Hernandez told the LA Times. “These things just don’t happen, they happen because he had a vision and made it happen.”
Moreover, while other cities are struggling, Bell made positive headlines in recent weeks when the city agreed to take over operations of the neighboring city of Maywood, which fired most of its employees and disbanded its police department when it could not obtain insurance.
So what does that tell those of us in Davis that had likely never heard or nor much cared for the City of Bell?
For starters it tells us that cooler heads may not prevail in the battle to contain costs of local government. It is a warning not to take for granted notions of common sense.
No doubt city leaders across the state are breathing a sigh of relief, knowing that at least they can point to the city of Bell as an example of what they are not.
It is difficult to understand from afar the situation on the ground in the city of Bell. Where are they generating their revenues? Are city services continuing?
The city of Davis by some measures has fared better than most in this crisis which continues to loom if not get worse. We have had a fairly modest budget deficit on a yearly basis.
But there are signs that things are not as good as they seem on paper. We lack the basic resources to do things as basic as road maintenance. We have a ballooning unfunded retire health liability. We have a potentially explosive commitment in PERS contributions.
We have an uncertain future revenue with limited sales tax base, a slumping economy, heavy reliance of state employees, and a flatlined real estate market.
The last thing a city like Davis needs is to have to compete and justify their salaries against the craziness of those in the city of Bell. Fortunately, most other cities seem to be seeing things the same way. But as we have seen in other areas, there seems to be an enormous amount of pressure to increase the top salaries in the public sector at the very time when we can afford it least.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Any idea what the voter turnout is in local elections in Bell? Also, any idea what percent of eligible voters have registered? I’d wager both figures are pretty low.
You give no evidence that the City of Bell is in any financial trouble, to the contrary you provide quotes (although from folks who may feel a need to defend their situation) that could potentially justify the high salaries of top city officials. if in fact the City of Bell, is better off than it was before this CAO was hired, and is financially sound in today’s climate, these high salaries could be justified. Maybe the reason that Davis, and other cities, are in trouble is that we don’t offer competitive compensation to the private sector, and therefore don’t attract the high quality leaders that City of Bell might have. Are you just upset that their CAO is highly compensated? if you have evidence that this is an unjustified expenditure for the City of Bell, why not include it in your article. I am left to think that our problems may be that we do not pay our employees well enough to attract the quality that the City of Bell attracts. Could it be that if we offer better compensation to our city employees we may get higher quality folks who could better manage our financial situation? Maybe we need higher quality people who are both more expensive and more efficient. seems that there is more to the story of the City of Bell and this article is awfully presumptive.
Our planning staff appears to be too large and generally overcompensated–I would be extremely happy if many of them went to the private sector but I fear they know full well that most would have to take a massive salary cut.
On the other hand the key decision making body is our City Council whose members make a nominal salary of a few hundred a month.
7/20/2010: Residents irate as Bell council requests report on salaries: Community groups were demanding the resignation of Bell’s city council members, most of whom make $100,000 a year; police chief, who makes $457,000; and city manager, who makes $787,637.
[url]http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bell-20100720,0,6229042.story[/url]
From the article cited by wdf1: “A Bell councilman said Monday that he didn’t know his salary was $90,000 a year less than his colleagues’ nor that some city administrators made far more than that, until The Times reported that the district attorney’s office was investigating why the pay was so high for the part-time positions.
Councilman Lorenzo Velez said he is being paid $8,076 a year, while his colleagues are drawing nearly $100,000 annually.
Earlier in the day, Velez showed a reporter his statement of earnings and deductions, showing that the city paid him $310.62 every two weeks. His annual salary is about what his colleagues get paid each month. It was unclear what caused the discrepancy.
Records show that the councilman whose resignation led to Velez’s appointment was quickly hired at the city’s food bank. According to city records, that councilman kept his salary after stepping down.”
Unbelievable! The Councilmembers themselves were being paid $100,000 a year, except one, who was being paid only about $8,000 a year. From what I get out of it, the Councilmember he replaced kept most of the salary for himself when he left to work at the local food bank. The entire things smells of rampant corruption, and an apathetic public who was not paying attention…
Another recent news report, this a video:
[url]http://www.latimes.com/videobeta/?watchId=7b80746f-a38a-4c12-b222-16319113ff4e[/url]
It looks like the video was produce this past Monday evening. This piece emphasizes Rizzo’s recent avoidance/shunning of the media.
upon further examination, it appears that there was some really crooked stuff going on down there.