Grand Theft Pension

It’s bad enough that the residents of Bell, CA are being robbed by their Mayor, City Manager, and City Council while they are in office. Now it turns out, the small community with average incomes just above the poverty line will be forced to pay half-million dollar pensions to these crooks for the rest of their retired lives.

Bell’s story originally broke a couple of days ago:

Hundreds of residents of one of the poorest municipalities in Los Angeles County shouted in protest last night as tensions rose over a report that the city’s manager earns an annual salary of almost $800,000.An overflow crowd packed a City Council meeting in Bell, a mostly Hispanic city of 38,000 about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, to call for the resignation of Mayor Oscar Hernandez and other city officials. Residents left standing outside the chamber banged on the doors and shouted “fuera,” or “get out” in Spanish.

It was the first council meeting since the Los Angeles Times reported July 15 that Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo earns $787,637 — with annual 12 percent raises — and that Bell pays its police chief $457,000, more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck makes in a city of 3.8 million people. Bell council members earn almost $100,000 for part-time work.

Mother Jones reports this horrible twist:

City manager Robert] Rizzo, whose forced-resignation could come as early as Thursday, would be entitled to a pension of at least $600,000 a year for the rest of his life, according to retirement calculations made by The Times and reviewed by pension experts….Not far behind would be Randy Adams, the man Rizzo hired as Bell police chief last July. If Adams steps down, his pension would be worth an estimated $411,300.

…Cristina Garcia, who grew up in Bell and is part of a newly formed citizen’s group, said fat pensions are another insult to city residents. “It’s unethical and immoral, that’s obvious,” she said. “What’s amazing is that it is all legal.”

Legal, baby, legal! Pensions, of course, depend heavily on just a small number of your highest paid years in the system, and Adams’s pension, which was about $200,000 after serving in Glendale for 37 years, has doubled in just the single year he’s been at Bell.

Grab your pitchforks. These crooks should be thrown in jail or worse.

As city’s bank accounts get empty and people start to look a little closer at the books, I expect we’re going to hear a lot more stories like this one of fraud, abuse of power, and outright theft.

Are there any Bells in the Bay Area?  We’ll find out in the next few years…