The LAT apparently would like for you to feel sorry for someone in the city of Bell.
The question is, who?
Not Robert “Ratso” Rizzo and his cronies. They’re under arrest and facing a recall election. If that doesn’t work, Jerry Brown’s going to try to get them kicked out of office anyway.
Should we feel sorry for the citizens of Bell? According to the LAT, they were literally dancing in the streets when the arrests went down.
(Edited to add: Here’s a second article from the LAT about the street celebrations in Bell. Unlike the first, it does not mention dancing, but the guy playing “Another One Bites The Dust” is a nice touch. Of course, the LAT had to find the one moron in the crowd…
“They were making a lot of money, but I don’t have an issue with it because they were taking care of us,” she said. “We have a clean city, good parks, no graffiti. It’s very safe…. I’m not saying the salaries and other things that were going on were fair, because they weren’t, but it’s not like they were getting paid a lot and not doing a good job.”
See also Mussolini and the trains running on time. Of course they were doing a good job. Except for those illegal taxes. And the towing scandal. And the illegal sewer fees. And the fake meetings.)
Even better for the citizens of Bell,
The state controller’s office has found that Bell collected about $5.6 million in illegally imposed tax increases and business-license fees — and now must refund an amount equal to more than one-third of its $13.5-million general fund.
Of course, having to cough up that much money means there isn’t enough left to spend on essential city services, like Rizzo’s million-dollar salary. Perhaps the city could sell bonds to fill the gap? Except that Bell’s bond status, according to Standard and Poor’s, is “junk”.
So what next? Cut city services? Place the city into receivership? The LAT article seems to view these as last-resort options. We would suggest that these should be first resort options. Does the city really need 47 police officers? Couldn’t they contract out services to LA County?
Here’s the City of Bell website. Perhaps our loyal readers could explore that and propose some cuts in order to meet the budget.