We haven’t had one of these in a while. Truth be told, things were moving slowly over the holidays.
But they are heating up: the trial of six former members of the Bell city council begins today. (Robert “Ratso” Rizzo and his assistant, Angela Spaccia, will be tried later this year.)
And how is the city of Bell doing?
The city’s general fund has been slashed to $12 million from $16 million, largely because a handful of highly paid employees are now gone, and the budget is balanced. Council meetings are streamed online in a city where the workings of government were once opaque. The city has cut fees for trash pickup, building permits and business licenses that had ballooned under Rizzo.
On the other hand, Bell also faces protracted litigation, on which it is spending an estimated $1.5 million a year.
“If all the litigation stuff were solved today, I’d tell you Bell has a bright future, and we can pay our bills,” said [Doug] Willmore [the new city manager – DB], who estimates he spends a third of his time on lawsuits. “There are all these things that could happen that could bankrupt the city.”
Among the worries, he said, is that Bell will be made to pay the legal fees of the former city leaders, who claim the city should foot the bill because their alleged misdeeds occurred as part of their official duties.
“That’s probably $5 million easily,” Willmore said.
More:
Willmore said that when he arrived, the city hadn’t reconciled a bank statement in two years. “Under Rizzo, the lack of accounting was just staggering,” he said. “I’ve inherited scandals before, but certainly nothing like this.
Also:
Bell still has the second-highest property tax in Los Angeles County, after only Beverly Hills, and a 10% utility tax, about twice that of most cities.
In spite of that, business owners say conditions in Bell have improved vastly: “…a new restaurant was recently able to obtain a license just two days after an inspection from the county health department — a process that could have taken three months in the Rizzo era”
If they keep this up, and can get past the legal issues, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bell turn into one of the few bright spots in California.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2013 at 9:12 am and is filed under California Über Alles, Clippings, Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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