KCAL-9 News video: Reporter Dave Lopez details the background behind the indictments against the "Bell 8" brought by LA County DA Steve Cooley. Reporter Stephanie Abrams covers the jubilation among Bell residents following the arrests. September 21, 2010. http://youtu.be/ap7LQbGwlv0
Yes, it's the latest news with the home of the "Bell 8" out in Los Angeles County and the town residents that were left to pick up the pieces after the elected city officials looted it.
Technically, they were accused of misappropriating city money and attempting to cover up their high salaries.
And here's something we'd all recognize in South Florida -a deliberate policy of misinformation as part of their daily handiwork: police chiefs, city clerks, town administrators, city council members...
Bell 8: City clerk testifies she was following orders in giving out false salary information
And today we read in the LA Times that one of the ticking time bombs left for the beleaguered taxpayers of Bell was a huge property tax hike for promises that were never delivered.
Los Angeles Times
Bell's former leaders are gone, but their legacy lingers
The new council says it can't legally stop a looming property tax hike. The revenue will go to pay back $50 million in bonds, much of which was already squandered, for a park that won't be built.
By Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times
August 30, 2011, 7:17 a.m.
Bell's residents already pay one of the highest property tax rates in Los Angeles County despite being one of its poorest cities. Now, homeowners are discovering that their taxes are about to go up again to pay for a park that will never be built.It's one more legacy of the Robert Rizzo era, even though residents thought they had turned a page when the former city administrator was taken away in handcuffs, the last of those accused in a sweeping public corruption scandal were voted out of City Hall, and a new City Council was sworn in.
Read the rest of the article at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bell-taxes-20110830,0,955335.story
Readers comments at:
L.A. Times stories on the City Hall corruption in Bell and the town's efforts to come to grips with it can be found at: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/bell/
City of Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo Steals a Shocking $800,000 a Year
So, do you recall who signed-off on the sweetheart deal for former Hallandale Beach City Manager Mike Good deal last year, who, when he wasn't late, often stopped showing-up for work at City Hall and couldn't be found by phone?
That is, after Comm. Ross finally showed-up at a HB City Commission meeting and stopped hiding in her office upstairs, which caused one important City Commission meeting to be postponed for lack of a quorum!
For the sweetheart deal that left HB civic activists and taxpayers slack-jawed: Joy Cooper, Dorothy "Dotty" Ross, William "Bill" Julian, Anthony A. Sanders.
Opposed to the deal and interested in pursuing litigation against Mike Good: Keith London.
Among Cooper's Rubber Stamp Crew, Ross is NOT running for re-election next year, Comm. Sanders is, ex-Comm. Julian is running to get back on it, while Mayor Cooper, in office now for ten years, is seeking re-election, too.
Hmm-m-m... three Commission seats up and possibly, a fourth, if Keith London runs against Cooper in the mayoral race.
See
CBS News video of August 8, 2010
Small Towns, Sky High Public Pay
KCAL video: City of Bell ripoffs
More local Los Angeles TV newscast stories on the situation in Bell can be found at:
