(Xinhua) -- For lack of internal financial controls, Bell City officials mismanaged 50 million dollars in bond funds, Caliphornia Controller John Chiang said on Wednesday.| "Our audit found the city had almost no accounting controls, no checks or balances, and the general fund was run like a petty cash drawer. The city's purse-strings were tied to only one individual, resulting in a perfect breeding ground for fraudulent, wasteful spending." |
The city's financial controls were "virtually non-existent," leading to the city paying an inappropriate payroll, illegally raising taxes and mismanagement of 50 million dollars in bond funds, Chiang said.
Yet the voters kept those clowns in office, didn't they?
The city of about 38,000 residents in suburban Los Angeles found itself in the national spotlight when The Los Angeles Times reported in July that some top city officials were making exorbitant salaries. City Manager Robert Rizzo was being paid an annual salary of 787,637 dollars;
Gotta pay top dollar if you want the best people, right?
What are the odds that a city manager making three-quarter of a mil a year would be a crook, right ...
Police Chief Randy Adams, 457, 000; and Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia, 376,000.
Additionally, Mayor Oscar Hernandez and three of the city's four council members -- Teresa Jacobo, Luis Artiga and George Mirabal -- were being paid 97,000 for their part-time jobs.
It's also been reported that the disgraced officials are eligible for huge pensions; that some had taken out questionable loans from the city; that residents' property tax rates were unlawfully high; and that the city also overcharged them for sewer service.
Rizzo, Adams and Spaccia have since resigned. The mayor and council members agreed to reduce their salaries, but refused to heed their outraged constituents' calls to step down.
"Tut tut. And tut. Who knows more about the intricacies of the city's problems than us?"
The eight officials were jugged early Tuesday in connection with the charges filed by the District Attorney's Office.
"We still ain't stepping down! So keep those paychecks comin'!"
The audit released by Chiang found that Rizzo had complete control over how city funds were spent, and he used personal funds for personal gain.
According to the audit, Rizzo's final salary was 787,000 dollars -- 11 times higher than his original salary. The city also used more than 93,000 dollars in public money to repay personal loans taken out by Rizzo, and approved 1.5 million in loans to other Bell employees, the audit showed.
If I was making better than three quarters of a mill per year I wouldn't need to take out any loans.
The audit also confirmed that the city inappropriately hiked three taxes for Bell residents and business owners, including 2.9 million dollars in property tax assessments for pension obligations, 621,000 in sewer standby charges and 2.1 million in business license taxes.