Bell, Calif., City Leaders Arrested in Salary Scandal

Sept. 21, 2010— -- Los Angeles prosecutors filed charges today against eight leaders the Bell, Calif., city government, whose outsized salaries created a scandal that prompted national outrage.

In a police sweep this morning, former Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo, whose exorbitant salary sparked the furor that led to the investigations of the city, was arrested, along with former Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia.

The others included Mayor Oscar Hernandez, Vice Mayor Teresa Jacobo, council members George Mirabal and Luis Artiga, and former council members George Cole and Victor Bello.

The officials are accused of misappropriating at least $5.5 million. "They used tax dollars as their own piggy bank, which they then looted at will," Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley alleged today at a news conference.

Rizzo is charged with 53 counts, including allegations that, beginning in 2008, he wrote his own employment contracts that were never approved by the City Council. Rizzo is also accused of giving nearly $1.9 million in unauthorized loans to himself, Spaccia, Artiga, Hernandez and dozens of others.

"This, needless to say, is corruption on steroids," Cooley said of the allegations.

In a July open letter, however, Mayor Hernandez attacked the Los Angeles Times for reporting the story and stood by Rizzo's salary.

"Unlike the skewed view of the facts, the Los Angeles Times presented to advance the paper's own agenda, a look at the big picture of city compensation shows that salaries of the city manager and other top city staff have been in line with similar positions over the period of their tenure," Hernandez said in the letter.

But the prosecutor said today that Rizzo was the leader of the group, calling him "an unelected czar."

"This was calculated greed accomplished by theft and secrecy," Cooley alleged.

Cooley said police had to use a battering ram on the door of one of the arrested officials. The detained officials were booked into county facilities and will be kept away from other inmates for their protection, according to the Associated Press.

Rizzo, who earned $787,637 -- nearly twice President Obama's salary -- was the highest paid municipal employee in the state. But he was not alone in allegedly pocketing large paychecks.

Spaccia, the assistant city manager, earned $376,288 a year. Four out of the five council members earned more than $100,000 a year for part-time work.