Council to discuss firing officials whose salaries sparked outrage in small Calif. city

Calif. city to discuss firing high-paid officials

BELL, Calif. — The City Council in this small Los Angeles suburb intends to meet behind closed doors to consider firing the police chief and two top administrators over their huge salaries.

Among the officials being considered for dismissal is Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo, whose $787,637 annual salary is nearly twice the pay of President Barack Obama.

The council also will consider firing Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia, who makes $376,288 a year, and Police Chief Randy Adams, whose annual salary of $457,000 is 50 percent more than that of Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck.

“Woo, the salaries. Wow. What can I say? I think that’s unbelievable,” said Christina Caldera, a 20-year resident of the city.

Revelations about the pay in Bell has sparked anger in the blue-collar town that is one of the poorest in Los Angeles County. Census figures from 2008 show 17 percent of the population in Bell lives in poverty.

Enraged residents have staged protests demanding the firings and started a recall campaign against some council members.

The council is scheduled to discuss the issue Thursday afternoon and hold a public hearing on Monday.

The council members are paid well themselves — most make about $100,000 a year for the part-time work. The county district attorney’s office is investigating to determine if the council’s high salaries violate any state laws.

Attempts to leave messages with city representatives seeking comment from Rizzo and Spaccia failed Thursday because their voicemails were full.

A message left for Adams was not immediately returned.

The Los Angeles Times reported the salaries last week, prompting a large protest Monday at City Hall in which residents shouted and demanded that Rizzo be fired.

City officials, including Mayor Oscar Hernandez, have defended the salaries. They say Rizzo joined a nearly bankrupt city 17 years ago and restored its finances.

“Our streets are cleaner, we have lovely parks, better lighting throughout the area, our community is better,” Hernandez told the Times. “These things just don’t happen, they happen because he had a vision and made it happen.”

At a food bank down the street from City Hall, Hernandez greeted several hundred people Thursday who lined up around the block for monthly handouts of fruits, vegetables and household items.

The mayor handed out chocolates, shook hands and embraced people entering the building and said he was too busy to talk to a reporter.

“I have to take care of my constituents right now,” he said.

In the line, seemingly everyone had heard stories about the huge salaries of city officials.

Caldera, who is struggling after recently losing her job as a drug and alcohol counselor, said she generally was satisfied with the way the city was being run but felt high-paid officials should take a pay cut.

“What are they doing with all that money?” she asked. “Maybe they could put it into more jobs for other people.”

All three officials under question have contracts that protect them from being fired without cause. In order to fire them, the city might have to buy out their contracts.

If Rizzo is dismissed, he still would be entitled to a state pension of more than $650,000 a year for life, according to calculations made by the Times. That would make Rizzo, 55, the highest-paid retiree in the state pension system.

Adams could get more than $411,000.

Spaccia, 51, could be eligible for as much as $250,000 a year when she reaches 55, though the figure is less precise than for the other two officials, the Times said.