Council to discuss firing officials whose salaries sparked outrage in small LA suburb

City to discuss firing high-paid officials

BELL, Calif. — The City Council in this small Los Angeles suburb is meeting Thursday to consider firing the police chief and two top administrators over their huge salaries, including one who makes nearly $800,000 a year.

Revelations about the pay in Bell has sparked anger in a blue-collar town that is one of the poorest in Los Angeles County.

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

The council will discuss the issue behind closed doors Thursday afternoon and hold a public hearing on Monday.

Among the officials considered for dismissal is Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo, whose $787,637 annual salary is nearly twice the salary 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.

The council members are paid handsomely themselves — most make about $100,000 a year for part-time work —

Attempts to leave messages seeking comment for Rizzo and Spaccia with city representatives failed Thursday because their voicemailboxes 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.

Census figures from 2008 show 17 percent of the population in Bell lives in poverty.

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 Los Angeles Times. “These things just don’t happen, they happen because he had a vision and made it happen.”

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

The county district attorney’s office is investigating the city to determine if the council’s high salaries violate any state laws.