Why is Bell important?

Over the past few weeks, a great deal has been made of the exorbitant salary levels public officials in the City of Bell have received. Last week, the story reached a new low. A study by the Los Angeles Times reported that residents of this poor, primarily immigrant and first generation American city are paying nearly the highest property tax rate in Los Angeles County.

While, frankly, there hasn’t always been a lot of love lost between me and city managers over the years, a blanket condemnation of the profession is unwarranted. For the most part, these public administration professionals provide a much more capable level of management for small and medium sized cities than would an elected mayor/administrator.

Cities like Bell, however, are prime candidates for. The reason is obvious in the city’s demographics. Bell is a city where people are trying hard to earn a living. They have little time for, or, in some cases, understanding of the nuances of government. Unscrupulous public officials, both elected and appointed, will take advantage of that.

However, the proper place for blame for city managers running amok is the city council. The people’s representatives should be the primary watchdog over their only direct employee. However, as in the case of Bell, where the council was seemingly in cahoots with the manager for lining their own pockets, it becomes the public’s responsibility to watch and ask the hard questions.

In the Beach Cities, this cadre of concerned residents would not be hard to find. The regular “professional citizens” who show up at every meeting perform a service by making sure that the Council understands that someone who, generally, knows what he/she is talking about, is there to respond when things seem out of the ordinary.

Thus, over the past few years, we have seen too many corruption disclosures in a number of cities where the population is a prime candidate for it.

Greed is an overwhelming vice. When that greed gets interlocked with ambition, it is often impossible to resist. But, when it violates the public good, it needs to not only be prosecuted, but punished severely.

The four members of the Bell City Council who received inflated compensation levels will likely not resign, so they will have to be recalled. However, mere loss of position should not be the end of it. The existence of such egregious levels of compensation usually includes a great deal of collusion and covering each other’s backs.

My guess is that there is not only immorality, but illegality involved. It is the responsibility of the County DA as well as the State Attorney General to deal with this case expeditiously. If legal wrongdoing is found it should be dealt with swiftly and harshly.

That is the only way to set the example for every other City Council in California. After all, they are the ones we have chosen to be our safeguards. Failure is not acceptable. ER