Three administrators in Bell, California have resigned after the national outcry over their inflated salaries. Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo was found to be making $787,637 a year — roughly twice the salary of President Obama — to oversee a city of less than 40,000 people. Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia and Police Chief Randy Adams also resigned. However, it now appears that Rizzo is entitled to $650,000 a year in pension. It is not clear why the mayor and other officials have not joined the ranks of the recently resigned.
Adams was making 50% more than the chief of police in Los Angeles. He was pulling in $457,000 and Spaccia made $376,288 a year.
Adams could now claim more than $411,000 a year and Spaccia, 51, could claim as much as $250,000 a year. Spaccia would have to wait until when she reaches 55 however. She could then pull in $7,500,000 if she lives another thirty years. Even at 20 years, Adams could pull in $8,220,000. As for Rizzo, a twenty-year pension period would give him an additional $13,000,000 dollars.
The question is now whether these obscene salaries could be viewed as a form of fraud or racketeering. It would be difficult. People elected these city council members and Mayor who must have approved these salaries or did not seek to limit the salaries. If they did not receive kickbacks, it may be perfectly legal. The law does not protect people against the leaders they elect in the performance of discretionary duties. Moreover, since these officials will remain vilified for the rest of their lives, they have little reason to waive such pensions.
Source: Sacramento Bee
Thank you, Buddha. I was about to write a response–but you beat me to the punch.
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Buddha,
I’m arguing against public sector unions, not all unions.
If unions and government regulation are all that prevent rampant worker exploitation, why are unions needed in government of all places?
Isn’t your claim that government by its nature is inherently a force for good, including worker protections?
Byron,
Sorry – I did know you were in agreement. I started with a reply to you and my rant took a different direction entirely. I should have taken your name off, I think.
Yes, people would be much better off if social security were privatized. At least there would be something actually saved and invested, instead of the pure ponzi scheme we now have.
I think we’re well on our way to creating a distinct ruling class in the United States that is exempted from the rules and realities applied to everyone else. That has always been true to some extent, but I believe the pain and resentment to come will be a destabilizing force on society if theft is allowed to continue on this scale. We are better off to confront reality than to continue to pretend this will all somehow work itself out. It won’t.
First, in all fairness I should disclose I have a Molly McGuire in my bloodline. And I don’t mean the singer-songwriter.
Let’s see what a lack of unions and privatized social safety nets would get us.
Massey Mining disaster = no unions and union busting management that combined with graft preventing inspections leads to deaths
Privatized social security + recent Wall St. activities = senior citizens being shit out of luck not to mention out of cash
Do either of you pull your nose out of management’s or banking’s butt long enough to look at the history of which you speak? I kinda doubt it.
Sure, some unions are problematic (UAW looking your direction), but letting management run amok is demonstrably more problematic. Are union wages out of control in some industries? Yes they are. But in those same industries it’s not like management are a bunch of sterling fellows either. Their history reads like a list of blood money where they’ve treated workers like fungible chattel to improve their profit margins. But greed is good, isn’t it, Gordon?
But sure! Let’s return to the days before unions so the boss can have domestic sweat shops with unsafe conditions and work children and not pay a living wage let alone a minimum wage and ignore basics of safety.
Drivel like that above is precisely fascist. It’s pro-boss, anti-worker. It’s by its very nature endorsing inequity. Unions, as defective as they are, are one of only two bulwarks against corporations running everything. The other being governmental regulation you two whine about constantly. If corporatist actors weren’t venal pigs who’d trade a man’s life for a dollar? Unions wouldn’t be necessary. That’s the fact. But if you doubt they are a necessary evil? I have three words for you: Battle of Matewan.
And privatized social security? I only need three letters to illustrate what’s wrong with that idea: A.I.G.
You talk about freedom? How about the freedom to not be an exploited and abused wage slave is more important than the freedom to make money at regardless of the damage done to workers and society as a whole.
Puzzling:
I was being sarcastic, I agree with you. I think that Social Security ought to be privatized as well. People would have more money and could leave it to their heirs. Maybe people could actually create wealth in this country if the elites would quit making it so hard for the little guy to get ahead.
Byron,
Public sector unions are the largest campaign contributors of all, and they can vote – unlike corporations. That’s buys real power, even in a corrupt corporatist system where government creates winners and losers instead of the marketplace.
These unions have bankrupted many cities and states by using the power of government to steal while lying about the financial costs of pension spikes and public safety compensation premiums. Republicans and Democrats alike actively support “law and order” union demands, although Democrats rely on union support even more broadly. Both parties are completely corrupted.
Today, principled people on the left are also starting to see the actual cost of these policies. Social programs and other priorities can’t be funded if all government receipts go to employee compensation, posh retirements, and debt service. Yet, that is where we are.
Public sector unions have other consequences. They protect molesting teachers and homicidal cops. They are a built-in advocacy group for ever larger, less productive government. They must be shut down in order to put an end to the theft, the corruption, and this growing master class of so-called public servants.
Yeah!!! I’m with puzzling and Byron. People who work for a city, a county, a state or the federal government for n25 or 30 years aren’t entitled to anything. No pensions, no benefits, no raises. All I want is no taxes. I don’t feel responsible for anyone but myself. Screw everyone else.
Puzzling:
But they are government workers and don’t make very much so they need a good pension to make government service attractive. A 401k? Are you crazy? That is so radical, making people responsible for their own retirement, are you a revolutionary?
there is a mistake in my previous post– I meant 2 years tenure for the city managers, not 10
I lived in Steamboat Springs CO for 10 years and have followed government in that area. They have a city council form of government and no mayor. City managers there have an average tenure of less than 10 years.
Steamboat is considered a very desirable place to live w the skiing etc., all jobs get many applications. Most of the doctors went to Yale or Harvard. In the mid 90’s, they advertised the position of city manager for, as I remember it, 57 K and got more than 100 applications w masters degrees in city management and experience. The job is not that difficult. One that I thought they should hire had grown up there and had relatives there. Instead they hired an old guy ready to retire and dangled a pension.
I complained that the city was allowing the city council president to build extra buildings on his property adjoining mine that violated the zoning. 10 years later the extra buildings, which have central heating and plumbing, still haven’t been put on the property tax rolls. In 2009, it was publicly revealed that the former city council president had pled guilty and served time for conspiracy to sell hashish. My documents, verified by his attorney, show discussion of his NCIC record with the city attorney in 2003.
A man died in a fire and the county assessor said there are many illegal buildings in Steamboat Springs and enforcement of the regulations is lax.
Two years ago they hired a new city manager for $185 K with only one or two years of employment required to vest a generous pension.
My theory is they dangle the pensions to keep the city managers quiet.
The public has no clue when it comes to the scale of theft being perpetrated on taxpayers by government employees. Salaries are one thing, but the value of lifetime pensions and health benefits is another entirely.
In California, for example, UNFUNDED state pensions obligations total $425 billion. That’s six times the total state budget, and about $48,000 per taxpaying household beyond current tax obligations that must be collected! Get out your checkbooks.
Government pensions are guaranteed by the state, so any losses or underfunding in these accounts are made up by taxpayers. That creates an incentive for pension plans to take tremendous risks in investment choices. They have no downside.
Two things must happen:
1. Move all public sector employees to a defined contribution plan (like a 401K), ending pension systems
2. Introduce taxes to reclaim absurd pension amounts, perhaps a 100% tax on state pensions over $100K.
Where these cannot be accomplished politically, they should be accomplished through bankruptcy.
Hey now, they were just being adequately compensated..thats all….
I think I’d change the title “For Whom the Bell Tolls” to “For Whom the Bell Is Wrung.”
This is a disgusting abuse of the public trust.
The California AG is now investigating excessive salaries and pensions for public employees (this story includes Rizzo’s classy DUI mug from earlier this year):
http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2010/07/23/attorney-general-calpers-to-probe-public-salaries-pensions/61407/
I hope they have such a thing as a Tax Payers Lawsuit in California … I believe all it takes is one taxpayer to file the paperwork questioning the use of tax dollars.
rafflaw,
They did not milk a damn thing. They had an Orgy……
If the mayor can be believed it would seem that Mr. Rizzo may have indeed earned his salary:
http://www.bellcityclerk.org/ftp/City%20of%20Bell%20Statement_072210.pdf
What is the big deal? Congress does this to us all the time, they serve a few years get huge pensions and benefits for screwing up the country.
My question-is the town better now than it was before? If not they failed in their job and should be given jack sh . . .
This is a travesty. Not only have they milked the town with their salaries, they can now walk away with massive pensions! There has to have been some fraud in order to keep these huge salaries quiet for so long. The salaries might not be criminal(legally)but the coverup might be.
I can spell both R.I.C.O. and F.B.I.
They should change the name of this town from Bell to Tinnitus.