And the 2010 tax feeder award goes to...

aaronman · Jul 23, 2010

City Manager Robert Rizzo for making ~$800,000 a year, with $30 million in retirement!

- A municipal manager in California who makes nearly $800,000 a year working for a small, poor city could draw pension payments exceeding $30 million in retirement, according to an activist who has been calling for an overhaul of the state's public pension system.

That would put Robert Rizzo, chief administrative officer for the city of Bell in Los Angeles County, far ahead of other retired public workers in the state, said Marcia Fritz, who heads the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility.

"This guy will be our first seven-figure retiree," said Fritz, whose group has played a leading role in publicizing the issue of California's public pension liabilities.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has seized on the topic and is demanding that lawmakers reform pensions as part of a deal to plug a $19 billion deficit in the state budget.

The state's public pension assets are managed by the California Public Employees' Retirement System and California State Teachers' Retirement System, global fund giants better known as Calpers and Calstrs, respectively.

In California's current race for governor, Republican nominee and former eBay Inc chief executive Meg Whitman has proposed restructuring state employee pensions to reduce their cost to government.

Democratic rival Jerry Brown has proposed limits on public pension benefits, his campaign says.

EARLY RETIREMENT?

Currently, a former employee of the nearby South L.A.-area city of Vernon is California's top public pensioner, pulling in just under $510,000 a year, according to a top-ten list compiled from public record searches by Fritz's group.

If Rizzo leaves his job, which irate residents of Bell are demanding, he could draw $884,692 in his first year of retirement, according to her calculations.

At age 62, when Rizzo could also begin receiving Social Security payments, his annual pension would rise to $976,771, topping $1 million two years later. If he lives to age 83, his annual payout would rise to $1.48 million.

Fritz said she calculated Rizzo's pension according to standard methods used in California, including available optional benefits as well as incentives she said likely will be offered to get him to resign quickly amid public uproar over his annual pay. That totals $787,637, nearly double the $400,000 a year salary of U.S. President Barack Obama.

"I don't think there is anything illegal ... The system allows this," Fritz said. "It's all by the book."

Fritz noted it is not unusual for retired firefighters in California to get bigger pensions than those paid top U.S. military officers who retire much later after many more years in uniform.

Bell, with a population of under 40,000, is one of the L.A. metropolitan area's poorest cities. Many of its residents are calling for Rizzo, the city manager and other top officials to resign after the Los Angeles Times reported their salaries.

Rizzo may be the most highly compensated city manager in the United States and the salaries of others in Bell's government are just as amazing.

Bell's assistant city manager pulls in $376,288 a year. Its police chief is paid $457,000, or about 50 percent more than what neighboring Los Angeles pays its top cop to oversee law enforcement in the second-largest U.S. city.

Additionally, some of Bell's city council members earn nearly $100,000 a year. The salaries are so big that the Los Angeles County district attorney's office is probing them.
Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, predicted tumult at Bell's city hall. "There's probably going to be a recall of city council members and terminations ASAP."
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$800,000 salary in city of 38,000

Hundreds of residents of one of the poorest municipalities in Los Angeles County shouted in protest last night as tensions rose over a report that the city’s manager earns an annual salary of almost $800,000.

An overflow crowd packed a City Council meeting in Bell, a mostly Hispanic city of 38,000 about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, to call for the resignation of Mayor Oscar Hernandez and other city officials. Residents left standing outside the chamber banged on the doors and shouted “fuera,” or “get out” in Spanish.

It was the first council meeting since the Los Angeles Times reported July 15 that Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo earns $787,637 -- with annual 12 percent raises -- and that Bell pays its police chief $457,000, more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck makes in a city of 3.8 million people. Bell council members earn almost $100,000 for part-time work.

City Attorney Edward Lee said the council members couldn’t discuss salaries in public without advance notice. The council then adjourned for a private session. About an hour later, the council members returned, and Hernandez read a statement saying the city would prepare a report on the salaries and seek public comment at the next council meeting, scheduled for Aug. 16.

Residents shouted in protest. Lee said he would have the room cleared if people continued to speak out of line. Police Chief Randy Adams said the fire department wanted to end the meeting because the crowd outside was blocking the door.

Easing Tensions

Then, in what appeared to be an effort to ease tensions, Hernandez announced that the meeting to discuss salaries would be held instead on July 26.

After the meeting, Bell resident Ali Saleh read a statement from a newly formed group called the Bell Association to Stop the Abuse. He called for an independent audit of city salaries and contracts.

On July 1 Bell took control of many of the city functions of neighboring Maywood, a city whose council members voted to contract out almost all services. Saleh also asked that Bell stop that process until the city’s salary investigations were resolved.

Bell has sold two general obligation bond issues totaling $50 million in the past six years, according to prospectuses for the bonds and information in the city’s annual financial statement for 2009. In that time, its debt has risen to $1,972 per capita in 2009 from $599 in 2004, according to its annual financial statement.

Inquiry Under Way

The city’s personal income was $24,800 per capita in 2008, according to its financial statement. That compares with an average of $32,819 nationwide, according to 2010 figures from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Bell’s general fund revenue declined 4.6 percent to $14.1 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2009, according to the city’s financial statement. The city’s expenses rose 2.3 percent to $15.9 million in same period.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has begun an inquiry into Bell council member pay, according to Dave Demerjian, head of the office’s Public Integrity Division. He said Bell council members were receiving $8,083 a month, mostly by serving on city-related commissions.

“We’re reviewing the council member salaries to see if they conform to state law,” Demerjian said in a telephone interview.

California law limits the salaries of council members to several hundred dollars a month, depending on the size of the city, according to Hector De La Torre, a state assemblyman from nearby South Gate, who sponsored legislation in 2005 that limits how much council members can get paid from other city-related assignments to $150 a month.

‘Obscene Pay’

De La Torre said that after his bill was passed, Bell’s City Council voted to operate under its own charter, rather than adhere to state laws on how cities should be run.

“It seems obscene to me,” De La Torre said in a telephone interview. “People making $30,000 a year are paying taxes so that their council members can make $80,000.”

Adams, Bell’s police chief, said in an interview after the council meeting that he had retired as chief of police in the much larger city of Glendale, California, when Bell officials approached him.

“I told them they would have to pay me what I was making in retirement and the $165,000 I would make as chief of police,” Adams said.

Adams said he had been brought in to end corruption in Bell’s police department.
“Some of the former members of this force are in the federal penitentiary,” he said.

‘Streets Are Cleaner’

Hernandez, the mayor, defended the salaries in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

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

Carmen Avalos, the city clerk in South Gate, said she attended the Bell council meeting to help educate people about the political process.

“This is what we are trying to avoid,” she said in an interview at the meeting. “The lack of fiduciary responsibility, the lack of transparency.”
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What a joke... and the police chief is making half a million dollars every year!

Some relevant viewing

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wdVe4IsNes"]YouTube- 2012 - LA Escape[/ame]

pineapple skunk · Jul 23, 2010

dude LA county is so fucked is so many ways, as far as im concerned in all of the country, california is the worst example of how to govern, and in all of california, LA county is the epicenter of stupidity

Arteezy · Jul 23, 2010

Damn. I should become a tax feeder. I want $800k/year.

Sir Elliot · Jul 23, 2010

I'm in the wrong field of work.

k.smith904 · Jul 23, 2010

Public salaries and pensions are another blight on the budget. However, it's quite difficult to force government to take a pay cut (conflict of interest much?). It would be like getting police officers to vote on tougher police brutality laws, it's not gonna happen...

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And the 2010 tax feeder award goes to...

aaronman n'wah

pineapple skunk 1989

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And the 2010 tax feeder award goes to...

aaronman n'wah

pineapple skunk 1989

Arteezy BabyRage

Sir Elliot Registered User

k.smith904 Boogie Man

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