From Fox News:
Five former elected officials of the
small, blue-collar California city of Bell were convicted Wednesday of
multiple counts of misappropriating public funds by paying themselves
huge salaries while raising taxes on residents.
Former Mayor Oscar Hernandez and co-defendants Teresa Jacobo, George
Mirabal, George Cole and Victor Belo were all convicted of multiple
counts and acquitted of others.
Former Councilman Luis Artiga was cleared entirely.
The charges against the officials involved paying themselves inflated
salaries of up to $100,000 a year in the city of 36,000 people, where
one in four residents live below the poverty line.
An audit by the state controller's office previously found the city
had illegally raised property taxes, business license fees and other
sources of revenue to pay the salaries. The office ordered the money
repaid.
The guilty findings were related to the appointment of the defendants
to the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority, an agency that prosecutors
had argued during trial served no purpose other than to pay them a
salary....MORE
...The scandal that rocked Bell raised the curtain on a fiefdom established
by powerful former city manager Robert Rizzo. City records revealed
that Rizzo had an annual salary and compensation package worth $1.5
million, making him one of the highest paid administrators in the
country....
Those 36,000 souls also have $77 million in municipal debt the public servants racked up.
