At last, a job Liberals are perfect for
August 09, 2010
You've probably read a lot about the shenanigans of the city government of Bell, CA. If not, catch up with some of the following links--the titles alone tell an outrageous story:
"City of Bell Corruption: The people yell over the smell in the hell that is Bell".
"How to turn $1,800 in part-time pay into nearly $100,000 a year".
"Bell withholds public records".
Most recent: "Bell admits more hefty city salaries: Several other administrators get six-figure paychecks, and two were given extra payments".
How did this happen? Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times provides the consensus explanation:
Corruption is everywhere in California and beyond, from civic centers to Wall Street. But there's a particular strain of brazen malfeasance in south and southeast L.A. County, with a shameful history of headlines emanating from Maywood and South Gate and Compton and Carson, to name a few. Whether you're talking to residents or think-tank types, you hear some common themes.
Those cities have largely poor, immigrant populations that are too busy working to pay close attention to City Hall, which means they can be easily exploited. Voter turnout is low, in part because many residents are undocumented and even many legal immigrants aren't yet qualified to vote. And there's not much media presence because of cutbacks by everyone in the industry, including The Times, so the rascals are left to steal with impunity.
"It's a very predatory type of mentality," said Cristina Garcia, a Bell Gardens resident who is an adjunct professor at USC.
Garcia, who is now helping organize protests in nearby Bell, said she suspects the vultures deliberately move into cities where they think it'll be easy pickings. Rizzo moved to Bell from Hesperia in 1993 at a salary of $72,000. By 2005, as Vives and Gottlieb reported, he was up to $442,000, and his contract was amended to give him 12% increases annually. The boobs on the City Council, meanwhile, altered the City Charter so they wouldn't have to comply with state guidelines on council salaries.
Attention, Liberals! Instead of doing all the dopey things you are currently doing, why don't you watch, closely, the governments in southern California for this kind of malfeasance? Looks like a win for you, a win for the poor immigrants you'll help protect, and a win for the rest of us because you'll have less time to mess up our lives.
You're welcome.