City of Bell... where did I hear that city before...
Ahhh.. yes... basically those in power of that City were so corrupt, even the California State came after them....
City of Bell scandal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Robert Rizzo" redirects here. For the German musician, see Robert Hunecke-Rizzo.
The Bell scandal involved the misappropriation of public funds in Bell, California, United States, over a period of several years in the late 2000s. In July 2010, the Los Angeles Times published an investigative article on possible malfeasance in the neighboring city of Maywood, revealing that the city officials of Bell received salaries that were reported as the highest in the nation.
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Bell, California, is a small suburb of Los Angeles that covers 2.5 square miles (6.5 km2), with a population of approximately 38,000.[10] It is one of the poorer cities in Los Angeles County,[11] with almost one in six residents lives below the poverty line.[12] In 2009, Bell's per capita income was about $24,800..
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In 2005, a measure approved by Bell voters exempted the city from a state law enacted earlier that year which limited the salary of council members of general-law cities – cities without a charter of their own.
All five members of the Bell City Council signed a statement in favor of the "little-noticed city ballot measure", which converted Bell into a charter city and was "billed as one that would give the city more control," yet failed to mention that Bell became exempted from the salary regulations. The measure passed, 336 votes in favor and 54 against.[17]
The salaries and pensions scandal in Bell also brought into question the issue of voter fraud. In the 2005 election, fewer than 400 votes were cast in a special election that cleared the way for City Council members to dramatically boost their own salaries. In that election, more than half the votes cast were absentee ballots, the most vulnerable method to manipulate fraudulent votes.
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One resident of Bell, on condition of anonymity, told the Los Angeles Times that he was assigned the chore of retrieving absentee ballots: "Our objective was to collect absentee ballots, and if they were not filled out, instruct them how to fill it out, and if not, fill it out for them", he said. It is estimated that less than 1% of registered voters actually showed up to cast their ballot.[2] It has been reported that some residents went to the polling place, only to find that their votes had already been cast.[18]
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Documents released to the Times revealed that the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) knew four years previously that Rizzo had received a 47% pay increase to $442,000.
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Marcia Fritz, who heads the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility stated that at age 62, when Rizzo could have begun receiving Social Security payments, his annual pension and benefits would have risen to $976,771, topping $1 million two years later. "This guy would be our first seven-figure retiree", said Fritz.[34]
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ref
en.wikipedia.org
She said the city is now 99% Hispanic. Matt200, you have good memory. 
