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Thread: Bell Lackawanna?

  1. #31
    Member mnb811's Avatar
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    Literal you are right. The entire school was built on a swamp. How do I know this? I used to trap muskrats and beaver there back in the late 70's. As a matter of fact I fell thru the ice on the pond/swamp while I was trapping one January and it was atleast 5 feet deep. So they can say whatever they want but we know the truth. Just more spin from these guys. Furthermore the area where they are building the subdivison now has/had a huge swamp/pond behind it to. It ran along the railroad tracks from a couple hundred feet past the power station to the RR tracks that cross over Abbott Road and continued till pretty much Willet road.That whole area is swampy and wetlands.

    I wonder if anybody has walked in back of that Martin Road School and realized it is always pretty much wet there? Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that there were or will be problems eventually.

  2. #32
    Member andreahaxton's Avatar
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    Post More......Corruption---Or Should I Say White Colar Crime?!

    Pay scandal, resignation deflate City Council in Bell, California


    Share this on:Mixx Facebook Twitter Digg delicious reddit MySpace StumbleUpon LinkedIn October 05, 2010|By the CNN Wire Staff"I believe this is in the best interests of the residents of Bell," Luis Artiga said of his resignation Monday.The future of the beleaguered Bell, California, City Council is unclear.

    Four council members, among them Mayor Oscar Hernandez, are facing criminal charges in what the Los Angeles County district attorney has called "corruption on steroids."
    One of the four, Luis Artiga, resigned his council post Monday, saying, "I believe this is in the best interests of the residents of Bell -- the great residents of Bell -- my family and the church because of the ongoing criminal case."

    After Artiga's resignation, a scheduled council meeting was canceled for lack of a quorum after only one member -- Lorenzo Velez, who is not facing charges -- showed up, CNN affiliate KTLA reported. Hernandez and Councilwoman Teresa Jacobo called in sick, the station said, and the fourth council member -- George Mirabal -- remains in jail.


    Some of the people on hand cheered Velez as he took a seat, according to KTLA. But "due to a lack of a quorum, we won't be able to have our regular meeting," he said.

    However, public comment at the meeting was allowed to proceed, KTLA said. About 200 Bell residents were present, it said. Many of those who spoke were angry, and during the comment session, which stretched to more than two hours, some blamed interim City Manager Pedro Carrillo for not moving fast enough to restore the city, according to KTLA. Velez told the commenters that, as the only council member present, he could take no action.

    A call to Bell city officials from CNN was not immediately returned Tuesday.
    Hernandez, Jacobo, Artiga, Mirabal, former City Manager Robert Rizzo, former Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia and former council members George Cole and Victor Bello were arrested last month and face charges that include misappropriation of funds, conflict of interest and making or receiving illegal loans. Prosecutors allege they misappropriated more than $5.5 million, were paid for phantom council meetings and deliberately misled citizens about how much they were paid.

    "They used the tax dollars collected from the hard-working citizens of Bell as their own piggy bank, which they looted at will," Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said at the time.

    High salaries paid to officials of the city sparked local outrage and national attention when they came to light in July. Rizzo, Spaccia and Police Chief Randy Adams resigned after media reports they were making several hundred thousand dollars a year each. Adams was not charged.

    California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown recently sued several of the former officials to recover the "excess salaries."

    Rizzo's last annual salary was more than $787,000, according to Brown's office. Adams earned $457,000 and Spaccia received $336,000. Before recently cutting their pay, Bell City Council members received $96,000 yearly, compared with $4,800 yearly for council members in similarly sized cities, Brown said.

    Bell, a town of about 36,000 in southeastern Los Angeles County, has a median household income of less than $35,000, according to census figures.


    Last edited by andreahaxton; October 17th, 2010 at 05:50 PM. Reason: White Collar Crime not Colar

  3. #33
    Member andreahaxton's Avatar
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    Post Transparent Lackawanna?

    Salary transparency legislation proposed in California[U]Several officials have come forward to demand greater transparency[/U] as a result of the Bell salaries. State Controller John Chiang expanded salary reporting requirement that all cities and counties must report salaries to him by October 15th of this year and that the salaries will be posted on the Controller's website in November.[7] Treasurer Bill Lockyer has proposed new auditing rules which would require reporting large pay increases that affect pension benefits.[8] Both of the officials have roles in CalPERS, California's retirement system, who knew about the salaries since 2006.[8]

    Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown has also called for an investigation into the situation.[8] Sen. Lou Correa has proposed the Taxpayer Right to Know Act, which would create database of public employee pay.[9] The League of California Cities is also drafting legislation to proactively disclose salary and pension information for local employees.[10] The League of California Cities has insisted for the transparency effort to work the legislation must encourage citizen engagement, transparency, and local control.[10]
    ************************************************
    What do you make of this?
    Do you think Lackawanna/NYS could follow suit? An honest politician would always be PROTECTIVE of Citizens hard-earned money, wouldn't you think?

  4. #34
    Member andreahaxton's Avatar
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    Post This is too much!

    Bell, California: Former City Manager Snoozes at Pay Scandal Court Hearing
    Community Reacts to Police 'Game' That Rewarded Officers for Writing Tickets

    Post a Comment By MIKE VON FREMD and JENNIFER METZ
    March 1, 2011 PrintRSSFont Size: Share:EmailTwitterFacebookMoreFarkTechnoratiGoogle LiveMy SpaceNewsvineRedditDeliciousMixxYahooThe man at the center of what may be the worst corruption scandal in California history was in court today, dozing off.


    More Video
    Watch: Citizens Protest Administrators' Salaries
    Watch: City Salaries Continue to Upset Locals Watch: Calif. Officials Living Large on Taxpayer Dime?Robert Rizzo, the former city manager of Bell, Calif., shocked the nation when it was revealed that his salary in office was $800,000 a year.

    Now, the Justice Department has uncovered a document that may help explain, in part, how city leaders financed their lavish salaries. The one-page memo was titled "Bell Police Department Baseball Game."

    Watch "World News with Diane Sawyer" for more on this story tonight on ABC.

    "All of this was just a means by Rizzo to nickel and dime the community to death to get more money out of them," Christina Garcia, a community activist, said.

    The memo assigned "hits" to traffic violations and infractions. Officers could score a "single" by giving out parking tickets. Impounding a car was worth a "triple." Police in Bell charged up to $2,000 for drivers to get their vehicles back -- many times more than any other community in the Los Angeles area.

    Bell took in $1 million by impounding cars in 2008.

    "This was a conspiracy, this was several people who said we are going to screw this community out of their livelihoods, and some people lost their homes," Bell resident Nester Enrique Valencia said.

    Bell Police Officer Kurt Owens said he suffered consequences when he objected to the policy.

    "I got a negative evaluation because I was in opposition to this plan, and it said right in there, that I don't go along with the program," he said.

    Former Police Chief Randy Adams, who made more than $400,000 a year, has not been charged with any crime.

    "I know that one day Police Chief Randy Adams went out there and impounded something like 15 cars just to give a lesson to his officers," Garcia said.

    The U.S. Justice Department is investigating to determine if Bell city leaders were violating the citizens' rights. The deeper they dig, the more outrageous it appears to members of the community.

    In a statement, the police union said the memo was "merely a parody of Robert Rizzo's profoundly nonsensical 'towing policy.'"


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