Bell city manager received alcohol counseling after March DUI arrest

The city manager of Bell, under fire for being perhaps the highest-paid city administrator in the state, was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving near his home in Huntington Beach earlier this year.

Robert Rizzo, 56, was arrested in March with a blood-alcohol level of 0.28, more than three times the legal limit, in the 1900 block of Pine Street in Huntington Beach at 9:50 p.m. March 6, said Huntington Beach Police Lt. Russell Reinhart.

A resident called police after a man, alleged to be Rizzo, crashed into their mailbox and then drove into an alley, Reinhart said. Rizzo, who was charged with misdemeanor drunk driving, faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail, said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office. Rizzo pleaded not guilty to both charges June 8 and is expected back in court Aug. 5 at the West Justice Center in Westminster.

According to court papers, Rizzo sought alcohol abuse counseling after the arrest.

Laura Bowen of Chrysalis Care was quoted in the court file as saying: "Mr. Rizzo sought out my assistance immediately following his arrest for suspected DUI. I have been treating Mr. Rizzo on a weekly basis since March 7, 2010." She also states that Rizzo's therapy is "weekly two-hour sessions, covering chemical dependency education, relapse prevention, stress management, cognitive behavioral training and coaching in healthy coping strategies."

— Britney Barnes and Corina Knoll

Photo: Huntington Beach Police Department.

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Comments

[Centaur Kid]

hope he gets the max 6 months. boys in county should have some fun with him.

[Fred]

Stress management? For raping the citizens of Bell and of CA perhaps?

[Agua Contaminada]

Wow, Rizzo really looks like somebody out of the Sopranos.

[FatBobRob]

Nice mug shot, Jabba. If there's no horizontal distortion in that picture, then this dude's got a lot to worry about. I like the fact that while he's city manager of Bell, he chooses not to live in Bell but rather a beach community. How nice. It seems there is a colossal conflict of interest in the town of Bell with the city council and some administrative types setting each other's salary at levels 10x what they should be given "normal" city compensation. Grand jury needs to investigate.

[I AM AMERICA]

Ratso Rizzo is going down and he deserves it....
Ratso, Ratso, Ratso...

He looks disgusting by the way....just like his behavior!

[anon]

This story just keeps getting better and better.

[Eddie]

im not saying what rizzo did is right, nor am i on his side! i think the money he took from the citizens of bell is deplorable, but can you entirely blame him??? i think the fault lies completely on the city council who approved his contract and agreed to pay him that incredibly high salary! i think the council is the one to truly blame! now, this guy is set up to receive the highest pension in CA and all thanks to the inept council!

[cheryle nolan]

how long has this been going on and who spilled the beans???

[Yvonne Redmon]

Crook

[Doug Thorburn]

Clearly an alcoholic, which is what my work would suggest where there is corruption. You don't get to a .28 percent if you're a non-addict.

[Pierre Billard]

Hasn't the City Manager and Council been overpaid for years? Why is this just being learned now? Where do these high salaries come from?

[Candice]

California politics is awash in corruption and greed from the local level to Sacramento........when are people going to demand that this greed and pension grabs are stopped........

Just look at the case of Mike Carona a disgraced former Orange County sheriff CONVICTED of witness tampering while sheriff received about $215,000 in pension checks last year while waiting to go to prison...convicted criminal officials receiving 215k in pensions....Insanity.

People you must stop closing your eyes ....WAKE UP California taxpayers...............time is running out for California it is fast becoming a 3rd world state...............

[Pesuto]

If that's the shape he's in, maybe CALPERs won't have to pay his pension for very long...

[kh]

I think Bell is lucky to have such stellar employees. I bet they must be really smart and hard-working and probably under-paid.

Modern Liberal Progressivisim rocks dude, ya know what I'm sayin dawg.

[kh]

eee