Bell residents paid huge tax bills in addition to huge salaries, records show

Bell did more than just give top city administrators some of the largest salaries in the nation: Residents in the working-class town also pay the highest property taxes of all but one of Los Angeles County’s 88 cities, according to interviews and records.

Interactive: Calculating Bell City Council
salaries

All county property owners pay 1% general property tax, along with special or direct assessments levied by their municipalities. The countywide average of all tax rates is 1.16, or $11.60 for every $1,000 of assessed value.

Bell’s rate is 1.55% -- nearly half again as much as those in such affluent enclaves as Beverly Hills and Palos Verdes Estates and Manhattan Beach, and significantly higher than just about everywhere else in Los Angeles County, according to records provided by the county Auditor-Controller’s Office at The Times request.

That means that the owner of a home in Bell with an assessed value of $400,000 would pay about $6,200 in annual property taxes.The owner of the same home in Malibu, whose rate is 1.10%, would pay just $4,400.

The only place with a higher rate for residents is the City of Industry -- but that city has only 21 residential parcels that are affected.

The records seems to confirm complaints by some Bell residents who expressed outrage that they seemed to be paying exceedingly high taxes at the same time as the City Council was paying the city manager nearly $800,000 and council members were paying themselves nearly $100,000.

“I didn’t realize we were so unique here in this little community,” said Dorothy Danna, 68, a widow who has lived in Bell for 40 years and is losing her home to foreclosure. “I thought everyone paid as much as we did. . . . That does not make me very happy.”

Bell, a largely immigrant town of about 39,000, owes its lofty rate to a combination of factors, records show, including bond debt and a “retirement tax” approved by local voters in 1944 that put property owners on the hook for some of the cost of municipal employees’ pensions. Since 2006, county records show, those local taxes have doubled. So have direct assessments for trash collection, sewer maintenance and other services, which also have driven residents’ tax bills higher.

The Times reported earlier this week that the city had cut spending on police and community services, even as it continued to raise salaries for City Manager Robert Rizzo, Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia and Police Chief Randy Adams to some of the highest in the nation.

 Adams' salary was $457,000 and Spaccia's was  $376,000 before all three resigned amid the public uproar created after The Times reported the amounts earlier this month.

-- Kim Christensen

Photo: David Ramirez, 40, protests in the city of Bell as residents marched to the homes of the mayor and three members of the City Council on Sunday. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

Investigating Bell: A Times special report:

Is a city manager worth $800,000?

In depth: High salaries in Bell

Interactive: How the salaries got so high

Bell residents are not happy about high salaries

High salaries fuel anger in Bell

Bell council members under investigation for $100,000 salaries

Video: Why do Bell officials make so much money? The Times' Jeff Gottlieb explains.

Bell city manager might be highest paid in nation

Bell council found loophole to allow big salaries

DA expands investigation of Bell

Bell salary scandal has other cities running for cover

Photos: Protests in Bell

Comments

[T.S.]

It's too bad the Mayor and other city officials can't be charged with rape.... because that's what this is.

[clam608]

What a mess.

[Gaucho420]

Oh boy. Thanks to the L.A. Times for "ringing" the alarm on Bell, this was well done.

I hope that criminal charges follow this, with the only way to settle if they give back their salaries, sell assets, etc...and make the city's coffers whole again.

If not, Lindsay is getting out soon, they'll be a cell ready for them.

[Andy]

Investigate the bell police department too. Follow the smell a dead skunk is hiding some ware in there.

[ArtB]

This is amazing. One of the poorest cities in the county, pays the second highest property tax.

Bell, get rid of your city council.

[Scooter]

R.I.C.O. .................................................suave!

[Fundiphobic]

Wow. You'd have thought that with Rizzo's claim of doing such a stellar job of managing the city that he would've figured out a way to lower the property taxes for his city's residents?

This bunch was nothing but a criminal, racketeering enterprise. If only there were some way to rescind their outrageous salaries and give it back to the citizens.

[Sonia]

Put them all in prison and take away their pensions.

[Zahid Younus]

Shame Shame Shame on city officials !

[Phillip E. Naxwell]

What has happened in Bell is just a small look into a bigger problem with the American Political System. Fortunately, the officials in Bell got caught with there hands in the cookie jar and should be punished accordingly (THEY SHOULD NOT BE ENTITLED TO THERE PENSIONS, THEY SHOULD HAVE TO PAY BACK PRORATED SALARIES ANDDDDDD THEY SHOULD HAVE TO DO SOME JAIL TIME for defrauding the people in this community). "IF" Jerry Brown and his office do not find misappropiation of city funds, cohersion, fraud and abuse of the public trust I will lose my mind. It is time for your local, state and federal politicians to be held accountable to the average American Family and start to give back instead of continually taking.

[mp3andy]

Why should any public employee get a pension other than social security

Average teacher salary california: $70,000

Cops and firemen: $100,000 +

6000 L.A. city employees: $100,000+

[Dale]

The residents of Bell should caravan to Rizzo's million dollar home they paid for. We should bring back public flogging of city officials.

[Look for Truth]

There's a little more than meets the eye. No denying, tax rates in Bell are high. However, Bell residents pay their trash bill on their annual property tax, which most LA County residents pay each month to a vendor. So when that cost gets factored in to a $250,000 home, it is going to bump up the tax rate.

[bewildered bystander]

Can it get any worse?

[bill]

wow! this is news we can use

[Jesse]

What do the city of Bell have in common with Bandidos, rateros, thiefs, their politicians. Fire them all post their info on americas most wanted!

[David]

The residents of Bell are not victims. The state passed a law to prevent this from happening. The city council had a special election for the voters to opt out of the new law. A tiny percentage of voters that buy into the buzz words about smaller government or local control show up and opt out. Well, this is what you get. Not all government is bad, and local control can be just as bad as federal control. The people of Bell CHOOSE not to pay attention to that special election. They are not victims.

[E]

What Bell city officials did in abusing the public trust is beyond disgusting, but there's really only one reason they were able to do it -- voter apathy. Every single one of us citizens is ultimately responsible for making sure our elected officials do their jobs properly and ethically. Think of any business where the boss or manager has the responsibility of making sure his/her employees do their jobs -- well, this is NO different. All of us citizens who pay taxes and have the right to vote (whether or not we actually exercise that right), are the "boss" or "manager" of our elected officials, all of whom are our employees. It's up to us to make sure they're doing what they should. Ultimately we've got nobody to blame for this mess but ourselves.

Having said all that, I hope these crooks get the proverbial book thrown at them!

[richard cory]

Good luck finding a house in Bell that's worth $400,000 AND better luck even trying to find a "carport" in Malibu for $400,000.
All of this could have been avoided IF they were checking the "papers" of the 90% immigrant citizens?and those who don't even bother to vote.
And be sure to praise the L.A. Times for their "heroic" work in EXPOSING the Corruption and financial "abuse" in Bell....To bad they continually have reporting "Alzheimer" when it comes to the financial pay and retirement ABUSE by the DWP, the L.A. Council,S.E.I.U.and the other UNIONS that make the money being paid out by Bell look like " pocket change".

[Logic and Reason]

Something is wrong with that tax figure. "All county property owners pay 1% general property tax, along with special or direct assessments levied by their municipalities. " Add "voter-approved" assessments. I know this is all aggregious, but it is not the L.A. Times job to police the cities in L.A. county, report on sure, but not police. That is the job of the local voters. This is the result of a lot of people in the City NOT knowing anything about their local elected officials. It's as local as you can get. Get involved. There are many more ways that a council can be, well, less than forthcoming. As an example, check any municipal refuse collection franchise and you will find that the one that probably donated the most to the re-election of the existing member probably got the contract. Small potatoes for sure, but maybe its could 15% or less if it went to the lowest responsible bidder. there are other examples, but no one gives a hoot.

[Dave]

Every day brings a new revelation about the corrupt practices of the people in charge of Bell. This may be the tip of the iceberg, not only for Bell but for a number of cities in California. Hopefully our State and Federal governments won't be so quick to send any more taxpayer-funded grant money to these cities without first obtaining complete financial disclosures.

[dan ehrlich]

This gets worse every day and surely must result in criminal charges aginst the council,et all. They were the legal authority that worked to rip off the taxpayers in one of the biggest governmental frauds in years. I wonder if any will flee to Mexico...that's the routine these days, isn't it.

[Paul]

Scooter:

Funniest post of the day! Thanks for the laugh.

Que rico, el R.I.C.O. Act!

[urban planner]

http://cmsapp.co.la.ca.us/auditor/TRAresults.asp?fiscalyear=current&taxarea=00518

The tax rate area for Bell is, 1.553634.

Click on the link and you can see how the property tax is broken up. .37 percent goes to the City of Bell. This is outrageous and i feel for those hard working people who lost their homes because they couldn't afford such a high property tax.

[Manuel Alderete]

People need to go to jail for this.