If forced out, Bell city manager would be highest-paid retiree in state's pension system

He may have become reviled in working-class Bell for his nearly $800,000-a-year salary, but Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo could have the last laugh.

Should he be forced from his job, he would immediately gain a new title: highest-paid retiree in the state’s CalPERS retirement system.

Rizzo, 55, would be entitled to at least $600,000-a-year pension for the rest of his life, according to retirement calculations made by The Times that were reviewed by pensions experts.

That would make him the highest-paid retiree in the CalPERS system, outstripping the $509,664 paid each year to Bruce Malkenhorst, former city manager of Vernon.

Not far behind would be Randy Adams, the man Rizzo brought in to be the city’s police chief last July. If Adams, 59, steps down, his pension would be worth an estimated $411,300, placing him just behind Malkenhorst on the list of top CalPERS retirement earners.

Taking the Bell job was a good career move for Adams. By moving to Bell, in just one year, the police chief more than doubled his retirement.

As debate over public-sector pensions takes center stage in this election year, with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other leaders pushing for reductions at the state and local levels, the projected pension checks waiting for Rizzo and Adams have taken even veteran pension watchers by surprise.

"It’s outrageous and unsustainable," said pension reform advocate Marcia Fritz, noting that Rizzo would receive $26 million if he lived a normal lifespan. "High salary lasts just a few years – high pensions last for a lifetime."

Bell City Council members are seeking the resignation of Rizzo, Adams and Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia amid public outcry over salaries that appear to be among the highest in the nation, according to sources close to the discussions with the administrators.

Rizzo earns nearly $800,000 a year, making him the highest-paid city manager in California and possibly the nation. Adams makes $457,000 – 50% more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck. And Spaccia earns $376,288, more than the top administrator for Los Angeles County.

The salaries, first reported by The Times last week, have triggered protests in the small, working-class city southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

-- Catherine Saillant and Jeff Gottlieb

Investigating Bell: A Times Special Report

-Is a city manager worth $800,000?

-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

Comments

[southoc]

First reduce his pay, then force him out. Then put him in prison. slime.

[A Concerned Observer]

A lot of pension rates are set by the salary earned in the last year of employment. If that is so in this case, why not cut his salary and then force him to retire? Then the amount he gets for his pension won't be as high.

[bigjonmustafa]

This fool need to go to jail. If stupidity was a crime the fools who support him would be serving life.

[David Friedman]

Public employee pensions will become such a burden on California taxpayers you can expect many to move out of state to escape the high and climbing tax burden on the working private sector. This will quicken the death spiral we are currently experiencing.

In the end there will not be enough taxes to pay for the obligations. It will be interesting to watch the news from out of state as the implosion takes place.

Thank you Grey Davis, this one is on you.

[Jcuenca]

There must be something dirty...find out and put him in jail, I'll be happy to pay for his "retirement" there

[Ed]

What these people need is a Federal racketeering lawsuit. No one pays a bureaucrat $800k/year unless there is some serious backscratching going on.

Where is the RICO charge???

[Steven Holguin]

I literally almost became sick in reading this!!!!! CalPERS above all else is what is going to bankrupt this state and lead to further demise of the state.... We can thank our public employee unions for it's current state....

[Marley]

I don't know whether to cry or stick my head out the window ala Peter Finch because I really am mad as hell! It's time to storm the doors in Sacramento and throw EVERYONE out. $600K a year for life? Are you frigging kidding me? How did we let these awful people ruin our once beautiful Golden State? Our kids sit in crumbling schools, no summer job/recreation programs; our freeways and streets are filled with litter and graffiti; our mentally ill roam the streets; our poor and seniors go hungry while these jackasses rape and pillage us repeatedly. Reform - Recall these jackasses and Repeal these ridiculous laws. STOP VOTING FOR A PARTY – vote the INDIVIDUAL and if they lie, cheat or steal recall them. Hold them accountable to us, not the unions or lobbyists.

[AndreaU8]

Thanks City Council of Bell for making Rizzo the responsibilty of all California's Tax Payers now ( since he would be the highest-paid retiree in the state’s CalPERS retirement system).

Rizzo and the City Council of Bell are no better than common criminals.

[NorthernCA Teacher]

This has to be illegal.

The retirement system must investigate this and stop it from happening.

My husband has worked for 40 years to be able to retire in 2 years -- he will make enough each month to pay for medical insurance and a few bills. Thank goodness we have our house paid off after next year. Don't know what we will do if the car gives out.

[kimbiqua]

I call for severe pension limitations. Anything over 100,000 annually seems ridiculous - I don't care who you are or what you did. Also, all public officials' salaries should be publicly displayed on all gov't web sites. And all PUBLIC contracts should not be held to the same standard as private contracts. We, the public, should not be held responsible for these either criminal, fraudulent or severely neglectful public employees negotiating these contracts. We demand an out to all future contract agreements. This must stop!!

[Robert Lamb]

This is the cost of not voting.

[Toby]

They guys are going to jail. Yes I get that they gamed the system and their pay is "basically" legal.

That is true as long as you ignore the Good Faith laws. None of the councils salaries (except for that one guy) was negotiated in Good Faith.

Even if you properly "game" the system. If you do it with the intent to defraud...

Well then it's jail time you for.

[SiR]

I'm glad that the LA Times blew the whistle on this...you guys need to look into everything! Including the state's finances!

[chill]

that is absolutely ridiculous! how many years do the rest of us have to wait v. the "elite" in this article before we retire? not fair

[chill]

that is obscene!

[Concerned Citizen]

These guys highjacked the city of Bell and when they quit or get pushed out they will continue to highjack the California taxpayer for even more more thanks to the City of Bell. They need to be held accountable, preferably behind bars. Any and all measures should be used to put them there. However, the City of Bell, and not the State taxpayer, should have to pay for their retirement.

[Victor Quivers]

Let's be serious. This is as much a crime as Madoff or a guy stealing from his employer. To be paid that much money in salary or retirement coming from a city so small is totally unacceptable. Give that money to hungry families or college scholarship funds. They knew when they first set it up, that it was civil embezzlement. Determining your own salary without any regard to citizen's protest, send them all to jail for 90 days. Many politicians have been convicted of stealing much less.

[wayne]

This is criminal no community would agree to these numbers. Exposed too sunshine this deal is really just fraud.
Citizens the fools.

[DM]

This is CRIMINAL

[Legal Pilfering]

This, in part, was Rizzo's end game. Time for the Council to place the current City Attorney on administrative leave, halt reported negotiations with Rizzo, Adams and Spaccia's attorneys and retain a respected and impartial legal team (including university legal professors) with absolutely no previous ties to Bell or the Southeast and stop the legal pilfering, or the next headline will be about million, if not multimillion, dollar contract buyouts. In fact, there should be no ongoing negotiations until a comprehensive audit is completed by an independent commission of experts.

And by the way, what's the official excuse for Rizzo's absence. Why hasn't Rizzo been summoned to report to work? Who's running the city? Who's running Maywood? If anyone else was missing like Rizzo and Spaccia they'd be fired with just cause.

[fvken1]

In a just world the next time CalPERS cries poverty and asks the taxpayers for more money we could tell them to go to hell, but I'm dreaming. The public employees have us over a barrel.

[Peter]

Can anything at all be done to stop this?

I seriously doubt it, the unions have been given way too much leeway in order to buy votes. I traditionally vote Dem, but I can readily admit that the city workers compensation and pension plans, handed out more often than not by Dem. Officials, has put this great state in terrible shape.

[dfb]

There are still a few ways in which Bell could cancel its obligations to those employees and CalPers avoid paying those amounts. First, the employment contract could be found void for a number of reasons, including fraud, unconscionability, violations of law, etc. Also, even if the employee did not violate any laws, the employee may not be entitled to those amounts if the employee knows or has reason to know that the city council is in breach of its fiduciary duties. Either situation either makes a contract void or voidable. The obscene amounts paid to these employees suggests there are some gross breaches of fiduciary duties that occurred and it is hard for either employee to argue otherwise. Bell laid off a lot of people claiming poverty just a few weeks ago. Moreover, if the employees themselves are found guilty of malsfeasance or misfeasance he could be terminated with cause, making it possible to terminate his pension benefits or decreasing the amount the city is responsible for.

Either way, I hope the AG's office is busy trying to figure out ways to can these guys without leaving Bell on the hook. Their pension obligations are paid by CalPers but the city is still left paying some money, and will be responsible for even more if CalPers continues to lose money. Blech!

One more way the city could reform the amounts it pays in pensions is to declare bankruptcy. A bankruptcy judge has the power to change the amount the city pays.

[Ray]

Hopefully while he's in prison.