Rizzo's compensation totaled $1.5 million a year, Bell records show

Former Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo, whose $787,000 salary prompted widespread outrage, received an unusually large package of benefits that increased his annual compensation to more than $1.5 million, according to city records reviewed by The Times.

Rizzo's benefits package -- which covers time off as well as retirement, medical and other types of insurance -- shows he was paid for time off that amounted to more than 20 weeks per year.

Bell's new interim city attorney said Saturday that Rizzo’s compensation package raised serious questions and that the city planned to investigate who approved the perks and whether they were legal.

“It appears Rizzo was getting an inordinate amount of hours of vacation and sick benefits and being paid for it,” said Jamie Casso of the law firm Meyers Nave. “We’re looking to see when it was approved, whether it was approved at a City Council meeting and who approved it.”

Compensation experts said Rizzo’s compensation was far above the norm.

“This is extraordinary, it is outlandish and in absolutely no way represents” normal compensation for city managers, said Dave Mora, West Coast regional director of the International City/County Management Assn. and a retired city manager. “Extreme is a kind word.”

The revelations come as both the L.A. district attorney's office and the California attorney general's officer are investigating high salaries received by Rizzo, other top Bell administrators as well as Bell City Council members, who earned nearly $100,000 a year before cutting their pay two weeks ago.

Details about Rizzo’s full compensation are contained in city records requested by The Times under the California Public Records Act.

Rizzo did not return calls seeking comment.

The records say Rizzo was to receive $386,786 in paid vacation and sick benefits this year on top of his base salary. Casso said city officials were still trying to understand the compensation agreement. But the documents appear to show Rizzo was being paid for 107 vacation days and 36 sick days a year. The documents show the city paid $48,996 annually into Rizzo’s deferred compensation plans.

Bell also paid $20,496 into Rizzo’s 457 plan, which is similar to a 401(k) for government employees. According to Rizzo’s contract, the city was to pay the full amount of his 457 plan in the first 10 days of the year, meaning he could benefit from an entire year of interest or investment gains.

-- Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives

Photo: Robert Rizzo. Huntington Beach Police Department.

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

Interactive: Paying too much? How property taxes compare

Video: Why do Bell officials make so much money?

Photos: Protests in Bell

Comments

[SteveLA]

Gotta hand it to the Democrats that ran Bell! If you're going to steal money from the citizens of the city, go big!

Maybe this approach can be a platform for all Democrats running for the Assembly.

[Arctic Fox]

Wow, the perfect crime. Being City Manager of Bell. Herr Rizzo's compensation package was meticulously designed to loot the city.

Shouldn't be all that difficult to find the lawyer who draafted the documents. Then the approval process? One hand wahses the other, no?

This is one of the few times in my life when I wish we had Cuban justice in the US. If you know what I mean.

[Fred]

note to politicians - crush these clowns or we take you all down.

[Mike]

Wow.
How do I find his contract negotiator to ask for and GET a salary like that??? lol
Someone somewhere approved all of this. Looks like no one was ever in the mood to say no to any request no matter how outlandish.
Gives new meaning to "you won't get in unless you ask for it."

[Stephen Doherty]

Take it away in a truck and lock it up. A year for each dollar

[Gustavo Gutierrez]

I find these revelations to be jaw-dropping. This is why some people in the private sector are bitter towards public sector employees!

I want to know how the city of Bell could afford such compensation in a city of 40,000 mostly Latino, immigrant, and poor residents? This seems to be only the tip of the ice berg.

[Minnesota Mike]

1) Why didn't anyone in-the-know question these salaries and perks when they were implemented? 2) Why wasn't any this discovered sooner? 3) How in the world did Rizzo and the rest think they were going to get away with this in the long term? | Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

[Vet1]

So much for being "a little corrupt". Rizzo's mantra: If you're gonna go -- go big.

[Bill]

If Rizzo doesn't do jail time, there's something wrong with the system.

[Bob Jones]

Politicians are just another gang of thugs. There're the Crips, the Bloods, the Republicans and the Democrats. They ever use the same colors, Red and Blue. Why doesn't someone kill these people?

[ms]

Ah yes, ITALIANS THE Great Con artists...

[Charles Freeman]

Somebody MUST go to prison for a long, long time over this!

[ET Snell]

Rizzo has gotten away with this and much more remember he is from Hesperia where in 1991 he and the former attorney Markum took taxpayer properties and placed them in the Golden Triangle area where there taxes went from $90 to $120,000. It looks like the citizens of Bell have rang a Bell and lets hope it is the Liberty Bell that well bring the corrupt politicians everywhere to there ouster. I am concerned about some of the people and the police union involved in the recall just look at Anthony Adams and the in-house recall on him that failed. The recall needs to be by he people without the union involved it has a cloud of corruption over it and the last thing the people of Bell need is to be re-raped again. I am originally from Irwindale where we use to serve recalls with our tacos in the morning.I am willing to help anyone who is not associated with any union or political interest start there own recall. Let the Bell of Freedom ring. Unringing a Bell after it has rung is a impossibility.

ET Snell
Clown Community Activist
www.recallscalifornia.com
www.recallriley.com

etsnell@yahoo.com

[John]

...and worth EVERY PENNY.

[al]

Greed, simple greed at its best. I wonder how many chidren go to bed hungry because there is no money for food...

[Whatever]

This is obviously a Mafia related scam. These things don't just happen in NYC. He's probably a "made" member.

[Marlena]

What a bloated pig - he actually believe he was worth all this dough - I can't believe he was given this contract - were these people under a spell or something? How does this happen who would go along with such a blantant theft of tax money

[James Corcoran]

Oh ooo..

[Beyond a Reasonable Doubt]

Rizzo and his cohorts brought the disease of greed, corruption and repression to Bell. Their appetite for money (and power) is insatiable and they tried to cover it by talking about "paved streets, nice parks and food banks." They pacified and/or neutralized the masses with crumbs in order to "fatten their pockets."

Each passing day reveals that most everyone at senior and/or decision-making levels were directly or indirectly complicit and ON THE TAKE, or at the very least turned a blind eye because it was in their financial interest to do so. And not a single one of them had the integrity to blow the whistle. Their weakness was Rizzo, Werrelin's, Cole's, Adams' and Spaccia's weakness: love of money, and "love of money is the root of all evil." Plain and simple.

From the current and past City Councilmembers, to legal counsel, to the Bell Police Department, EVERYONE WAS ON THE TAKE! EVERYONE was robbing from working families, seniors, children, whether they sat behind the dais, behind a desk or drove a patrol car.

If it's really about transparency, restoring public confidence and giving people a government that works, nobody - ABSOLUTELY NOBODY - SHOULD BE OFF LIMITS. No protection for anybody, including those that sit behind the dais, behind the desk or wear a badge. And everyone should walk through a "corruption detector." And if they're not willing to walk through the detector, they're not for the community, they're against the community.

BASTA with deal-making. BASTA with public relations stunts. BASTA with the coalitions. BASTA with the community lobbying. JUST COME CLEAN! EVERYONE!

[Jc]

Typical of "La cosa Nostra" Ok we already know all about it. So what's next?? And state will follow up on the rest of the "Counties, and Cities" Or just will die here in Bell, and forget the others..??

[312capri]

In the old west the citizens of Bell would have been forming a hanging party! And from the looks of the crooked politics in the city of Bell the trees would have been busy for quite a while!

[312capri]

If I were Herr Rizzo I'd stay at home after dark and hire some crooked Latino body guards!

[TrojansDominate]

If this were China, Rizzo and his cronies on the city council would have been arrested, given a two-hour trial, found guilty and executed a week later. I vote for implementing China-style justice on these dirtbags.

[DG3]

Steve, these Dems were acting as if they were Republican CEO's.

[Bam]

Is it me, or does Rizzo look like Jabba the Hut?