City of Bell: Rizzo steered $700,000-plus to firms or individuals without approval, competitive bids or legal contracts, audit says

Former Bell City Administrator Robert Rizzo improperly steered more than $700,000 in federal and state money to companies and at least one City Hall insider without valid contracts, competitive bids or even getting City Council approval, according to an audit released Thursday by the state controller’s office.

The audit is the third in a series of financial examinations that accuse current and former city officials of imposing illegal taxes on residents, helping themselves to huge salaries without authorization and loaning hundreds of thousands of dollars to City Hall staffers.

Among the companies that received state and federal tax dollars was an engineering firmed owned by the city’s former planning director, Dennis Tarango. D&J Engineering was paid nearly $100,000 from an oil-recycling grant even though the planning director’s company did not have a contract for the work.

The audit said the payment may be illegal and, because of Tarango’s job with the city, raises questions about a conflict of interest.

Earlier audits showed that, in all, Tarango's firm was paid more than $10 million for work with the city but did not have a valid contract.

The findings in the latest audit could put the small, troubled city at further financial jeopardy if it is forced to pay back the state or federal funds. Already, the city has been ordered to roll back property taxes, refund taxes and pay back thousands in improperly collected fees.

As with other audits issued by state Controller John Chiang, much of the blame is heaped on Rizzo. The reports says Rizzo may have used the public funds for personal gain and that, minimally, the expenditures raise serious questions about favoritism and other improprieties.

James Spertus, Rizzo’s attorney , was highly critical of the controller, saying he doubted whether the auditors had seen all the information.

"The fact is that Mr. Rizzo hired outside law firms and counsel to give advice to the city on the kind of issues the state controller is trying to characterize as wrongdoing, and I find that very hard to take credibly,” Spertus said. “The state controller more than any other investigating agency is trying to hold Mr. Rizzo accountable for any conceivable wrong he can identify at the city."

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-- Jeff Gottlieb

Photo: Booking mug of Bell city official Robert Rizzo. Credit: Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department

Comments

[Kittybarfola]

Sounds like something Felipe Aguirre would have done. Maywood's next.

[Whiffed]

Can you say RICO? This Rizzo character is almost by definition an organized crime lord. Seize his house, his car, every asset he has, and sell them to compensate the City and its taxpayers. Round up the rest of the gang and take their stuff, too. Forget the DA, forget the State AG, bring Federal charges and lock these cretins away forever.

[donalds_]

It's about responsibility. It's about accountability. It's about right and wrong. For the good of the collective whole. It's sad when the people responsible for investigating corruption are the ones that are corrupt themselves. Random polygraphs should be implemented for all internal investigations of our elected and law enforcement officials when investigating citizen complaints. Maybe they would think twice before breaking the laws they are sworn to uphold. CORRUPTION is the real name of the war on terror and should be our highest priority on all levels, including our own personal lives.
CA AG case #159827 and VCSD Citizen Complaint #'s 4902 & 5117

[Aldo]

Stuff like that happened in Maywood all the time. They never sent out bids for anything. It was always someones friend who got the contract. V&V Iron works did all the work in Maywood. He even fixed Felipe Aguirres business/residence. He also did side jobs at residences of employees (Carlos Fernandez). Chief Hauptmann fired the decal business in order to give his friend the same job even though the former was cheaper. Bunch of crooks.

[Anonymous]

Times thank you for the great job you did in uncovering the Bell scandal. This is what we expect from our major daily. Now when are you going to focus your limited resources in uncovering the same in LA City Hall?

[shadowpark]

Why is it that the irs has not gotten involved with this I smell a rat!!!

[MrMagoo]

Let him run the gauntlet through the city streets in Bell

[Steve]

Euthanize that piece of garbage.

[Kathy]

Well, if Rizzo's attorney believes what he says, where is the malpractice lawsuit against the "counsel" Rizzo claims to have consulted on these issues? Yeah. That's what I thought.

[mark]

Hopefully this is a wake-up call to officials/tax payers in every city and town in the United States that full disclosure and transparency of all business is critical such that this type of corruption does not happen again. Additionally, I would hope that prosecution of financial auditors of Bell that clearly were incompetent/corrupt are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

[Richard]

“The state controller more than any other investigating agency is trying to hold Mr. Rizzo accountable for any conceivable wrong he can identify at the city."

Well, the reality is, if they can make it stick, its likely because he really is in fact responsible. I'm not sure what laws were specifically broken, but if the conduct of Rizzo and company turns out to not be illegal, it would point out a number of glaring loop holes to say the least.

[hippysaurus]

Wasn't there a character in a famous movie named Rizzo? Oh thats right Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy, must be his uncle.

[Transcendence]

The city of Bell elected (supposedly) a guy named "RIZZO" who, if he was in Hollywood, looks as if he could play the lead role in a gangster movie...and wonders why they had several million dollars embezzled?

Please. This couldn't have been scripted better.

[DaVinner]

A whole bunch of people (City Council, City Attorney, auditors, City staff) had to be looking the other way for this kind of corruption to continue. Ergo, that same whole bunch of people should be sharing jail cells for a long time to come.

[Boot Carrillo]

Carrillo was supposed to come in and clean up Bell.

Now his clean-up looks like a cover-up.

This is a sad extension of the problems in Bell, and another bloated sad sack of a crook that should be fitted for an orange jump suit.

[John]

Would've done, Felipe Aguirre is just as bad and he's probably already done it. Come one, he used public funds to fix up his personal office/residence and then later lost it to forclosure. Maybe the deal was made before it and he agreed to fix it up then...

Ana Rosa Riza and Veronica Guardado are his cronies and they do whatever he says... They're just as bad and corrupt!!