The devil Bell knows

At first, the nearly $800,000 salary of former City Manager Robert Rizzo was as puzzling as it was outrageous. Perhaps there was an explanation? Maybe the veteran public employee was pulling off some sort of magic — such as maintaining extraordinary fiscal soundness for the city in the midst of bad times — that could have made him worth such a sum?

But as Times reporters dug deeper into the city's secrets, they uncovered layers of mismanagement and manipulation, some of it possibly illegal. To sum up the sleaze thus far: Voters armed with too little information approved a change in city management that handed too much control to greedy bureaucrats and elected officials. Residents pay higher tax rates in Bell than in Beverly Hills. On top of that, they were overcharged $2.9 million in taxes. Their public services were cut while various officials benefited from city loans and handsomer- than-usual salaries.

Eyes have been opened, along with criminal investigations. Much has been said about how the 40,000 or so working-class residents of Bell were not as aware of city practices as they should have been. Of the 10,000 registered voters, fewer than 400 cast ballots on the crucial question of whether Bell should become a charter city, which gave it more local control, including freedom from state restrictions on municipal salaries. Many residents are not citizens, so their political clout is minimal. But let's be honest: How many people show up at the council meetings of smaller cities throughout the state, no matter the demographics?

In the wake of the scandal, there is renewed attention to the workings of municipal governments. Investigations of possible wrongdoing are underway in Vernon and Maywood, neighbors of Bell.

The lessons learned about the need for transparency and public involvement in government are important ones. On a more practical level, the Legislature passed AB 900, which returns the tax overcharge to the residents of Bell rather than to the schools, as state law usually requires. At least seven other pieces of reform legislation were introduced in Sacramento; legislators shamefully balked at the two most important bills, which would have required easily accessible disclosure of many public employees' salaries, but did pass others designed to curb excessive public salaries.

But none of this has solved the problems of the city itself, where residents are full of rage but without a plan that will pull Bell from its current crisis.

At a recent City Council meeting, hundreds of residents descended on the small chamber, demanding the resignations of four out of five council members. (Councilman Lorenzo Velez, who did not make the nearly $100,000-a-year salary that his colleagues earned, has not been targeted.) But the call for immediate dismantling of the current leadership, although understandable, is wrong for the city.