California politicians stole their money. Will that make them care about democracy?
Eye-popping inflated public salaries. Personal loans to employees from the city budget. Illegal tax increases. Shakedowns of local businesses. A car-towing scheme to generate revenue. Seven politicians and city administrators convicted.
The events still hung over a council meeting in this city of 36,000 in southeastern Los Angeles County on a recent Wednesday evening.
The owner of a tire store in town thanked the new council in Spanish for bringing Bell back from “chaos.” During the discussion over a contract for building and safety services, a staff member mentioned the option of issuing a request for proposals: “Given the city’s history, the RFP process indicates transparency.”
“Obviously, it’s something that we will never forget,” councilman Ali Saleh said in an interview.
He noted that Bell has one of highest property tax rates in the county because residents are still paying off massive bond debt accrued by former officials to fund a failed real estate venture. “It’s fresh in their heads every time they pay their property tax.”
Bell showed what can happen when the public stops paying attention to its leaders’ actions. A vicious combination of voter ambivalence, sorely lacking oversight and human temptation has hollowed out local democracy in southeast Los Angeles County for decades.
Too many officials have violated the public trust in the area’s small- and medium-sized cities, which are working class and heavily immigrant. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, whose district is at the heart of the most recent troubles, dubs it the “corridor of corruption.”
Tired of a reputation shaped by shortcomings, however, he is one of a new group of representatives forged by the scandals who hope to shed the negative image that has plagued the area. Read more >>>