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At least 4 U.S. City officials arrested, charges to announce

22 September 2010 03:58 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least four officials from the Southern California small city of Bell were arrested Tuesday morning, as the Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley is about to announce criminal charges against officials for their roles in a massive salary scandal, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

The arrested officials were thought to be city council members. But their identities have not been announced by authorities, as the officials were led away in handcuffs by law enforcement agents, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Steve Cooley will hold a news conference later Tuesday in Los Angeles to announced criminal charges against the officials.

Public funds were used to repay personal loans, apparently without authorization in Bell City where a salary scandal has drew national attention, according to a state audit made public on Monday.

The city of about 38,000 residents in suburban Los Angeles paid out nearly 95,000 dollars to repay personal loans former City Manager Robert Rizzo gave himself without the apparent knowledge of city council members

Last week, California’s Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against the Bell officials, accusing them of fraud, civil conspiracy and waste of public funds. The lawsuit calls for the recovery of unwarranted salaries amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars and the reduction of pension benefits for the officials.

California and federal authorities have also been investigating the scandal.

The Bell officials, whose salaries were the highest in the nation among public employees, deliberately "abused their public trust," Attorney General Jerry Brown said.

Bell City kicked off a national outcry when the Los Angeles Times reported last month that some top city officials were making exorbitant salaries. City Manager Robert Rizzo was being paid an annual salary of 787,637; Police Chief Randy Adams, 457,000; and Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia, 376,000.

Additionally, Mayor Oscar Hernandez and three of the city’s four council members -- Teresa Jacobo, Luis Artiga and George Mirabal --were being paid 97,000 for their part-time jobs.

It’s also been reported that the disgraced officials are eligible for huge pensions; that some had taken out questionable loans from the city; that residents’ property tax rates were unlawfully high; and that the city also overcharged them for sewer service.

Rizzo, Adams and Spaccia have since resigned. The mayor and council members agreed to reduce their salaries, but refused to heed their outraged constituents’ calls to step down.