Calif. mayor among 8 arrested in corruption scandal

LOS ANGELES - The mayor and ex-city manager of the Los Angeles suburb of Bell were among eight current and former city officials arrested yesterday in a corruption scandal that authorities said cost the blue-collar city more than $5.5 million in excessive salaries and illegal personal loans.

The Los Angeles district attorney's office said several former and current City Council members were taken into custody along with ex-city manager Robert Rizzo and Mayor Oscar Hernandez.

"This, needless to say, is corruption on steroids," District Attorney Steve Cooley said, standing with a display of pictures of the suspects.

Rizzo, who was making nearly $800,000 a year, was booked on 53 counts of misappropriation of public funds and conflict of interest. He was expected to be arraigned today, with officials seeking bail of $3.2 million.

Rizzo could face several years in prison if convicted, Cooley said.

Others arrested were former assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia, Vice Mayor Teresa Jacobo, council members George Mirabal and Luis Artiga, and former council members George Cole and Victor Bello.

Requested bail amounts ranged from $377,500 for Spaccia to $130,000 for Cole, based on the amounts each was accused of misappropriating in the city where one in six people live in poverty.

Former Police Chief Randy Adams, who was also scrutinized in the salary scandal, was not arrested. Cooley, who knew Adams when he was the police chief in Glendale, said Adams was paid $457,000 a year but there was no evidence he obtained that salary illegally.

"Being paid excessive salaries is not a crime," Cooley said. "Illegally obtaining those salaries is a crime."

The complaint said Rizzo made $4.3 million by paying himself through different employment contracts that were not approved by the City Council, and that council members paid themselves a combined $1.25 million for what Cooley called "phantom meetings" of various city boards and agencies.

Rizzo also was accused of giving $1.9 million in loans to himself, Spaccia, Hernandez, Artiga and others, authorities said.

Cooley said his office had been investigating the officials since March - four months before the public learned they were paying themselves huge salaries to run the city of 40,000 people.