hundreds of angry taxpayers turned out for a town hall meeting last night and they really let the city council have it. they doubled our lighting and, yes, they re laying employees off. reporter from nbc station knbc is live for us in bell, california. tony, the first question i have for you is how were these salaries, were they not made public? how were they able to keep these salaries a secret, if you will? you know, tamron, this is a lesson for all of us to keep our on eye on what is happening in city hall. a law was passed that keeps limits of city officials and that same year that same time the city of bell held a special election and changed into a charter city. so, it s operating under a different set of rules. those rules allow the city
learned he got arrested for suspicion of dui. it could be the public intrigue or interest that allowed him to drop that. there was outrage. it didn t seem like there was anything to do. we should have led with what. we didn t know he was living in a big $1 million home on the beach. that makes this more outrageous. do we even know how these salaries got so high, especially in a small city like bell, where, like we mentioned, the median income is $40,000. you have a lot of people out of work. they just want to have an hourly paying job. reporter: that s right. they just want an $8 an hour job. that s what they re trying to track down. back in 2005 there was a special election. less than 4,000 people voted, and the ballot changed it from a general law city to a charter city, and that basically gave
be rizzo, $659,000. spaccia, $250,000 a year. the police chief randy adams $411,000 a year. this is his mugshot. a mugshot from a dui conviction he had. his blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit. by the way, in all of this the city council members they are make $100,000 a year and these are part time jobs for them. so now the state and the county are investigating this city. investigating these salaries. the problem is bell is a charter city which means it doesn t fall under state guidelines. it makes up its own rules as it goes along. my favorite analogy in the story we mentioned the police chief randy adams who makes $457,000 a year? the police chief of l.a. charlie
beck makes 50% of that. randy adams controls 25 police officers. in l.a., 10,000. but go figure that megyn: how did this happen? how do they get to the point where the city manager is making $800,000 a year and the chief of police $400,000 reporter: the city is a charter city and it doesn t fall under the state guidelines megyn: they create air own city and write their own paychecks reporter: that s right. santa monica is a charter city. this is a small city that voted to become a charter city. they make up their own rules and set their own salaries. the city council set these salaries for themselves and their leaders. this is being investigated by the county, the d.a. and the state attorney general jerry brown. megyn: it s not over.
you can even manage your business with a mobile device. try it right now and get 90 full days of quickbooks for free. go to freequickbooks.com that s freequickbooks.com and see how intuit quickbooks online can make running your business easier. wow. mm-hm. your 90-day free trial is only available when you go to freequickbooks.com. bill: rick: review new details, in be council, and, setting salary limits using a little known ballot amendment, in 05 the council approved a measure declaring it a charter city an salaries jumped more than 50% and the chief administrative officer earning almost $800,000 a year. and the police chief, randy adams, almost $500,000. and, assistant city manager,