City council members in a small, blue-collar city in southeast Los Angeles earned tens of thousands of dollars for sitting on commissions that met rarely or not at all. Records show numerous instances when meetings lasted only a few minutes, and one committee had not met since January 2005.
For months, the working-class city of Bell, California has been the center investigations after it was disclosed by the Los Angeles Times that former City Manager Robert Rizzo commanded an annual salary of more than $800,000, probably the highest in the country for someone of his position.
The average per capita income in Bell is $25,000 per year and 17 percent of residents live in poverty.
Wednesday's report about the high-paying commissions is the most recent development in the Bell salary scandal, which has prompted several investigations, the resignation of three top city officials, and an abject apology from the mayor, who announced he will serve the rest of his term without pay.
When it came to light that council members had been making about $100,000 a year for part-time service on the city council, overwhelming public pressure and a probe by the California attorney general led the city council to vote unanimously to slash their own salaries by 90 percent.
Now it's clear where their bloated salaries came from: Council members received roughly $8,000 a month for sitting on five boards that met rarely or not at all.
Under state law council member pay for sitting on commissions is capped at $150 a month for each board. But Bell city officials ducked the state limits, which were made law in 2005, by holding a special election later that same year.
Since only 400 people voted in the election, Bell was exempted from the state-imposed salary limits; city officials framed the change in status as a way for city government to maintain more local control.
Council member salaries had increased by more than 50 percent since the special election.