From Eric Dondero:

The scandal that broke last month, over salaries for employees of the downtrodden L.A. suburb of Bell, just got bigger.

From the L.A. Times Blog "More Bell employees earned huge salaries, city says" Aug. 6:

The Bell salary scandal grew Friday when the city acknowledged that more city workers received high salaries, including two who made more than $400,000 a year and three who made more than $200,000.

Bell's interim city manager, Pedro Carrillo, announced the salaries at a news conference Friday, vowing that it was "a new day" for Bell...

The lavish salaries released Friday show that at least seven additional city employees – beyond the top three administrators reported by The Times – were making more than the average city manager in Los Angeles County. Among the highly paid are the director of administrative services, $422,707; director of general services, $421,402; the director of community services, $273,542; business development coordinator, $295,627; and a police captain earning $238,075. The names of the employees were not immediately released...

The Times had previously reported that the city's top administrator Robert Rizzo was paid $787,637 a year, Police Chief Randy Adams' salary was $457,000 and Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia's was $376,000. All three resigned amid public uproar.

And now Rizzo is facing serious charges of voter fraud on top of the salaray scandal. From John Fund's column in the WSJ, Aug. 7:

The explosive scandal that saw officials in the lower-income city of Bell, California (population 40,000) purged last month due to outrageous salaries and pensions may have had its roots in voter fraud.

City Manager Robert Rizzo, who stood to collect a $600,000-a-year pension, and police chief Randy Adams, who was due a $411,300-a-year pension, were just two of the officials forced to resign after their platinum parachutes were uncovered. Now it turns out that they had been hired and kept in their jobs by elected officials who allegedly took advantage of Bell's traditionally low voter turnout to commit ballot fraud.

In 2005, fewer than 400 voters cast ballots in a special election that cleared the way for City Council members to dramatically boost their own salaries. In that election, more than half the votes cast were absentee ballots, the method of voting most susceptible to fraud.

Four voters told the Los Angeles Times that city officials walked door-to-door urging them to vote absentee. One later was counted as voting absentee even though she said she never filled out a ballot.

Though, city offices are officially non-partisan, every single elected official in Bell from State Rep. to the local Congressman is a Democrat.

Mug shot photo of fmr. city manager Robert Rizzo taken after a recent DUI arrest.