Cities and counties in California are rife with waste, celebrity-style salaries and rogue management. On rare occasions, officials are arrested for exploiting hard-working taxpayers.
In 2010, Bell (35,000 pop) City Manager Robert Rizzo was sentenced to 12-years in prison. Five other officials, including four City Council members and the assistant city manager, were charged with misappropriation of public funds and received sentences. The people that should have served as checks on the plunder, were in on it. They all gave one another extraordinary salaries and benefits, Rizzo with $1.5 million.
Rizzo's assistant, Angela Spaccia, took $376,288 a year, more than the top administrator for Los Angeles County. Police Chief Randy Adams, received $457,000, 33% more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck. All three resigned following news reports and a public protest. All, but one of the members of the city council received $100,000 annually for their part-time position.
The salaries were made possible by a sparse turn-out special election, giving the city "Charter" status. By comparison, council members in cities similar to Bell’s size make an average of $4,800 a year, prosecutors noted. The California Attorney General filed the charges against Bell officials.
In 2018, Gridley Chief of Police Dean Price retired/resigned after his salary was publicized. Price received $329,621 in total compensation. Gridley is 2.1 square miles with 7,000 residents.
Yuba / Sutter officials are frantically raising executive salaries while screaming that they are out of money and must cut services.
Most Yuba County Supervisors are supporting a child car seat project ($140,000) that provides free seats at a cost of more than $1,000 each. Less expensive seats can be had for under $100 online or at a store.
It is illegal to transport small children without a car seat. However, are Yuba County parents unable afford a car seat or figure out how to install it in a car? Ninety-nine percent of parents solve this on their own.
If you offer free turkeys at Thanksgiving, even people that can afford one will take a hand-out. The county bureaucrats will consider it a banner accomplishment if they distribute 100 plus car seats for $140,000.
The challenge is this. “County Health” (an oxymoron) must concoct some reason to exist. Historically health was maintained by families, private doctors, clinics, hospitals etc. There are no studies finding that health bureaucrats are the Gurus of Well-Being. In fact, their medical advice is often wrong, will make you sick, or kill you. Look at the medical recommendations on county websites.
It’s like our literacy rate. The country was literate before government usurped education. Now, “Johnnie can’t read.”
Sometimes there are outlier examples where a leader reforms the obese, invasive monster called government.
Indianapolis Department of Parks and Recreation had a problem. The end of the 1992 fiscal year was near with money left in its budget. Rather than return the "extra" money to the general fund and risk having a smaller future budget, the department decided to stock-up on supplies.
So, now it’s February and stored in the department's warehouse is a 40-ton mountain of chalk. The four-year supply—enough to line a baseball field with 101 miles between the bases—is now useless.
Why? To save money / time, the department then switched to spray paint ball-field lines. More efficient and cost-effective.
When the heap of obsolete chalk became known, new Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith didn't berate park officials. He called media attention to the perverse incentives that make it rational for bureaucrats to purchase 1,600 50-pound bags of chalk. "The problem is they are trapped in a system that punishes initiative, ignores efficiency, and rewards big spenders," said the mayor.
Goldsmith eliminated about 450 of 4,700 full-time employees from the city's payroll in his first 16 months, including 160 mostly managerial-level employees within the first three months. They conducted a city garage sale, liquidated unused stuff, sold-off excess properties, and ended leases on unused spaces.
All government services were vetted. What was provided? Why? Could it be done better and cheaper by others? Taxpayers are stuck with fewer lifelong salaries of government employees when private contractors do the work.
Goldsmith turned financial disaster into a national model for governance. When officials today say it can’t be done, they mean they don’t want to do it. They need to go.
(Lou Binninger can be heard on No Hostages Radio podcast, live on KMYC 1410AM 10-1 Saturdays, read at Live with Lou on Facebook and at Nohostagesradio.com)
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