Bell Residents Pack Candidate Town Hall Meeting
It was standing room only at a Meet the Candidates Town Hall meeting in the city of Bell last week, where eager residents packed the Bell Community Center to hear from more than a dozen candidates on the March 8 ballot.
The meeting — sponsored by a coalition of nonpartisan groups that included the California Community Foundation (CCF), Assemblyman Ricardo Lara, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund, and Univision KMEX Channel 34 — was billed as a neutral place where Bell residents could hear from the nearly two-dozen candidates on next month’s ballot, without the pressure or slant from groups that have already endorsed candidates.
The high turnout is a result of newfound civic activism following revelations that past and current city staff and elected officials had bilked city coffers and illegally raised taxes and fees to support their hefty salaries.
Eight current and former city employees and council members have been charged with a myriad of public corruption charges related to their jobs in the southeast Los Angeles County working class city.
Bell is facing tough economic times, with some analysts questioning whether the city can avoid insolvency as millions in illegally obtained tax receipts are ordered returned to residents and the City Council is unable to meet because three of four council members are facing charges and are not attending meetings.
At the Feb. 17 Town Hall meeting, residents seemed enthusiastic about their future. They watched short-introduction videos on each of the candidates who than spent a few minutes telling the audience why they should be elected, and pledging to work to make the city whole again by tackling the debt in a new era of transparency.
There are 17 candidates vying for the five council seats up for grabs, including two held by council members facing trial and recall, and the lone council member not facing charges, Lorenzo Velez.
Asking to be re-elected, Velez said he would work to make sure that everyone has access to City Hall as his top priority.
Long time community activist Nestor Valencia who has spent years dogging the Council, seemed to receive the most applauds from the crowd.
“Our Bell reputation is ruined,” Valencia told the audience. “Today I was at a big meeting down in Orange County and they said we were the most corrupt city west of the Atlantic Coast. I don’t like to hear that. I grew up here.”
A preliminary hearing on the charges filed against six former and current council members has been concluded and arraignment is expected to take place within the next week. The preliminary hearing for the former city administrator, Robert Rizzo and former assistant manager Angela Spaccia, portrayed as the ringleaders of the Bell corruption scheme, was interrupted yesterday when Rizzo, complaining of chest pains was taken out of the Criminal Courts Building in downtown Los Angeles on a gurney and taken to a hospital.
James Spertus, Rizzo’s defense attorney, has said that while some may question his client’s salary, he has done nothing illegal.