Once Notorious, Bell, Calif. Achieves High Marks for Transparency

LOS ANGELES -- Bell, Calif., a working class Los Angeles-area city that achieved national notoriety when eight city leaders were arrested on corruption charges in 2010, recently achieved high marks for transparency.

The Sunshine Review, a nonprofit organization that rates city, county and school district websites in every state based on transparency, gave the city an A-minus grade for improving its online access to public records. Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco also received A-minus ratings, but Los Angeles and San Jose scored Bs.

The ranking represents a vast improvement from previous D grades earned by the city.

“My colleagues and I were quite proud” to learn the new website received an A-minus ranking, said Bell Mayor Ali Saleh.  “The new website allows us to enhance transparency by reaching an audience well beyond our city limits while housing a myriad of public documents all only a click away.”

The city learned it had received high marks for the transparency of its website even as jury deliberations for six former council members bled into the 17th day on Tuesday.

Former councilmembers Luis Artiga, Victor Bella, George Cole, Oscar Hernandez, Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabel are being tried on charges that they misappropriated public funds by voting themselves $100,000 salaries for serving on city boards that rarely met.

Former city manager Robert Rizzo, who was paid $800,000 a year to run the city of 35,000, and assistant city manager Angela Spaccia, who was paid about $400,000, will be tried separately on charges that they mismanaged funds and covered up high salaries.

The town’s current leadership, elected in March 2011 on a wave of reform, immediately began enacting changes to right the city and improve transparency.

As part of those changes, the city council hired Vision Internet, the Los Angeles-based website design firm that created the city’s website.

The site was lauded for hosting streaming videos of council meetings, providing city documents and contact information for city leaders.

The city was, however, dinged for only having one financial audit posted. The city has yet to complete comprehensive annual financial reports for fiscal 2011 and 2012.

Doug Willmore, the city’s manager, told The Bond Buyer recently that the city was three years behind on audits when he was hired last summer.

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