The depth of their apparent corruption grew a bit deeper today, when the Los Angeles Times reported that the city purchased a property for $1.3 million, or roughly twice the asking price. One of the stipulations was that the seller must make a charitable contribution to the city in the amount of $435,000.
Oddly enough, there is a record of the city receiving the money, but now, four years later it isn’t anywhere to be found. Judging by the history of rabid greed demonstrated by the Bell Eight, the simple assumption is that the money found its way into other pockets.
From the Los Angeles Times:
The city of Bell bought a piece of land for more than double its assessed value as part of a highly unusual redevelopment deal that required the seller to donate $425,000 back to the city – a sum that now cannot be accounted for, according to records and interviews.
The property houses a carwash. But in 2006, when the suspect transaction took place, then-City Administrator Robert Rizzo and former General Services Director Eric Eggena wanted the land as part of a revitalization effort in the city’s small business district.
The high sales price, $1.35 million – more than double the appraised value of $612,000 – put the land well beyond the reach of the carwash’s operators, who under their lease had the first right to purchase the property.
Read the full article here.