Academic

MORE ON BELL CITY, CALIFORNIA. ?In the short run, there will be a push for greater transparency, pa?

By Glenn Reynolds

MORE ON BELL CITY, CALIFORNIA. “In the short run, there will be a push for greater transparency, pay caps and restrictions on pension benefits. These things may quell the immediate outrage over revelations that the city manager of working-class Bell and other top officials earned fat, six-figure incomes. But the truth is, the eye-popping salaries, platinum pensions and lavish perks accorded Rizzo and his colleagues are merely symptoms, not the disease. . . . Self-styled progressives at the turn of the 20th century gave Californians the initiative, referendum and recall as ways of circumventing a Legislature in thrall to powerful business interests. The reformers established local nonpartisan elections in an effort to check the outsize influence of political machines. They envisioned professionally administered cities overseen by men and women trained in the modern science of management. Men like Rizzo, who holds a master’s degree in public administration from Cal State East Bay. Little did the reformers realize a century ago that the civil servants would themselves become predatory interests, preying on the private sector and the taxpayer.”

Related: How much do your City officials make?

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on August 11, 2010 (boomark / email).