Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/city-of-bell/)
The city this month filed a formal rejection to a recent grand jury report that harshly criticized the city’s scheme for financing the convention center expansion. Mayor Tom Tait agrees with the grand jury and refused to sign the city’s rebuttal.
The challenge of keeping city hall accountable was on display Thursday at a Chapman University conference examining the transformation of Bell, a working-class suburb of LA that was upended after a 2010 Los Angeles Times article reported the criminally excessive pay of its top officials.
Voice of OC Community Columnist Mike Moodian delves into how it took a Latino and Lebanese American coalition—two groups that lived among each other but previously had minimal interaction—to help save democracy in Bell.
Local school officials cite formatting issues as a stumbling block to providing information. State officials say they can solve those problems.
Mayor Tom Tait says an opinion article by Councilwoman Kris Murray falsely accuses him of pushing the city to break a state law.
The decision comes after Mayer Hoffman McCann agreed to a $300,000 fine over charges that it mishandled its reviews of the city of Bell.
The agencies reversed their position after questions from Voice of OC and declared they would send the information to the state within 24 hours.
The most recent controversy in Costa Mesa is over whether the
city should form a commission to draft a proposed city charter or
leave it in the hands of the City Council.
The California Public Records Act does not cover private
companies. This becomes a problem when a city outsources its
services, open-government advocates say.
One of her last acts will be to advise the transportation agency
on whether to retain the outside auditors that advised
scandal-plagued Bell.