(Los Angeles) D.A. investigates Bell's business fees

[alp227]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles County prosecutors are investigating Bell's practice of arbitrarily requiring some business owners to pay thousands of dollars in fees, in the seventh outside investigation into alleged wrongdoing at City Hall.

The Times reported earlier this week that former Bell city administrator Robert Rizzo and others demanded that restaurants, tire shops, auto detailers and a market either pay special fees or guarantee thousands of dollars in sales tax revenue for the city each year. Since then, more merchants have come forward to say they also were forced to pay the fees.

The owner of one Bell car wash said he was so outraged at paying his $300-a-month fee that he wrote "bribe" in Spanish on the memo line of some of his checks to the city.

"I put that because I knew it was a bribe," said Gerardo Quiroz, who paid a total of $10,000 to the city. Quiroz owns car washes in two other L.A. County cities but said Bell was only one that charged the fees.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bell-fees-20101106,0,7749175.story

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Wow, does Bell have it's own little mob, or are they connected to one of the big outfits?