By Mr. Curmudgeon
When the city manager of sleepy Bell, California, Bob Rizzo, was reported to earn a hefty $800,000 a year, with the part-time city council pulling in a tidy $100,000 annual salary, Bell's residents awoke from their California dreaming and literally mobbed city hall, demanding answers…and blood.
In the end, old Bobby Rizzo boxed his Pez dispensers, finished the last swig of bourbon from the hidden bottle in his desk drawer, and put in for early retirement.
And that's when things got interesting.
You see, Bob is a public employee…and the public in beautiful sun-drenched California - a.k.a., taxpayers - pay handsome pensions to retired public servants such as Bob.
In fact, Bob's pension was so handsome it even got the attention of California's Attorney General Jerry Brown…because it's a whopping $600,000 a year…for life.
Sweet!
A spokesman for the California Public Employee's Retirement System told the Los Angeles Times they are “working closely with the attorney general on this matter and not a dollar will be paid until we have the full and complete picture."
What do you want to bet that when the smoke clears old Bob gets his pension? After all, he just followed the time-tested W.C. Fields dictum, “never give a sucker an even break.”
At every university commencement speech, President Obama urges rosy-cheeked graduates to put aside entering the grubby private sector in favor of noble public service. And Bob would agree.
It's hard to feel sorry for Bell's citizens. They were too busy and didn't take the time to see how Bob was managing as city manager. And Bob took their lack of interest to mean he could manage their tax dollars into his bank account. Bob's public employee union did not raise an eyebrow when they saw what Bob's lifetime pension payout would be when he stopped all his managing and entered quiet retirement.
Bob used to be Bell's problem. As the highest paid public employee pensioner, Bob is now bankrupt California's problem.
Is there a moral to Bob's story? You bet: "Manage your government or it's Bobs will surely manage you."
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