California City With $800,000 Manager Raised Taxes Improperly

The California city whose chief administrator was paid $800,000 a year improperly increased local property taxes to cover pension costs, the state’s controller said.

The City Council in Bell, a Los Angeles suburb where poverty affects more than one in four, in 2007 raised property-tax rates higher than allowed by law, state Controller John Chiang said today in a statement. The extra tax cost residents as much as much $3 million above what they owed, he said. Pedro Carrillo, Bell’s interim manager, sought an immmediate tax cut.