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But then again they're earning 800 grand a year and our chief is earning 450. so that's a lot. >> reporter: the assistant manager is also making a lot. $376,000. and some members of the city council who only work part-time have been pulling in about $100,000. >> shame on you! shame on you! >> you're disrespectful. you're a piece of [ bleep ]. >> reporter: as angry as they are now, voters here agreed to make bell a charter city in 2005 which gave officials the legal right to basically pay themselves whatever they wanted. attorney general jerry brown has launched an investigation. >> my office p...

$787,000 a year to city manager robert rizzo. that's almost double of what president obama makes. rizzo, thanks presumably to taxpayers, owns this horse ranch in washington state and this beach home in southern california. then there's the police chief. randy adams. making $457,000 a year. >> we're all upset. >> reporter: showing us a squad car with 116,000 miles on it, officer gilbert jora says for years while the chief and city manager have been lining their pockets, the police budget has been shrinking. jora, who is the president of the police officers association, says he and the other 18 ...

Less than 400 people showed up, and they declared themselves a charter city which means they didn't fall under the state guidelines. even after last night the city council meeting and the members decided to slash their pay by 90%. those people were not happy. in fact, they spoke for five hours after the city council agreed to cut their salary saying they want to clean house, they're looking for a recall election now. listen to some of the comments from last night. >> people pay our taxes, and these people are ripping us off. >> you were a crook yesterday, you're a crook today, and you'll be a ...

Income is less than $25,000 and that almost 1/4 of your residents live in poverty. then you look at what the city manager was making, $787,000. police chief was making $457,000. assistant city manager making $376,000. all three of them have resigned already. is that really what you want out of the city council? further more, how do they defend that? >> no one can defend that. 2 they can't defend it. we asked the council to resign. we want them to resign. they are walking away with tax dollars. they are still in power now. they are still in their offices. they won't resign immediately. we are a...

Retirement system. that's one of the complaints many some of them have been using the system to their advantage. >> now, ed, you say they bounce around. but ultimately, didn't the mayor and city council of bell have to approve the salaries that were being given out? again, $800,000 for a city manager. $457,000 for the chief of police. $376,000 for the assistant city manager. >> yeah, and the frightening thing about that, apparently a lot of those salaries were legal. you had a vote in the city a couple of years ago which had a very low turnout, and in that vote, it authorized the city council ...