Brown sues over alleged pay excesses

SACRAMENTO, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown demanded Wednesday local officials in the city of Bell return thousands of dollars in allegedly excessive pay.

Brown filed a lawsuit naming the mayor, the former police chief, two former and two current council members and two other officials as defendants, the Los Angeles Times reported.

In his lawsuit, Brown said the officials used faked paperwork to deceive voters about their actual compensation. Former Police Chief Randy Adams was being paid $457,000, more than his counterparts in New York and Los Angeles, while Robert Rizzo, the former assistant city administrator, was getting almost $800,000 in salary plus add-ons that pushed his total compensation to $1.5 million.

Bell, with a population of less than 40,000, is the poorest municipality in Los Angeles County.

"I'm going to continue to do everything in my power to go after corrupt officials who, rather than doing the public's business, scheme behind closed doors to line their own pockets," Brown said in a statement.