Maywood Depends On Bell For Some City Services But Wants Distance From Stench Of Salary Scandal

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Just last month the city of Maywood was praised in the New York Times for firing all its city employees and outsourcing everything to run the city. Problem is that some of that outsourcing went to a neighboring town you might have heard of, Bell, which at the time was having some problems of its own.

Now it looks like Maywood is reconsidering the deals it has in place with Bell. Already Angela Spaccia, Bell's overpaid assistant city manager, quit her moonlighting gig as Bell's city manager. And Edward Lee, who served as the city attorney for Bell, Maywood and Downey, has resigned from all those duties. (At least one city official told Fox 11 News Tuesday night that Lee was to blame for the exorbitant salaries).

Maywood's review of its Bell contracts, including a $50,000-a-month deal to have Bell take over parking enforcement, doesn't stem from performance issues. (Although, interestingly, Bell has a reputation for being overzealous when it comes to towing, and we wonder if this tow-happy policy that clearly put cash in its coffers spread to Maywood).

Indeed, it seems that the New York Times was right: Outsourcing has worked. Rather, Maywood officials want to distance themselves from the stench of the Bell salary scandal, in which three top officials resigned after it was discovered exorbitant salaries, including nearly $800,000 a year, nearly twice what President Barack Obama makes, for the city manager.

"People are upset that we're giving money to a city that raised taxes and gave themselves higher wages," Sam Pena, a Maywood city councilor and mayor from 1999 to 2007, told Bloomberg. "Is this the kind of city we want to be associated with?"

Eh, no.

Maywood boasted in June that it had become the first city in the nation to outsource everything.