We're Not Here to Talk About the Past: The City of Bell Moves Forward

Last night, a tense crowd of about 270 filled the Bell Community Center, attending the first meeting of its new City Council. As reported by the LA Times, the hopeful mood was a stark contrast to the anger of previous months, as the scandal-plagued city rid itself of a spectacularly corrupt group of leaders. A local businessman, Ali Saleh, was appointed mayor by the Council

Bell, of course, still faces enormous problems. It needs to cut roughly a third of its budget to avoid insolvency, and is currently exploring the possibility of outsourcing police services to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's office. But we hope yesterday was a step forward. If nothing else, the new City Council will have little margin for missteps. There's still plenty of anger towards the previous Council, and it's not likely that much graft will be tolerated. As 76-year-old Carmen Bella said at the meeting, "I don't want liars at the City Council. Please don't lie to us, because sooner or later we'll find out that you lied."