Brown Expands City of Bell Investigation, Whitman Attacks His City of Oakland Days

Subpoenas for testimony and personal financial records were added to Attorney General Jerry Browns' investigation into the city of Bell's financial scandal. A number of past and present Bell officials and city councilmembers will be deposed under oath later this month after some officials produce records, including tax returns, gifts received, bank accounts and other information.

"My office has received several reports from residents of Bell indicating that city officials encouraged them to fill out absentee ballots and then collected the ballots," Brown said. "We have seen similar reports in the Los Angeles Times. If these allegations are true, this could be a serious violation of state law."

Brown also set up a hotline for residents so residents can help with any of the accusations or bring new ones to light. That numbers is (866) 625-4400.

Because Brown is also a gubernatorial candidate, opponent Meg Whitman is using his investigation to juxtapose his work as Mayor of Oakland. She's sending 180,000 mailers to L.A. County homes this week. It says the "number of city workers earning more than $200,000 increased by 740 percent from 2003-2006 under Brown" and that the "number of city workers earning more than $100,000 a year grew by 47.5 percent from 2005-2006." No actual numbers were given in the increases, just percentages.