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From Schemer to Security Guard: Bell's Rizzo Has a New Bag

robert-rizzo .jpg
Rizzo (Huntington Beach PD)

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Ousted former City Manager for Bell, and the purported ringleader of the corrupt "Bell 8," Robert Rizzo has a new job, as reported by the LA Times' Steve Lopez, who met up with the disgraced civic leader while he worked a shift as a parking lot guard at the International Surfing Museum in Huntington Beach.Rizzo told Lopez he was there as a volunteer. "I enjoy volunteering," he told the reporter. (Lopez points out in print that Rizzo "previously enjoyed buying horses and visiting his nearly $1-million horse ranch in Washington state.) Enjoying it or not, it seems more plausible that Rizzo was posted in the lot because of a March arrest in--you guessed it--Huntington Beach, for a DUI, and less so because he suddenly had a desire to serve a community in another county for the heck of it.

No one would confirm if Rizzo's work was part of his fulfillment of community service hours. His responsibility is to "make sure nobody park[s] for free in the small lot and then [go] shopping instead of going into the museum." Jokes Lopez: "I hope [the Museum operators] have the good sense to keep Rizzo away from the books, or he'll be drawing a $100,000 pension for life after two weeks' work."

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