The average salary for city managers in Los Angeles County is around $210,000, according to the Los Angeles Times' ongoing coverage of local officials' salaries, which exposed Bell's bloated compensation of its officials, namely its city manager, most of its city council and others. In comparison, nearby Whittier pays its city manager $145,000 and the Santa Fe Springs city manager's annual salary is $194,000.

This week, California State Controller John Chiang ordered cities statewide to clearly post salaries of elected officials and other employees, which would be posted on his website in November.

At a City Council meeting last week, Council member Gabe Garcia brought up the Bell issue and assured residents that exorbitant salaries have not and will not exist in the city.

"It's safe to say that we don't have that kind of issue here in La Mirada, nor will we ever have that kind of issue," he said. "As a professional in the business, I found it to be very irresponsible and downright wrong on behalf of [Bell's] city manager."

Garcia added that the bloated salaries of Bell officials while implementing layoffs in their city gives a bad impression of local officials in general.

"To be able to look at yourself in the mirror and to do that kind of thing is very irresponsible, because it makes everybody else look bad," he said.

More information is available on the City of La Mirada website: http://www.cityoflamirada.org/