since agreed to a 61% pay cut, and Eggena was terminated. An unnamed third official was also let go. Bell officials voted unanimously to consider legal action against city officials, political consultants, and others. State lawmakers and investigators traveled to the city of Bell on November 8, 2010, to probe the Los Angeles suburb's alleged corruption and governance problems. When residents were told by the state auditor that their leaders mismanaged tens of millions of dollars of the blue-collar city's money, using it largely to pay themselves enormous salaries, they "gasped in shock and disbelief." The auditors spoke at the hearing called by state Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, who said he wanted to give residents of the working-class city of 36,000 "a full accounting of what had happened". The Los Angeles Times reported that in a review of state and local records it was discovered that independent audits of public agencies in California frequently failed to recognize and note cases of questionable mismanagement and obvious fraud. The report cites San Diego, Compton and South Gate as other cities plagued by public corruption that received dubiously clean audits. "Bell residents know their civic house is in disarray," said Supervisor Gloria Molina. "There is no way order can be restored in Bell until residents there have an accurate picture of the city's finances." BASTA The primary group organized to fight the city's corruption was the Bell Association to Stop the Abuse (BASTA) ("Basta" means "enough" in Spanish.) BASTA organized a march on July 25, 2010. Some of the marchers wore T-shirts with the words "My city is more corrupt than your city". BASTA is supported in part by the Bell Police Officers Association. The Police Officers Association has opposed the contracting of services of the Police Department, and consolidation of police services into a joint powers authority, and criticized the posting of salaries on the Bell City Clerk's website, calling them "deceptive" due to the inclusion of overtime. BASTA collected enough signatures to force the recall election in March for the four City Council members facing corruption charges. Organizers with BASTA began the recall process in August after unsuccessfully calling for the resignation of Mayor Oscar Hernandez and council members Luis Artiga, Teresa Jacobo, and George Mirabal. Further investigations Real estate deal Officials in Bell paid more than double the appraised value for a parcel of land that was never redeveloped,