Los Angeles , California ( CNN ) -- Three current or former Bell , California , city officials , accused of misappropriation of public funds , won bail reduction Wednesday . The arraignment for them and five others arrested in the case was postponed until October 21 after a defense attorney asked for more time . The bail for former City Manager Robert Rizzo was reset from $ 3.2 million to $ 2 million . Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia 's bail went from $ 377,000 to $ 350,000 , and Mayor Oscar Hernandez won a $ 10,000 reduction to $ 275,000 . City Council member Luis Artiga , former council member George Cole and Vice Mayor Teresa Jacobo showed that their bail funds come from legitimate sources and can post it anytime , a judge ruled . The charges allege that the officials misappropriated more than $ 5.5 million , including being paid for phantom meetings , District Attorney Steve Cooley said Tuesday . Rizzo , Spaccia and Police Chief Randy Adams resigned after media reports that they were making several hundred thousand dollars a year each . Adams was not charged , Cooley said . `` The complaint alleges they used the tax dollars collected from the hard-working citizens of Bell as their own piggy bank , which they looted at will , '' Cooley said . Other defendants are council member George Mirabal and former councilman Victor Bello . Rizzo , who was being paid nearly $ 800,000 annually , is charged with 53 counts of misappropriation of public funds and conflict of interest . Among the allegations are that he wrote his own employment contracts and that they were never approved by the City Council , prosecutors said . Cooley alleges that Rizzo , hired as Bell 's chief administrative officer in September 1994 , gave nearly $ 1.9 million in unauthorized loans to himself , Spaccia , Artiga , Hernandez and dozens of others . Rizzo is responsible for $ 4.3 million of the city 's losses , Cooley said . Rizzo 's attorney , Jim Spertus , said Cooley ensured that reporters witnessed the arrest of his client and called it `` grossly unprofessional . '' `` Candidate Cooley wants some good campaign material , '' Spertus said , making reference to the district attorney 's candidacy for California attorney general . `` [ Rizzo 's ] salary was openly transparent to the City Council , and the council approved it , '' he said , adding that his client will fight the charges . Spertus also said the city 's loan program followed procedures and that Cooley 's office did not interview many pertinent witnesses . Prosecutors charged Hernandez , Jacobo , Mirabal , Cole , Bello and Artiga with nearly two dozen counts of misappropriating approximately $ 1.2 million of public funds . Cooley alleges that they held `` bogus meetings '' that lasted only minutes at a time -- or not at all -- and collected payment . `` The [ council ] for their part provided no checks , no balances , '' Cooley said . `` The council members were busy enriching themselves for collecting money for meetings that never occurred . '' California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown recently sued several of the former officials `` to recover the excess salaries '' that Bell officials were being paid . He also was pursuing a reduction of their pension benefits . `` This is a very serious matter when public officials breach their duty to the public and enrich themselves with enormous obscene salaries which then trigger pensions of similar magnitude , '' Brown said . The suit accuses officials of fraud , civil conspiracy , waste of public funds and breach of fiduciary duty . It also alleges they deliberately misled citizens about the accurate amount of their pay . Bell , in southeast Los Angeles County , had 36,624 residents as of the 2000 census . The median annual income is less than $ 35,000 . Rizzo 's last annual base salary was $ 787,638 , Adams earned $ 457,000 , and Spaccia received $ 336,000 , according to Brown 's office . Before recently cutting their pay , Bell City Council members received $ 96,000 a year , compared with $ 4,800 a year earned by council members in similar-sized cities . Since 1993 , the council raised Rizzo 's salary 16 times , with an average jump of 14 percent yearly , the attorney general said . In 2005 , he received an increase of 47 percent . Since 2001 , City Council members also awarded themselves 16 percent raises yearly . Brown , who is running for governor , said Rizzo prepared a memo for the public saying council members received $ 673 a month and he was paid $ 15,478 a month , which would amount to annual salaries of about $ 8,000 and $ 185,000 respectively . CNN 's Phil Gast contributed to this report .
NEW : Bail reduced for three defendants . Arraignment delayed until late October . High salaries in Bell sparked outrage in July . Comment: