Bell is an incorporated city in Los Angeles County, California, near the center of the former San Antonio Township (abolished after 1960).

[10] A scandal ensued, in which several city officials were indicted for fraud after giving themselves extraordinarily high salaries.

[11] The area comprising the present-day City of Bell has a Native American history dating back thousands of years.

In 1810, the king of Spain formally granted the land to Lugo as a reward for his military service[12] and the acreage became known as Rancho San Antonio.

The Lugo family did manage to retain its home, built about 1810, which is the now oldest house in Los Angeles County.

[12] They acquired about 360 acres (145.7 ha) of land and in the next decade, helped in its development as a small farming and cattle raising community.

In 1898, the town's name was changed from Rancho San Antonio to Bell, in honor of its pioneer founders.

Old and new residents built new businesses, established schools, and founded community organizations, such as the Bell Chamber of Commerce and the Woman's Club.

In March 2000, it was reported that a shipment of 55 Oscar statuettes was stolen from a trucking company loading dock in Bell.

In addition to the Los Angeles and Bell police departments, FBI art theft experts investigated.

Coincidentally, the missing Oscar ballots were found by the post office in a Bell processing center.

[19] In July 2010, when two Los Angeles Times reporters, Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives, were investigating possible malfeasance in the neighboring city of Maywood, it was revealed that Bell city officials were receiving unusually large salaries, perhaps the highest in the United States.

[20] Robert Rizzo, the City manager, received $787,637 a year, almost double the salary of the President of the United States.

[21] Rizzo's assistant, Angela Spaccia, was earning $376,288 a year, more than the top administrator for Los Angeles County.

By comparison, council members in cities similar to Bell in size make an average of $4,800 a year, prosecutors have noted.

[24] On September 21, 2010, former city manager Robert Rizzo, Mayor Oscar Hernandez, former assistant city manager Angela Spaccia and council members George Mirabal, Teresa Jacobo, Luis Artiga, George Cole and Victor Bello were arrested and charged with misappropriation of public funds.

[27] After a review, the L.A. Times found frequent failures in audits of public agencies in other municipalities in California.

Bell first appeared as a city in the 1930 U.S. Census as part of the now defunct San Antonio Township (pop.

Due to the actions of the former city's manager (Robert Rizzo) and the council in squandering the taxes of their constituents for their own benefit, there is a deficit of several million dollars in the general fund.

[59] In the United States House of Representatives, Bell is in California's 42nd congressional district[60] and its represented by Democrat Robert Julio Garcia After a special election in March 2011, lifelong Bell resident Ali Saleh was named mayor by his fellow council members.

[61] Saleh vowed to remake the city whose name had become synonymous with municipal corruption into a model of good government.

[17] The Mission of Bell High School is to: educate all students to the highest degree of their abilities socially, academically, and technologically so that they become contributing members of society.

[70] Any student who lives in the Bell or Huntington Park zones may apply to Maywood Academy High School, which opened in 2005 and moved into its permanent campus in 2006.

Maywood does not have its own attendance boundary because it lacks American football, track and field, and tennis facilities.

The Bell Community Center hosts many events such as anniversaries, baptisms, birthdays, conferences, company parties, receptions, and seminars.

Treder Park, located at the community center, has a gazebo, a pavilion with barbecues, and picnic tables.

The park also has an outdoor amphitheater for films, a miniature golf course, an indoor lodge with classrooms and computers, picnic pavilions, play equipment, rock climbing, and a small soccer (football) turf field.

[76] Ernest Debs Park has a synthetic turf soccer field and a shaded outdoor fitness area with cardio, resistance, and strengthening equipment.

[77] Veterans Memorial Park has one junior (half) and two full-court basketball courts, batting cages, a baseball diamond with stadium seating and scoreboards, tree-shaded benches, a clubhouse with computer access, large picnic pavilions, tree-shaded picnic tables, a playground for ages 2 through 12, a rose garden in honor of U.S. soldiers, and a snack bar.