Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Bell, CA

Bell is named for the George Bell family, who moved to the area in 1876; the town took the family name in 1898.

Bell incorporated on November 7, 1927, as a small city in southeastern Los Angeles County.

Bell covers only about 2.5 square miles, yet packs in more than 33,000 residents.

Bell is one of the poorest cities in Los Angeles County, and roughly 90% of its residents are Hispanic or Latino.

In July 2010, Los Angeles Times reporters Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives exposed that Bell's city manager, Robert Rizzo, was being paid $787,637 a year, with total compensation of about $1.5 million.

Bell's police chief was paid $457,000 a year and its part-time city council members collected nearly $100,000 each, funded by some of the highest property taxes in Los Angeles County.

The outsized pay was made possible by a little-noticed 2005 charter measure that removed state salary caps; it passed by just 336 votes to 54, mostly on absentee ballots in a low-turnout special election.

Outraged Bell voters replaced the entire city council in a recall election held on March 8, 2011.

About $3 million in illegally collected taxes and fees was later refunded to Bell residents under state legislation known as AB 900.

The 2020 census counted 33,559 people in Bell, down from 35,477 in 2010.