Remember Bell, California? It is the most corrupt little town in America, a poor city where eight elected officials were arrested for paying themselves tremendous salaries and robbing the taxpayers blind. You may be glad to hear that the former big bossman is about to go to jail.

Yesterday, Robert Rizzo, who plays The Penguin in this Batmanesque tale of villainy, pleaded no contest to 69 corruption charges, Henry Meier reported in the Los Angeles Daily Journal. Today, the New York Times reports that the judge expects to sentence him to 10 to 12 years in prison. Lest you feel sorry for him, recall that he was in charge of the scheme to nickel and dime the working class population to death with absurd fines in order to create revenue to line the pockets of a handful of "public servants" like himself:

Mr. Rizzo, 59, became a symbol of municipal corruption after The Los Angeles Times reported in 2010 that he was paid nearly $800,000 a year for managing the small working-class city of Bell, just south of Los Angeles, where a quarter of the residents live below the federal poverty line. Other city officials were also paid huge sums; Mr. Rizzo’s assistant, Angela Spaccia, made $376,288 a year.

Perhaps when Rizzo has paid his debt to society, the citizens of Bell will be gracious enough to allow him to return to his post-indictment job as a parking lot attendant.

[Photo: AP]