Lexington Books
Pages: 228
•
Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
978-1-4985-1212-1 • Hardback • May 2016 • $123.00 • (£95.00)
978-1-4985-1214-5 • Paperback • October 2017 • $55.99 • (£43.00)
978-1-4985-1213-8 • eBook • May 2016 • $53.00 • (£41.00)
Thom Reilly is director of the Morrison Institute for Public Policy and professor in the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University.
Foreword, Dave J. Aleshire
Key Players
Chronology of the Bell Corruption Scandal
Introduction: It Was All About The Money
Chapter 1. The City of Bell, the Poker Club and the Reformer
Chapter 2. The Puppet Master
Chapter 3. The Accomplice and the Police Chief
Chapter 4. Whispers of Scandal …BASTA & The Whistle Blowers
Chapter 5. The Corruption Hearings with Gregory D. Coordes
Chapter 6. The Aftermath with Gregory D. Coordes
Chapter 7. Postscript
The book is compelling and enthralling.... The author’s highly sophisticated writing, scholarly acumen, and multidimensional analysis of the subject matter enable him to educate and challenge readers so as to decrease future occurrences of shameful public corruption.... Not only are the fields of public administration, public policy, law, management, and governance well served by this book, but there are important lessons for media and communication professionals..... Public administration practitioners, teachers, and researchers are truly the beneficiaries of this work. This book provides a roadmap with mile markers that are a public sector ethical lens through which to view the requisite conditions that enable massive public corruption. Using this book, practitioners will be challenged and prompted to consider several critical questions, including: How can public trust be regained? and How can public engagement be spurred and sustained?
— Public Interest
Far beyond wildly unimaginable fiction, this reality-based book is an importantly great read on public affairs. It tells the story of a decade of Big Time Corruption in Bell, California: years of self-serving exercise of power shared among officials in deliberately flagrant violation of legal standards and other fundamentals of public service. Beyond that, Bell is also a sad case of sustained failure of professional, civic, legal, academic, and other institutions upon which society depends for responsible public affairs. These glaring failures were ignored until exposed by journalists of the Los Angeles Times. As a former professional manager of Clark County (Las Vegas), Nevada, and now a leading public-policy academician, Thom Reilly provides an in-depth analysis of the sordid details and broad schemes of this massive corruption. Beyond that, for quick study and enhanced understanding, he expertly frames Bell’s tragedy around four vital subjects of needed learning: political monopolies that escape election failures; fiscal systems that generate revenue extractions; geographic corruption contagion; and a lens of professional ethics.
Thom Reilly’s deeply informed analysis of The Failure of Governance in Bell, California, warrants study by civic leaders, political officials, professional local-government managers, and students who hope to enter these public-service roles. It provides swift and hopefully lasting learning about abhorrent practices of all-too-easy corruption, thereby elevating understanding of necessities of elevated aspirations and practices of responsible government and other public affairs.
— Chester A. Newland, University of Southern California
Reilly’s excellent account of corruption in local government is written with the expertise of a scholar who is fluent in theory and the acumen of a practitioner who has witnessed such behavior up close and personal. This book, replete with scandalous details as well as insightful interpretations and suggestions for reform, will have broad appeal with the general public, for local administrators, and in the classroom.
— Dina Titus, U.S Representative, 1st District of Nevada; University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Emeritus
Thom Reilly depicts the almost unbelievable levels of greed and corruption that brought an entire municipal government to its knees. His incisive narrative not only carefully details the many enabling conditions that allowed this brazen looting of a small, vulnerable community to occur, but also skillfully incorporates an analysis of cultural norms and governmental structures that historically have been designed to deter corruption. Virtually every page prompts substantive discussion topics for the reader. This is a must-read not only for students of government, administration, and public policy, but for every concerned citizen. The account of the systematic and unchallenged dismantling of checks and balances and external safeguards against graft serves as a cautionary tale to anyone who thinks it couldn’t happen in their community.
— Kathryn Landreth, former United States Attorney for the District of Nevada