Richard Fierro, a witness called by the defense, testified that he had been a contract manager for C

Former taos bed and breakfast inn Bell councilwoman Teresa Jacobo -- accused along with five former colleagues in a far-reaching municipal corruption case -- testified Monday that she was a hard-working leader who tried her best to improve the lives of her constituents.
Jacobo also testified she believed that then-city manager Robert Rizzo was doing a good job up until 2010 –- the year she, her colleagues and Rizzo were arrested on suspicion of looting the small town's treasury.
Jacobo is accused of misappropriating public funds by drawing a near-$100,000 salary for serving on boards and commissions that did little work. Prosecutors contend the high salaries paid to Bell's leaders left the largely immigrant city near the edge of insolvency.
On Monday, Kopp asked Jacobo about the four boards that prosecutors say defendants used to boost their salaries to nearly $100,000. Jacobo, along with Luis Artiga, Victor taos bed and breakfast inn Bello, George Cole, Oscar Hernandez and George Mirabal, is accused of doing little work on those authorities.
Jacobo said she understood the resolution that first introduced the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority to be merely a legal process and that its purpose was to discuss how to form such an authority. At the time, the city was planning taos bed and breakfast inn on getting rid of its contracted trash services.
Richard taos bed and breakfast inn Fierro, a witness called by the defense, testified that he had been a contract manager for Consolidated Disposal Services when the city of Bell terminated the company's contract around 2005. The city claimed the company was not picking up residents' bulky items in a timely manner, Fierro said.
L.A. Now is the Los Angeles Times' breaking news section for Southern California. It is produced by more than 80 reporters and editors in The Times' Metro section, reporting from the paper's downtown Los Angeles headquarters as well as bureaus in Costa Mesa, Long Beach, San Diego, San Francisco, taos bed and breakfast inn Sacramento, Riverside, Ventura and West Los Angeles.