By now, most of you have heard about the bizarre racketeering in the City of Bell California, one of the poorest cities in California with a per capita average annual income of less than $40,000. Recently it was discovered that the city council, fire chief and others were paying themselves six figures, up to a jaw dropping $1.5 million for the city manager Robert Rizzo, paid for with property taxes and extortion using a towing company with connections to the police department. Rizzo, btw, lives in Huntington Beach.

Now, let’s talk about subterranean extortion. From the Huntington Beach City News:

HUNTINGTON BEACH...The Huntington Beach City Council on Monday night voted to charge out-of-town residents a fee that could be has high as $2,000 to $3,000 if they have an emergency response service in Surf City. The fee would be used to recover charges for time and equipment that respond to the scene (fire trucks, police patrol vehicles, helicopter, etc.) of a accident.This fee would include vehicle accidents and fires, pipe line and power line damages. This fee would not apply to Huntington Beach residents as their taxes go toward paying for this service.

Four Orange County cities already have fees to charge non-residents, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Garden Grove and Santa Ana. Santa Ana charges a fee for both residents and non-residents alike. The extra billed fees would be passed on to the person’s insurance company. This would most likely increase the premium of everyone’s insurance policy as more cities decide to charge fees for emergency response services. Those who were without insurance, the bill would go directly to the driver and most likely not be paid.

Huntington Beach expects that these fees would bring in approximately $100,000 a year to go for equipment repair and replacement and other city needs.

Typical emergency response service fees

Car accidents with fluids (oil, gasoline, diesel) : $595
Car fire: $750
Extrication: $2,000
Pipeline or power line basic response: $405
Pipeline or power line intermediate response: $1,120
Fire Chief response: $210 an hour
Miscellaneous equipment charges: $405-$505 an hour

Huntington Beach, CA, has been operating in the red for years, and this economy hasn’t helped. Up and down Beach Boulevard and throughout the city, car dealerships, professional buildings and other commercial property are either boarded up or mostly empty. Recently, H.B. has been strong arming one of the last small beach communities to annex them, even though most of the residents of Seal Beach oppose being told what to do by the socialists of Surf City.

So where to get the money? Extort it from insurance companies, which means you.

Lookee here. Say you have a fender bender with an uninsured motorist within the city boundary. Say your vehicle skidded to a stop near a power pole, the radiator’s leaking, but no one’s trapped inside a vehicle, no injuries. Say the other vehicle is disabled and blocking traffic.

While you and Mr. or  Ms. Uninsured are discussing ways to settle,

The Fire Department is dispatched to verify the antifreeze is not flammable;
The Police Department is dispatched to make sure you’re not duking it out and to direct traffic until the city-sanctioned towing company arrives;
Helicopter surveillance (miscellaneous);
City Public Works inspectors are sent to verify that the power pole is still standing.

Assuming that the city folks with hourly rates keep their visits to 60 minutes, and not 60 minutes + 1, (that’ll never happen, right?) you’re gonna be nailed with a minimum of $2,020 up front, not counting the rate increase on your insurance for merely driving through the city. Plus, unless you pay for collision insurance,  you’ll have to pay repair your car yourself because Huntington Beach is an undeclared “Sanctuary City” with a lot of uninsured drivers.

As for Huntington Beach spokesholes claiming they’re only going to get $100,000 per year, it’s bogus. Ignoring fatalites, extrications, etc., in 2008, there were a total of 1,755 accidents reported. Multiply that by A MINIMUM of $2,020 per accident  produces a minimum value of OVER THREE MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS PER YEAR FOR MAINTENANCE.

Oh yeah. They said it’s for maintenance and [ahem],  “other city needs.” Pheeeeew.