SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California's controller
ordered city and county governments Tuesday to inform him of
compensation for their elected and top officials so he could
post it on his website following a pay scandal involving a city
manager making nearly $800,000 a year.

Other officials in Bell, California, were also banking
large paychecks. Most members of the city council of Bell, one
of the poorest cities in Los Angeles County, had been making
nearly $100,000 a year each, and the city's assistant city
manager and police chief had pulled in large six-figure
salaries.

News of their compensation broke last month, outraging
residents of Bell and spurring a joint investigation by the
California Public Employees' Retirement System, the biggest
U.S. public pension fund, and state Attorney General Jerry
Brown, the Democratic Party's nominee for governor. He is
running against former eBay Inc Chief Executive Meg Whitman to
succeed Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

State Controller John Chiang, a Democrat running for
re-election, also has ordered an audit of Bell's finances.

Chiang said posting the compensation of local elected
officials and their top workers would help prevent pay abuses.

"The absence of transparency is a breeding ground for
waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars," Chiang said in a
statement. "A single website with accessible information will
make sure that excessive pay is no longer able to escape public
scrutiny and accountability."
(Reporting by Jim Christie; Editing by Dan Grebler)