According to the media reports, the mayor of Bell, Calif., Monday apologized to residents for the salaries city officials are paid and said he will accept no pay for the remainder of his term.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that in a news release, Mayor Oscar Hernandez said he will not run for re-election and blamed the city council for what he called "indefensible administrative salaries."

He would "dedicate the remainder of my term to spearheading our city's cooperation with the Los Angeles County district attorney and the California attorney general's inquiries," said Hernandez, whose term expires in March.

It has also been reported that the announcement came the same day California Attorney General Jerry Brown issued subpoenas for salary and employment records in an inquiry into whether Bell officials violated any laws in setting large salaries for administrators and city council members. Brown said the inquiry was in response to the newspaper's recent stories on salaries in the mostly Hispanic community of 38,000 located 10 miles southwest of Los Angeles.

The newspaper further said that City Manager Robert Rizzo, Police Chief Randy Adams and Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia last week agreed to resign and give up their salaries. Rizzo was paid $787,637 a year, Adams received $457,000 and Spaccia's salary was $376,288 -- all well above the pay for comparable positions in other cities.

Brown, who is running for governor, said, "These outrageous pay practices are an insult to the hard-working people of Bell and have provoked righteous indignation in California and even across the country." (With Inputs from Agencies)