Reining in Vernon

Almost no one likes the antics in the city of Vernon except the Vernonites. The southeast Los Angeles County municipality is run largely for the benefit of its 2,000 businesses and two founding families. City salaries are over the top, the former mayor and his wife were convicted of voter fraud, the former city administrator was criminally charged a couple of months ago, and the investigations are continuing. Residents — of whom there are only about 90 — aren’t inclined to complain because almost all of them live in rent-subsidized city housing that costs a fraction of market value; many are employed by the city or have other ties to it. The one outsider who tried to move in and challenge the city’s leadership was harassed and pushed out.

The situation burns officials outside of Vernon, who chafe at salaries for city leaders that top $500,000 (and in one case $1.6 million) and luxury trips at city expense. Worse, of course, are activities that might be illegal. In October, for example, former City Administrator Donal O’Callaghan was charged with conflict of interest and misappropriation of public funds. To his credit, L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley has attempted to clamp down on such misbehavior. The state attorney general’s office also is investigating.

That’s the appropriate way to approach whatever unlawful deeds might be taking place in Vernon. We’re more troubled by a bill introduced last week by Assembly Speaker John A. Perez (D- Los Angeles) that would unincorporate any city in California with fewer than 150 residents — Vernon is the only one — making it an unincorporated part of its county. Perez justifiably questions whether Vernon is a democracy at all, and if it was ever intended to be. Incorporation laws were used to advantage by a rancher who saw an opportunity to bring rail lines and, with them, industry onto his land.

California law has no provision for unincorporating an individual city unless its voters agree. Perez’s bill attempts to circumvent that rather than address the central questions: Does Vernon deserve to be the exception to the rule? Did its founders exploit state incorporation laws to perpetrate a fraud rather than to create a functioning democracy? We think that’s the case, but only impartial analysis can provide the answers, and ultimately the issue might need to be decided by the courts. What the Legislature can do is bring in the Local Agency Formation Commission, which was created to oversee the orderly formation of municipal governments, to parse laws on city structure as they pertain to Vernon and deliver an advisory report.

Count us among those who dislike the idea of city functionaries raiding public coffers to become millionaires, but that doesn’t necessarily give the state the power to unincorporate Vernon, no matter how much the place rankles people.