Sacramento Bee
written by Juliet Williams
Monday August 29, 2011
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The California Senate voted against dissolving the troubled Los Angeles-area city of Vernon on Monday, handing a loss to the Assembly Speaker who had made doing away with the tiny city his legislative priority this year.
The bill by Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, failed the Senate on a 17-13 vote Monday, with many Democrats sitting out the vote on AB 46. Perez said the city of fewer than 100 residents is too corrupt to function properly, even if it makes major reforms.
But Democrats were torn between the powerful speaker's legislation and a counter-proposal by Sen. Kevin de Leon, another Los Angeles Democrat and sometimes rival of Perez who last week proposed a laundry list of reforms the city should make in order to stave off disincorporation. He and other city supporters worried about the loss of as many as 55,000 jobs in the industrial haven near downtown L.A.
De Leon called his proposal a moderate and balanced approach to addressing rampant corruption in the city. It would require Vernon officials to sell off city-owned housing, establish an environmental mitigation fund and adopt a host of reforms.
"The world is watching. If they don't implement the aggressive reforms with teeth, we go forward with what we have to do," he told senators before the vote.
Three former top Vernon officials have been convicted of corruption charges for misusing public funds.
Perez called the Senate vote a deep disappointment to residents in Vernon and neighboring communities. He called out de Leon and Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Whittier, who also spoke against the bill.
"Senators Calderon and de Leon, along with their colleagues, have given Vernon a free pass to continue doing business as usual, and those senators will own the responsibility for any misdeeds that may occur in the future," Perez said in a written statement.
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