The strange case of Vernon, CA

I've been following this oddball story in Vernon, California, an industrial city a few miles south of downtown Los Angeles. I think it's instructive for those of us who want to crash the gate, to an extent. The difference is that there aren't really any good guys in this story. It's a tale of entrenched city government desperate to hold on to power, and possibly corrupt outsiders who want to take over. And at the end of the rainbow is a giant pot of gold.

Maybe 40,000 people work in the factories of Vernon conveniently located close to the rail yards, but the town has only 91 official residents. Pretty much all of them are on the city payroll. For decades, the city fathers have controlled who is and who isn't an official resident. Some of the city council members have held their post for over 50 years. In fact, they haven't held an election for 25 years, as nobody had challenged the mayor, Leonis Malburg (grandson of the city's founder, who may or may not live in Vernon); the mayor pro tem, Thomas A. Ybarra; and Councilman W. Michael McCormick.

Nobody challenged them until this year, when 8 people moved into a converted commercial building, and 3 of them suddenly filed petitions to run for the City Council. Within days, these three were followed by private investigators, had their power shut off by the city, and eventually, were evicted on the grounds that the building didn't pass inspection. The incumbents then promptly voted themselves back into office.

(Incidentally, the last time there was an election challenge in Vernon, in 1980, the city pitched that guy out of his home as well.)

The three would-be council members didn't give up, however, pitching tents in front of their former home and filing lawsuits to force Vernon to hold the election. Officials accused the three of being tools for a plan by Albert Robles, a convicted felon who ran a similar scheme in the nearby city of South Gate. The woman who found these city council candidates housing, a disbarred attorney named Cris Summers, is a friend of Robles'.

A Superior Court judge forced the election to go on, accusing Vernon of illegally evicting the challengers. Suddenly, voter registration shot up (50% in the last several weeks), and both sides accused the other of bringing in "election ringers." Of course, practically everyone in the town is in city-owned and subsidized housing (which they might lose if they don't vote for the right people), so I'd say the challengers have the better of this argument.

Why is it so important to either side to control Vernon? Well, despite its small size, the city holds about $100 MILLION DOLLARS in investments and cash.

(the background of this is mostly here. There's also a longer article from February that you can't get access too without paying.)

The election was yesterday. Of course, we don't know how it turned out, because there are still lawsuits flying back and forth, and the City Clerk decided to impound the uncounted ballots until the court challenges were completed. By the way, this is the same City Clerk that cancelled the challengers' voter registration. He also did this:

Absentee ballots sent to voters state that they must be returned in prepaid-postage envelopes. But the envelopes the city sent require stamps, prompting fears that some ballots might get lost in the mail [...]

The challengers' lawyer, Albert Robles, said there was evidence that the election will be fraudulent and said it could not be fair as long as Vernon City Clerk Bruce Malkenhorst Jr. counted the ballots.

Robles pulled out a ballot envelope and alleged that the way it was sent, and the way the city was asking for it to be mailed, made it likely that balloting would not be secret.

The envelope in which the ballot was sent had a window in the back that showed the ballot number ascribed to each resident voter. There were no instructions to tear out the stub with the identifying ballot number before mailing it back.

I don't know if there are any lessons to be gained here, other than the fact that it's a great political story. But certainly, the idea that power corrupts is well on display here. And it shows how tough it is to toss out power once it becomes entrenched. Some people here like to despair about the apparent futility of overturning the Republicans, but getting through to our own party. We have to understand that this is a long fight that won't be easy. I hope it doesn't come to pitching tents outside our evicted homes and suing to get our voter registration back. But you have to start pushing back or the status quo will become more and more set in stone. Maybe for 50 years.