Update on Vernon, The Ultimate Company Town

Those who, like me, are fascinated by Vernon, California, the ultimate company town, with an ethical environment that breaks nearly all the rules, will be happy to know that it was given a long treatment in a front-page article in Sunday's Los Angeles Times. There are no new revelations, but a few good quotes.

From state Assemblyman Hector De La Torre:  "It's like they said of Mexico — it's the perfect dictatorship because they have elections. Vernon is the perfect corporation because it pretends to be a city."

From Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez: "The council for all intents and purposes controls who their electorate is."

From a former city security worker:  "It's their city, and their politicians and their power plant. It's their little world, and everyone knows it. ... They were not going to let any outsiders in and if you didn't play the game, you were out forever." This is true in many towns and cities.

Sadly, it looks like the only way to open the city up would be to give a vote to the companies that own property in the city, something that is illegal in California and which in most cases seems to go against the American way. But when the American way is twisted the way it has been in Vernon, maybe only corporations, many attracted by the city's lack of regulation, can save the day.

For more on Vernon see these blog posts:
Hostile Takeovers in the Municipal World
The Dream Machine

And for those who haven't read it, rush to read Prof. H. George Frederickson's wonderful semi-fictional dialogue on Vernon.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

---