Assembly Speaker John Perez will push forward in his bid to disband the city of Vernon despite a loss of support in the state Senate this week, his spokesman said.
Perez (D-Los Angeles) plans to bring the disincorporation bills up for a final vote before the Legislature's session ends Sept. 9, spokesman John Vigna said Friday. The city of about 100 residents has been dogged by a series of corruption scandals in recent years and Perez argues it lacks an independent electorate.
Earlier this week, state Sen. Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles) withdrew his support for the disincorporation plan over concerns about the effect it would have on the many businesses in the industrial city just south of downtown L.A. De Leon instead called for a series of governmental reforms, which the Vernon City Council unanimously supported at a special meeting Thursday.
Perez remains "deeply skeptical" that Vernon can reform on its own, Vigna said.
"Vernon has had such a long history of saying or doing whatever they have to do to survive," Vigna said. "These are not real reforms and they're not going to solve the real problems."
Critics argue that Vernon has for decades been run as a fiefdom by a small group of leaders. The city owns nearly all of the homes and apartments within its borders, and many of the residents have close ties to city leaders. In the last six years, three top Vernon officials have been convicted on public corruption charges.
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