Rick Cole: Cities of Bell, Vernon Expose Governance Failures

You've been outspoken about the scandals in Southeast Los Angeles. For years, these problems received little attention. While everyone is appalled at the scale of corruption uncovered in Bell, what do outsiders have to contribute to understanding and curing the crisis?

I honor the citizens who have stepped forward in Bell to take back their community. But we can't ignore the systemic barriers to self-government that are at the source of a broader crisis.

Half a million people live in a swath of cities that are essentially arbitrary lines on a map, ignoring the current economic and demographic realities of Southeast Los Angeles.

The scrutiny on Bell has belatedly focused attention on long-standing corruption in the adjoining city of Vernon. That city has long been more like a Mafia family than a municipality. It was dominated for its first 45 years by its founder, John Leonis, who served that long on Vernon's City Council. His grandson Leonis Mahlberg followed and ruled for 53 years. The grandfather was indicted for corruption in the 40s and the grandson in the 70s. Both successfully evaded conviction until Leonis Mahlberg was finally nailed in 2009 for living in a mansion in Hancock Park instead of at his voting address in Vernon.

The L.A. Times has recently done an exemplary job of reporting on the abuses in Bell, Vernon, and Maywood. Yet the most important story remains untold. Yes, government corruption is outrageous. But shortchanging half a million people from vital local services is far more devastating. The most astounding story is the impact of relegating a huge swath of our workforce to conditions that guarantee we can't compete in the global economy.

Assembly Speaker John Perez has taken aim at Vernon, saying, "We cannot tolerate a situation where a handful of individuals are able to use an entire city as their own personal fiefdom." Yet the L.A. Times announced opposition to his bill to strip Vernon of cityhood, writing that the Legislature was "overstepping its bounds."

That kind of myopia has stonewalled reform.

Periodically, the stench of corruption becomes so odious that indictments are handed down, briefly capturing the attention of the rest of Southern California. Albert Robles managed to seize control of South Gate and loot the treasury of almost $20 million. Paul Richards conspired to grab $6 million in Lynwood before being convicted on 35 counts of extortion, fraud, money laundering, and perjury. The list goes on and on. In fact, here's what the Times said: "By any modern measure, what has gone on in the name of politics in southeast Los Angeles County has been extreme. In less than a decade, local officials and rivals in such cities as Bell, Bell Gardens, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Lynwood, Maywood and South Gate have been indicted, jailed, wire-tapped, bribed, recalled, threatened, firebombed and shot." What's truly depressing is that they wrote that back in 2003. So why were they (or anyone else) "shocked, shocked" to find gross corruption in Bell in 2010?

Individual corruption exposes flaws in human nature. Systematic corruption exposes flaws in governance.

What kind of systemic reform makes sense? In a state where fundamental reform remains elusive, what are the prospects in Southeast Los Angeles?

It's easy to be cynical. But reform is not particularly complicated. We know the checks and balances that keep most communities functioning: governmental transparency and accountability, the oversight of a free press, professional public managers, and honest elections. These are not exotic, complicated, Ivory Tower panaceas. These are everyday realities that keep local government working in the vast majority of California communities. We simply need to ensure that the residents of this region have the same rights and protections the rest of us take for granted.

Why are they so glaringly missing in this handful of cities? The single most obvious factor is these cities are not viable "communities of interest." They are vestiges of real estate deals in the Red Car era. The street names are the same, but the economics and demographics have been utterly transformed. These towns used to have thriving downtowns and their own hometown newspapers and entry signs festooned with the medallions of dozens of civic and service clubs. Then freeways and factory flight and new waves of immigration completely remade the landscape. Now these artificial municipalities are targets of opportunity for any gang of pirates ruthless enough to gain a foothold.

If we can appoint a 14-member citizen commission to draw our state and federal legislative districts, we can redraw the lines in Southeast Los Angeles to create cities with enough critical mass for checks and balances to take hold and function. Cities that are large enough, coherent enough and share enough in common to foster an active citizenry and provide the checks and balances that would keep them honest.

But just redrawing the lines doesn't guarantee honest government. Wouldn't bigger cities be even more tempting targets for corruption?

They would be more tempting, but less vulnerable. Cities the scale of Burbank, Glendale, Torrance, Lakewood or Long Beach are too big, too visible and too diverse to be seized by a gang of crooks. They each have a real sense of place and civic institutions that protect the community from hostile takeover. The example of Paramount tells an interesting story. It's only about 60,000 people. But it has a significant industrial base. It has a mix of demographics that ensure a middle class anchor to the city. Its leaders have striven to give it a physical sense of place, sometimes in whimsical ways, like putting up dairy fences on vacant lots and public art in new fast food restaurants. It has the same economic challenges as its neighbors, but over time, Paramount's successes have drawn the attention of the national press and won them recognition as an All-American City. A very different story from Bell, Vernon, and Maywood.

South Gate has recovered significantly since the Robles machine was recalled. Now that Bell's citizens have woken up, isn't their hope that Bell can be cleaned up as well?

I have great faith in the energized citizens of Bell. But what exactly will the new leaders inherit? A looted treasury. A trashed bond rating. Union contracts and pension obligations that will be unsustainable without the artificial cash the Rizzo regime injected through onerous illegal taxes. They may be able to purge the crooks. But they will be confronted with sky high expectations while scraping the bottom of the fiscal barrel.

South Gate is an inspiring story. Yet it only goes so far. The city still lacks the resources needed to provide the seedbed for tomorrow's middle class. That's what these towns were for the refugees from the Dust Bowl. Back then, there were factory jobs paying good wages to people without college educations. Now what do cities like Huntington Park and Maywood have to offer refugees from Mexico and Central America? Closing factories, overcrowded schools, libraries that are hardly ever open and neglected parks.

That's the real Vernon scandal and why Speaker Perez is right-and the editorial writers at the Times are wrong. Vernon is sitting on a multibillion dollar tax base which is exploited for the benefit of 96 people-the relatives, friends and employees of the elite gang that run that town. Fifty thousand people work there, that's why they have such a strong tax base. Yet when those workers go home to their families, they receive none of the benefits they generate in tax revenues for Vernon. So Vernon has 55 police officers for a population of 96 and Bell has 38 police officers for a population of 40,000.

That's gross injustice. It's far worse than the disparities that caused the California Supreme Court to force the state to step in to equalize education spending. Job one for our new governor is getting the state's finances in order. But I hope he and legislators like Speaker Perez will ensure that putting Southeast Los Angeles' cities in order gets the attention it deserves. Not just for the half million people who live there. But for the much larger population of California who can't thrive if places like Bell, Vernon and Maywood are undermining our future prosperity and the California dream for all.