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 href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0919-fortress-vernon-20100918,0…; target="”_blank”">a
front-page
article in Sunday's Los Angeles <i>Times</i></a>. There are no
new revelations, but a few good quotes.<br>
<br>
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."<br>
<br>
From Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez: "The council for all
intents and purposes controls who their electorate is."<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
For more on Vernon see these blog posts:<br>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/616" target="”_blank”">Hostile Takeovers in the
Municipal World</a><br>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/381" target="”_blank”">The Dream Machine</a><br>
<br>
And for those who haven't read it, rush to read <a href="http://people.ku.edu/%7Egfred/documents/ColumnSept2006.doc">Prof. H. George Frederickson's wonderful semi-fictional dialogue on Vernon</a>.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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