Vernon, the Dragons, and the Knights

Anonymous

Thu, 02/10/2011 - 07:23

City Related

Yes, boys and girls, it's time for another episode of every government
ethics lover's favorite tale, Vernon and the Dragons. In the last
episode, back in November, the dragon known as Los Angeles County was
considering a proposal to require the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon,_California" target="”_blank”">city of Vernon</a> to competitively bid housing
for the city, which houses very few people, and mostly friends of government
insiders (it used to be mostly city employees). The county was also considering a state
constitutional amendment proposal, and the Los Angeles district
attorney was pushing Vernon's
disincorporation, a fancy word for what happened to Humpty Dumpty. In
other words, lots of nasty people had lots of nasty ideas to hurt poor
little ol' Vernon, who never hurt a flea. 
 
Now, according to <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-0208-vernon-annex-m,0,6964068.story&q…; target="”_blank”">an
article in Tuesday's Los Angeles Times</a>, the dragon known as L.A.
(the city) is considering a proposal to annex Vernon if it can be
disincorporated. 
 
Vernon is not completely defensive against these horrible monsters,
however. It has two tricks up its sleeve. One was simply stated by the
city administrator (whose two predecessors were indicted by those nasty
people): "The city of L.A. would be absorbing over $1 billion in debt.
Are you ready for that?" This is pretty much what every great hero has
said to every dragon who threatened to eat him alive: you'd be biting
off more than you can chew.

The other trick up Vernon's sleeve is to show that it is a new city,
that it has turned over a new leaf (but does the polluted industrial
city have any leaves left?). According to <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0209-vernon-20110209,0,2771842…; target="”_blank”">an
article in yesterday's L.A. Times</a>, it has hired a white knight,
former California attorney general John Van de Kamp, to be the city's
Ethics Advisor for the next year, not as an official, mind you, but on
an hourly basis ($550 an hour), making him probably the most expensive
ethics advisor in American history, for a city of a hundred souls.
After all, Vernon, which has spent $42 million on outside attorneys
over the last five years (that's $84,000 per citizen per year), has a
reputation to maintain. 
 
According to <a href="http://www.cityofvernon.org/assets/docs/Vernon%20News-Independent%20Eth…; target="”_blank”">Vernon's
press release</a> on the hiring, "[Van de Kamp] will independently
review and assess Vernon’s governance policies and practices as they
relate to local government ethics, conflicts of interest, open
government and transparency. Mr. Van de Kamp will prepare a
comprehensive initial report, as well as a final report, all with the
goal of making recommendations on improving existing policies and
procedures and further enhancing Vernon’s municipal administration."
The final report is due a year from now. 
 
Van de Kamp will be working with others, including the state's leading
government ethics star, Robert Stern of the Center for Governmental
Studies (at only $450 an hour). 
 
According to the press release, this isn't because the city really
needs the help of these illustrious men. “We believe," the press
release says, "that, with the changes and reforms enacted to date,
Vernon already manages its affairs properly. But we are always looking
for ways to improve." How heroic! 
 
So what actually is the purpose for this independent assessment of
Vernon's governance policies and practices? Since everything is golden
in Vernon, are Van de Kamp and Stern not really knights, but rather
witchdoctors being hired to put a spell on the L.A. dragon, in case it
decides it can swallow a billion dollars in debt? 
 
Vernon is not a city with ethics problems. It is the ultimate company
town, the dream machine, a city that has had no accountability, no
problem with public trust in government, in fact, no citizen
participation in the normal meaning of the term. It has had no
conflicts of interest, because there has been no separation of person
and government. They have been one and the same. 
 
Creating a website and a few rules cannot change all this. This is a
city that is run in the interests of those who run it and the companies
that have set up in a community that has no community to oppose
whatever they want to do. Who is going to want to move into such a
community? How can a public be created so that public trust becomes an
issue? 
 
There can be no government ethics without a public, and without a true
separation of person and government. The best governance policies that
ever existed can't change this. Reporting on policies under these
circumstances is to act as if Vernon was a normal city. And it is to
help the city seem as if it was trying to change, when it is not in a
position to change what is most important. 
 
Do we want cities such as Vernon in the U.S. of A.? That, not
government ethics, not governance policies, is the issue here. We have
seen how this radical form of government operates, and we know that once the pressure is
on, a city such as this will try to grab on to anything it can, like a
spider in a sink when the water is turned on. I hope that Van de Kamp and Stern reconsider doing this job. 
 
For more on Vernon, see the following blog posts: 
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/381" target="”_blank”">A Dream Machine</a> 
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/616" target="”_blank”">Hostile Takeovers in the
Municipal World</a> 
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/760" target="”_blank”">Criminal Charges and a
Civil Suit</a> 
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/update-vernon-ultimate-company-town&q…; target="”_blank”">Update
on Vernon</a> 
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/drastic-proposals-disassemble-dream-m…; target="”_blank”">Drastic
Proposals to Disassemble the Dream Machine</a> 
 
And most of all, read public administration professor <a href="http://people.ku.edu/%7Egfred/documents/ColumnSept2006.doc" target="”_blank”">H.
George Frederickson's wonderful fictional dialogue</a> about Vernon. 
 
Robert Wechsler 
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics 
 
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