The Vernon Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday came out strongly against a bill in the state legislature that would disincorporate the city of Vernon and leave it open to be annexed by another city.
The chamber released a letter signed by 87 Vernon employers and organizations. It called on California Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, the main sponsor of AB 46, to consider less drastic reforms than dissolving the city. The city is under investigation by the state over allegations of misuse of public funds.
“Disincorporating Vernon is simply a bad idea,” the letter said, warning that employers might be inclined to leave the area if it became an unincorporated community or was annexed by a less business-friendly neighbor. “Let’s fix the city of Vernon instead of destroying it and the businesses that we have built.”
Vernon, located about five miles south of downtown Los Angeles, has only about 90 residents, but is home to 1,800 businesses that employ 50,000 people. County Supervisor Gloria Molina in a story in this week’s Los Angeles Business Journal. characterizes Vernon as a company town “masquerading as a city.”
While not specifically addressing the annexation issue, the letter refers to incentives now offered to businesses in Vernon that employers fear would be lost if the area became unincorporated or was annexed by the city of Los Angeles or another neighboring city because of its health business tax base.
“The city has developed infrastructure that is business‐friendly, providing world‐class police, fire, and health departments to support Vernon businesses,” the letter said. “It has also developed natural gas and electricity resources that are provided at a lesser cost than nearby communities.”
The chamber said it would support reforms such as term limits for elected Vernon officials, creation of ethics commission to oversee compensation and contracts, creation of a housing authority and a utilities commission.
It warned that AB 46 will “result in the loss of $1.5 billion in economic output and 11,620 manufacturing jobs in California.”
Perez or a spokesman could not be reached for comment Tuesday morning. John Vigna, a spokesman for Perez, said in the current issue of the Business Journal that Perez intends to alter his bill to preserve some of Vernon’s business friendly rules. However, he was not specific.
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