High paid city officials travel lavishly while laying off employees and cutting benefits

[Liberal_in_LA]

Top administrators in Vernon, already among the highest-paid local officials in the state, racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in city-paid expenses on first-class flights, luxury hotels like the Ritz Carlton and limousine service, records reviewed by The Times show.

The records, which cover 2005-2010, detail lavish travel expenses billed to the city by its top executives, including then-city administrators Donal O'Callaghan and Eric T. Fresch. Some of the trips occurred as recently as this year, when the city laid off employees and canceled the life and health insurance benefits of city workers' spouses and children because of budget problems.

Details of the travel expenses come amid growing scrutiny of the largely industrial city of roughly 90 residents, where top city attorneys and administrators received high salaries, most notably Fresch, who in 2008 earned more than $1.6 million. Revelations about the travel bills sparked criticism from some in the city.

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When O'Callaghan came to Vernon as a contractor in April 2005, his initial employment agreement required that he travel "economy class" if possible and make a "reasonable attempt" to book flights in advance to take advantage of lower airfare. By 2007, O'Callaghan had moved to executive positions within the city and those limitations were no longer in place. He replaced Fresch as city administrator in 2009, and also worked as director of Light and Power.

Records show that O'Callaghan traveled several times out of the country, including to Ireland and Sweden.

In June 2007, he flew British Airways first class to Dublin via London at a total cost of $9,318, according to city records. In late October of that year, O'Callaghan flew on the same airline to Stockholm, paying $11,328 for the airfare. In February 2008, according to a March invoice to reimburse him, O'Callaghan paid $5,762 to fly to Dublin. He traveled once again to Ireland in October 2008, paying at least $5,000 for airfare, according to available records.

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Earlier this year, O'Callaghan told The Times the city had no choice but to take away employees' families benefits, saying the budget tightening was necessary.

"The bottom line is that Vernon is in solid financial shape because we take tough actions like today," he said. "Fiscal responsibility means that you manage your costs."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-vernon-luxury-20100909-1,0,6775516.story

[LiberalFighter]

1. Vernon only has 90 residents?

Why do they need so many government executives?

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. It's a mostly industrial city.

[Initech]

13. It's home to a huge dog-food manufacturing plant.

[GReedDiamond]

6. Vernon, CA, is a very odd kind of place...

...I go there all of the time, as a freelance graphics consultant to the garment industry.

Vernon, which is just south and slightly east of the downtown Los Angeles/Little Tokyo area, consists entirely of factories, warehouses, all sorts of industrial stuff going on, no residential property except for a small cul-de-sac street right behind the Vernon City Hall. The residents in the little bungalows there are all city employees and their families, so I've been told.

The city runs its own power generating facilities and was therefore immune to the fake "California energy crisis" of 2000-2001, in which Enron and other out-of-state energy companies ripped off multi-billions from the CA rate payers. There were many CA businesses at that time who were being negatively impacted by huge electric bills, but not business owners in Vernon, and there were no "rolling blackouts" to work around.

In the early 1900s to 1920s, prior to the total industrialization of Vernon, the area was the site of a world-class professional boxing ring, second only to Madison Square Garden in New York, as well as a wooden baseball stadium (Pacific Coast League?, it caught fire and burned down), and the world's longest bar, which closed at midnight on the day Prohibition went into effect.

Currently, perhaps the most well-known landmark in Vernon is the Farmer John plant, where they slaughter pigs and make em into bacon. The whole outside is covered with "whimsical" folk art-kinda murals depicting happy, frolicking pigs.

And, speaking of pigs, the city government of Vernon has been corrupt as long as I can remember, going back to the early nineties when I first starting going there on a regular basis.

[Historic NY]

2. Thats some hefty air fare.

[Historic NY]

3. & there is more...1.65 million salary...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/09/top-vernon-attorneys-get-generous-public-safety-pensions.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+lanowblog+(L.A.+Now)

Among the beneficiaries is Eric T. Fresch, Vernon's former city administrator and city attorney, who was paid $1.65 million by the well-heeled industrial city in 2008 (although only about $340,000 of that sum was counted toward retirement benefits). Fresch now works for Vernon as a $525-an-hour legal consultant.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. Holy shit. That's $18,000 per resident. n/t

[BlueCheese]

7. As far as I can tell...

... Vernon is sort of like what would happen if you took a bunch of office parks, incorporated them, and called it a town. These guys are obviously stealing from somebody. Is it the few residents, or the businesses that operate there?

What happened in the neighboring city of Bell is the real travesty. There officials were stealing similar amounts of money from a community of lower-middle class folks while shutting down city services and firing people of modest means.

[GReedDiamond]

8. As I understand it, the residents of Vernon...

...are almost all Vernon city employees and their families.

There is a tiny cul-de-sac street behind Vernon City Hall with bungalows which house city employees and their families. They would be the majority of Vernon's official residents. Everybody else is running some kind of business out of a factory, warehouse, steel factory, slaughter house/meat processor/by-products facility (Farmer John, Hoffy's, Bandini), etc. I used to rent a rehearsal studio in a giant facility in Vernon in the mid-nineties. There are big railroad freight yards and trucking depots in Vernon, it's as industrialized as L.A. gets. It's all business, all the time. And they are all subject to Vernon City codes and licensing, which bring Big $$$ to the city coffers. Despite the necessary licenses and fees to operate a business there, the city provides an ideal setting for almost any, if not all types, of (very) heavy manufacturing, huge warehouses, etc. All that and only about 8 minutes from the heart of Downtown Los Angeles. IOW, it's a bit more heavy-duty industrial than an office park, although Vernon has some office parks, too.

The city government has a history of being more dynastic than democratic. If I'm not mistaken, the mayor (perhaps now former mayor?) remained in office for 50+ years. They (this small group of people from the Mayor on down) had a lock on everything that went on in the city, and reaped all of the benefits. I don't think they had to hustle the business owners, in fact, Vernon bends over backwards to please the industrial/manufacturing sector which still exists in Vernon.

Back in the day, the city planners had the foresight to set up the city's own electrical generating facilities with reliability and cheap rates, a selling point to luring heavy industry into Vernon.

Anyway, it seems to me that political corruption is (was?) part of doing business in the City of Vernon, CA.

If interested, see my previous post above for more about Vernon.

Edited for clarity.

[flying rabbit]

10. Thanks for the context

and insight.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. The 90 residents are probably related to the Vernon government, industry so voting to keep the

status quo.

[GReedDiamond]

11. Yes, exactly, that would be the case...

...apparently.

Since most of the "residents" are employees and family members of the "elected officials."

Here's the Wikipedia entry on this freaky little City, an industrial, corporate-friendly stronghold, right in the middle of L.A.:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon,_California

Edited for punctuation and clarity.

[Hannah Bell]

12. ...never mind. i see this is not an ordinary "city", but a privatized enclave of corporate

corruption.

[KillCapitalism]

15. It sure seems that way.

No wonder Glenn Beck doesn't cover these cities on his show when he's ranting about wasteful government spending.

[Initech]

14. You know what would be great? If I could tighten my belt...

Around the necks of these money-siphoning executives. I'd feel a lot better about the sacrifice.