Bruce V Malkenhorst

Los Angeles County district attorney investigators probing possible misuse of public funds in the industrial city of Vernon are focusing in part on longtime City Administrator Bruce V. Malkenhorst Sr., according to a court record obtained Friday. Malkenhorst, who has been among the highest-paid government officials in the country, is identified as a suspect in a hearing notice prepared by the district attorney's office and filed in Superior Court.

Capping years of investigation, Los Angeles County prosecutors filed public corruption charges Wednesday accusing Vernon's longtime mayor of voter fraud and the former city administrator of using public funds for personal purposes.

The city of Vernon has launched an aggressive court fight to prevent prosecutors from reviewing city records as part of a criminal investigation into allegations of public corruption. The Los Angeles County district attorney's public integrity unit collected boxes of documents nearly a year ago during searches at Vernon City Hall and homes of City Council members.

The city of Vernon has launched an aggressive court fight to prevent prosecutors from reviewing city records as part of a criminal investigation into allegations of public corruption. The Los Angeles County district attorney's public integrity unit collected boxes of documents nearly a year ago during searches at Vernon City Hall and homes of City Council members.

Capping years of investigation, Los Angeles County prosecutors filed public corruption charges Wednesday accusing Vernon's longtime mayor of voter fraud and the former city administrator of using public funds for personal purposes.

Re "Tiny Town of Vernon Is Focus of Inquiry," April 7: So, City Administrator Bruce V. Malkenhorst is compensated at $600,000 per year plus an apartment, limo service, a city-provided SUV, all while often playing golf 20 days a month? That rotten smell in Vernon isn't coming from the meatpacking plants! David J. Ryan La Habra

IMAGINE A LAND WHERE THE ruling clique decides who can or can't live there; where elections are routinely canceled; where the leader gets all the bling he wants -- Escalades, limo service and one day off a week to play golf. Residents are afraid to even talk about their overlords, whispering off-the-record epithets like "dictator."

Until the Bell scandal, local government had largely escaped the disdain that voters reserve for Washington and Sacramento. Bell undermined confidence in the checks and balances that normally prevent a corrupt regime from maintaining control of a local entity. Belatedly, the exposure of the Rizzo regime in Bell brought renewed scrutiny to the brazen corruption in adjacent Vernon, creating an opportunity to abolish an essentially criminal enterprise posing as a city government. Assembly Speaker John A. Perez has introduced a bill to unincorporate cities with fewer than 150 residents.

Three years ago, Leonis Malburg stood in the council chamber of the city of Vernon as his fellow council members passed a resolution honoring the mayor for 50 years in office. Beaming, Malburg bragged about surpassing the long political run of the city's founder, his grandfather. "I got my 50 years now, and I survived, health-wise and otherwise," he said. "And I beat my dear grandfather, John Leonis, who had 45 years in the city . . . by five years."

The district attorney's office served search warrants Wednesday at Vernon City Hall as part of an investigation of alleged misuse of public funds in the tiny industrial town on the southeast border of Los Angeles, authorities said. For the last several months, investigators from the district attorney's public integrity division have been conducting a preliminary probe of the city, which was sparked by a complaint, said Head Deputy Dist. Atty. David Demerjian.

Los Angeles County district attorney investigators probing possible misuse of public funds in the industrial city of Vernon are focusing in part on longtime City Administrator Bruce V. Malkenhorst Sr., according to a court record obtained Friday. Malkenhorst, who has been among the highest-paid government officials in the country, is identified as a suspect in a hearing notice prepared by the district attorney's office and filed in Superior Court.

After a year of legal battles, Los Angeles County prosecutors have obtained volumes of documents from Vernon City Hall that are at the center of a public corruption probe of the small industrial city. Vernon city leaders fought to keep the records from the district attorney's office, taking the case to the California Supreme Court. But the high court refused to hear Vernon's final appeal last week, and prosecutors are now reviewing 1,700 pages of city records.

The city of Vernon's attempt to stop candidates from forcing the town's first contested election in 25 years was shot down Thursday by a judge who described the city as one "run like a fiefdom." The decision marks a defeat for officials of the small city south of downtown Los Angeles, which has spent months trying to invalidate the April election. City officials have refused to count the ballots from the vote until this and several other lawsuits are settled.