Charter City

The Oxnard City Council has voted to study the concept of becoming a charter city, but the politically charged process could take almost a year. Voters could decide the matter next November. After a lengthy debate Tuesday, the City Council voted to act as a charter commission beginning in January to study the idea, as required by state law. In addition, a citizens charter advisory committee will be appointed to provide input from residents. But the advisory committee's size remains undetermined.

Six former Bell council members are asking a Superior Court judge to dismiss corruption charges against them, arguing that voters in the small Los Angeles County city gave them the authority to draw the annual salaries of nearly $100,000 that prosecutors say amounted to thievery. When just over 300 voters went to the polls in 2005 and approved a little-noticed ballot measure declaring Bell a charter city, it allowed council members to get around state laws that limited how much they could be paid, defense lawyers say. The argument, which will be presented in court Wednesday, is part of an effort to get the court to drop criminal charges against the half-dozen former council members, who were arrested in dramatic fashion last year.

The City Council tonight will consider spending $40,000 on consulting fees to investigate switching from a general law to a charter city. Council members will vote on whether to hire Douglas W. Ayres/Consultant Inc., a Rancho Mirage-based firm, to study the issue, organize information and documents and advise city officials on such a move. The money would come from the city's Redevelopment Agency funds, City Manager Bill Smith said.

Assembly Speaker John Pérez on Wednesday moved another step closer to disbanding the city of Vernon as a key state Senate committee backed his disincorporation bill on a 6-3 vote. The bill, considered to be the first-ever attempt by the Legislature to dissolve a charter city, now moves to the full Senate, where it could be voted on in the next few weeks. The Assembly has already overwhelmingly approved it. If signed into law, the measure would eliminate Vernon's municipal government and replace it with a new special district overseen by Los Angeles County.

Striving for more control over city affairs, Oxnard leaders are working on a plan to become a charter city, which would allow the City Council to adopt some ordinances that supersede state codes and the state Constitution. The Oxnard City Council on Tuesday will consider a proposal by City Atty. Gary Gillig to form a commission and explore drafting a city charter. "I've been surprised that Oxnard hasn't taken this step before," Gillig said. "This opens the door to so many possibilities.

Widespread ignorance of the rules covering ballot initiatives in charter cities has cast a cloud of uncertainty over a Glendale petition drive aimed at requiring the City Council to be elected by districts instead of at-large. City officials said last week that the Coalition for Electoral Reform, which turned in 11,015 petition signatures June 11, may have miscalculated the minimum number needed to qualify an initiative for the ballot.

The city of Vernon and some of its businesses are mounting a concerted and potentially expensive campaign against a bill in the state Legislature that would disincorporate the industrial city and put it under the purview of Los Angeles County. The scandal-plagued city has hired a Sacramento lobbyist, rallied support from its business community and issued statements touting the city's economic value to the region in an effort to defeat the bill introduced earlier this month by state Assembly Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles)

Assembly Speaker John Pérez on Wednesday moved another step closer to disbanding the city of Vernon as a key state Senate committee backed his disincorporation bill on a 6-3 vote. The bill, considered to be the first-ever attempt by the Legislature to dissolve a charter city, now moves to the full Senate, where it could be voted on in the next few weeks. The Assembly has already overwhelmingly approved it. If signed into law, the measure would eliminate Vernon's municipal government and replace it with a new special district overseen by Los Angeles County.

Port Hueneme has taken its first tentative steps toward becoming a charter city, a move that would free the city from many state mandates. The City Council agreed Wednesday night to sit as a charter commission to study the idea and to hold a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall to meet with a consultant who would guide the municipality through the process.

Enamored with the potential financial benefits of becoming a charter city, Port Hueneme officials have set an ambitious schedule to write a charter by the July 6 deadline for placing the issue on the November ballot. The City Council held its inaugural meeting as a charter commission Tuesday and requested consultant Douglas Ayres to bring a draft charter to its next meeting, Feb. 27. "We're going to go full-speed ahead," Mayor Bob Turner said.

Vernon officials want Assembly Speaker John Pérez to provide a $200,000 deposit before they begin fulfilling a voluminous public records request he submitted as part of his push to have the city disbanded. Vernon said it wants the payment because the request for public records is so large it would cost the city more than $1 million to comply — an estimate that Pérez's office described as "absurd and ridiculous. " Pérez, a Democrat from Los Angeles, and Vernon are locked in a legislative showdown over the future of the industrial enclave just south of downtown Los Angeles.

The state Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would dissolve the city of Vernon. The bill, which is the first known attempt by legislature to disincorporate a charter city, was passed on a vote of 60 to 7. The legislation was authored by Assembly Speaker John Perez (D-Los Angeles), who described a “pattern of unprecedented corruption” in Vernon, a city of fewer than 100 residents. He vowed that his bill would create a more open government in the 5.2-square-mile industrial enclave and protect the 1,800 businesses located there.

The city of Vernon and some of its businesses are mounting a concerted and potentially expensive campaign against a bill in the state Legislature that would disincorporate the industrial city and put it under the purview of Los Angeles County. The scandal-plagued city has hired a Sacramento lobbyist, rallied support from its business community and issued statements touting the city's economic value to the region in an effort to defeat the bill introduced earlier this month by state Assembly Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles)

T he people of Bell can hardly be blamed for wanting to throw the bums out. By bums, of course, they mean the city leaders who have enriched themselves at the taxpayers' expense. At first, the nearly $800,000 salary of former City Manager Robert Rizzo was as puzzling as it was outrageous. Perhaps there was an explanation? Maybe the veteran public employee was pulling off some sort of magic — such as maintaining extraordinary fiscal soundness for the city in the midst of bad times — that could have made him worth such a sum?

A recall effort launched this week in Bell has exposed a section of the city's charter that could leave residents without elected leadership. State law allows for new candidates to be elected in conjunction with a recall election. But Bell, a working-class town of 40,000, operates under a charter that stipulates that a separate election would have to be held to fill the council vacancies. If the effort to recall Mayor Oscar Hernandez and council members Luis Artiga, Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal — who were paid thousands for sitting on boards that never met or met only briefly — is successful, the city would be left with only one council member.

City council members in Vernon, Compton and Inglewood receive significantly higher compensation than most of their counterparts in Los Angeles County, according to a Los Angeles Times review of salary figures. Council members in the industrial city of Vernon, which has fewer than 100 residents, earn $68,052 a year. By contrast, council members in Arcadia, a suburb of about 56,000, earn a maximum of $6,720. The Times requested council compensation figures in the wake of the pay scandal in Bell, where three top city administrators stepped down after their outsized salaries were revealed.

Moving rapidly to meet election deadlines, Port Hueneme officials received the first draft of a seven-page city charter Wednesday. In addition, the City Council announced that beginning today, it is accepting applications from residents willing to serve on a seven-member advisory committee that would participate in the process of turning Port Hueneme into a charter city. Application forms are available from the city clerk's office.

The Oxnard City Council is considering changing its rules of governance, a move that officials believe may provide the city more independence from the state. The council Tuesday asked its staff members to begin the paperwork necessary to give the idea of becoming a charter city a closer look. General law cities such as Oxnard are subject to all California laws. But Ventura and California's other charter cities are not, except in matters defined as those of "statewide concern."

The highly paid members of the Bell City Council were able to exempt themselves from state salary limits by placing a city charter on the ballot in a little-noticed special election that attracted fewer than 400 voters. Since passage of the measure, salaries for council members — part-time employees — have jumped more than 50%, from $61,992 a year to at least $96,996. The Los Angeles County district attorney has opened an inquiry into whether the salaries are lawful.