Leonis Malburg

The families that run the city of Vernon (population: 90-something) were alarmed nearly four years ago when a handful of newcomers moved to town and registered to vote. It was part of a scheme, city leaders claimed, by the political boss of nearby South Gate to misuse the instruments of democracy to take over new territory. And when it comes to misusing the instruments of democracy, those Vernonites know what they're talking about. They're experts. Mayor Leonis Malburg and his family pulled Vernon's strings from the family estate in Hancock Park for years, apparently unfazed by state laws that require elected officials to live in the cities they serve and voters to live in the cities where they vote.

Constuction is nearing completion on the $38-million, 31-acre Vernon Business Park, being built on the site of the old Bethlehem Steel plant at the southwest corner of Slauson Avenue and Downey Road in Vernon. A February completion is scheduled for the 678,000-square-foot, 14-building project by the Los Angeles office of Trammell Crow Co. in a joint venture with Copley Real Estate Advisors of Boston.

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.

Former Vernon City Administrator Donal O'Callaghan pleaded guilty Friday to felony conflict-of-interest charges related to the hiring of his wife as a contractor, becoming the third high-ranking city official convicted of public corruption charges in the last two years. The contracts awarded to O'Callaghan's wife, Kimberly McBride, were first reported by The Times last year as part of a series of stories on high salaries and benefits paid to Vernon's top officials. O'Callaghan, who made as much as $785,000 in 2009, was indicted in October.

A months-long delay in notifying parents about sexual abuse allegations at a Catholic high school raised questions Friday about whether the Los Angeles Archdiocese violated its own reform policies in molestation cases. Parents at Daniel Murphy Catholic High School were told Friday that John Joseph Malburg had been accused of abusing three students and another minor over the last decade.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has launched an inquiry into a contract created last year between the city of Vernon and an energy firm owned by the wife of the then-city administrator, marking the second outside investigation into potential wrongdoing in the industrial city. The probe comes after The Times reported last month that through the first half of this year Donal O'Callaghan received $243,898 in consulting payments through Tara Energy Inc., a company headed by his wife Kimberly McBride.

Pity our hapless elected officials, who are simply trying to live their lives, take their pay and shuttle among their multiple houses. Now they have reporters stalking them, confronting them with their inconsistencies and trying to find out if they are breaking the law. It's too much to take. Right? Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke, according to an L.A.

This morning, as Vernon holds its first City Council election in 25 years, a judge is expected to decide whether the election should be postponed or be run by county officials amid allegations of potential fraud. Challengers facing City Council members who have been in office for as long as 50 years are trying to keep that city's officials from counting the ballots.

The effort to disband the city of Vernon will take a major step forward this week when State Assembly speaker John Pérez introduces a bill that would effectively require the industrial town to become an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County. The bill, to be introduced Monday, stems from a series of corruption scandals in the city in recent years, including the indictment of Vernon's former city administrator in October. Critics have said the town of about 95 residents has been controlled for decades by a small cadre of families and their associates.