Posted on 12/24/2006 6:52:54 PM PST by calcowgirl
VERNON – It's easy to understand why Leonis Malburg would rather not live here. But for more than 50 years, Malburg has been helping run this dreary municipal oddity, and he has been mayor since 1974.
Vernon, about five miles south of downtown Los Angeles, touts itself as “Exclusively Industrial,” and has fewer than 100 residents. Its 5.2 square miles are wall-to-wall with warehouses, meatpacking plants and asphalt. Trucks rumble through the streets. There are no parks – even patches of grass are scarce.
An estimated 44,000 people work here every day but return to homes outside city limits when their shifts end. Prosecutors contend that the 77-year-old Malburg is among them.
His true residence is a majestic two-story home in the leafy Los Angeles neighborhood of Hancock Park, about 20 miles east of Vernon, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors have charged Malburg, along with his wife, Dominica, 80, and son, John Joseph Malburg, 37, with felony voting violations. They have pleaded not guilty. Supporters say the charges are political, although they are vague about any motive.
Also charged is Bruce Malkenhorst Sr., 71, the city's former administrator. Until he retired two years ago, Malkenhorst was considered the state's highest paid municipal official, with a salary of $600,000 – more than three times what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would be paid if he accepted his state salary. Despite that salary and a city-paid limousine, prosecutors allege, he used $60,000 in city money to pay for golf, massages, meals and political contributions.
In voting records, Malburg has said he resides in a Vernon apartment in a nondescript, three-story office building bearing his name. The building sits on a street named after his grandfather, John Baptiste Leonis, who helped found the city – and who was also accused of residing in Hancock Park when he was mayor.
While some local businessmen hail Vernon as a model of efficient local government, critics contend it's more like a fiefdom with a city charter than a municipality. Most of the 91 residents are city employees and live in housing owned by the city. Critics say the voters have an interest in maintaining the status quo.
“It is run like a business, and its goal is to enrich the people who work there,” said Roy Ulrich, a longtime Vernon government critic and public-interest lawyer. “It has been the kingdom of the Leonis Malburg family.”
“You have an electorate that is controlled by the government,” said Deputy District Attorney Max Huntsman, who is prosecuting Malburg.
For a quarter-century, there was no contested election in Vernon. But earlier this year, sparks flew when three allied newcomers tried to run for City Council seats. Litigation followed as Malburg and his supporters tried to kick the new residents out of town and off the ballot. In the end, Malburg prevailed.
Even before that brouhaha, investigators with the District Attorney's Office were turning their attention to alleged corruption in Vernon. They got a fight. Vernon officials took prosecutors to court to avoid turning over records, and lost.
Huntsman said investigators eventually found that some city records were either destroyed or missing.
This is not the first time prosecutors have gone after officials in Vernon – or, in fact, these same officials. In 1978, Leonis Malburg was likewise charged with defrauding voters, and Malkenhorst faced bribery charges. A judge threw out both cases.
In the Malburg case, grand jurors never heard testimony from a family maid who said Malburg did not live in the Hancock Park home, according to a 1979 Los Angeles Times account.
Lawyers for Leonis Malburg and Malkenhorst did not return calls seeking comment, and a lawyer for Dominica Malburg declined to comment. Calls to members of Vernon's City Council were not returned.
But John Malburg's lawyer, Alan Fenster, said the latest corruption charges are part of “some sort of political vendetta against the Malburg family.”
He said that while Malburg family members keep other residences, Vernon is their “central home.”
“It is where their heart and head is,” Fenster said. “Anyone else in this situation would not get prosecuted; only the Malburg family gets prosecuted.”
The investigation also led to child molestation charges being filed against John Malburg, who was a dean at a prominent Los Angeles Catholic high school. He has pleaded not guilty. Fenster said he did not want to comment on those allegations.
Huntsman said that under state law, people are allowed one legal domicile, and that is where they can register to vote. The prosecutor said the investigation showed that while Malburg spends time in Vernon, his family lives in Hancock Park.
“There is no evidence that Mrs. Malburg has been in Vernon or that (John Malburg) has lived there,” Huntsman said.
Ulrich, the activist, praised the District Attorney's Office for bringing criminal charges against Malburg, but added that he's not convinced it will actually lead to reform in Vernon.
The ultimate solution would be unincorporating the 101-year-old municipality, he said. But that would require approval of Vernon's voters, most of whom work for the city.
“That makes it very hard to do what is obvious,” Ulrich said.
If it works for John Kerry, why not these crooks???
Why do I think that if Malburg hired Ulrich and paid him a nice salary this "activists" activity's would go away.
No mention that he is a republican, therefore, I must assume he is a democrat. Anyway, sounds like democratic MO.
Oh, excuse me. That can't be. They are squeaky clean.
The latter.
...looks like the City of Thieves Angles, are really p!$$ed-off....Where's our cut/graft? ...errr...taxes.
The other kleptocrats want to get their hands on 5.2 square miles of moocher's paradise.
Sounds like a Indian Tribe I know...
Yep, Vernon's a cash cow, for sure.
It (the City of Vernon) is run like a business,...for the profit of those who work there."
And this is wrong why? SHOULDN'T a government be run for the benefit of it's citizens?
Me? Cynical?
exactly. it sounds like they only started caring very recently and the mayor probably pissed off some higher county or state officials
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