A newly released report says that the Vernon city council has begun reforming its ways, but more still needs to be done. So far, the city has cancelled its high-priced contracts with law firms, that granted the ability to charge whatever rate they wanted without city approval and the creation of a housing commission.

Currently, housing in the city of about 100 is entirely contained within city-owned property. Critics have complained that relationship is unfair, and that it gave the city council the ability to apply political pressure on the 62 registered voters in the housing complexes.

The report, which was drafted by former Attorney General John Van de Kamp, descrbed the city as closed, but it was opening to the best practices of the rest of the world. On the list of changes still to be taken, Van de Camp’s report recommended dropping city council salaries by 2/3rds, as well as election reform.

From the Los Angeles Times:

A long-awaited watchdog report released Tuesday said the embattled city of Vernon has made several important reforms but found that the City Council needs to consider more actions, such as further slashing council members’ salaries, scaling back the use of expensive outside attorneys and possibly selling off controversial housing stock.

“More needs to be done,” said former state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, whom the city hired to examine its policies and procedures. “But unquestionably the city has opened up to the world and the need to operate on a ‘best practices’ approach.”

Read the full article here.