In the last few weeks of the legislative session of summer 2011, a team of attorneys and lobbyists from Vernon were trying to kill the bill that would disincorporate the city when state Senator Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) came to them with a creative and unconventional offer. De Leon, who had earlier supported disbanding Vernon, said he would help to defeat the legislation if Vernon would accept a proposed list of government reforms and set aside $60 million in order to fund community projects in the small, working-class cities that surround Vernon. Vernon agreed to the offer, and de Leon then proceeded to support the groups fighting disincorporation. City officials in nearby Huntington Park, which stood to receive some of Vernon's grant money, also reversed their support to the City of Vernon. On August 29, the state Senate rejected the bill to disband Vernon.
