The bizarre, and some say illegal, decision was just the latest eyebrow-raising political turn in Vernon, a city on the edge of Los Angeles where the mayor and council members have served for decades without opposition and most of the voters hold municipal jobs while living in city-owned houses.

The political order was upset earlier this year when three new residents filed as candidates for three of the City Council's five seats.

One of them, paper company salesman Don Huff, said that soon, he was being shadowed by private investigators, city crews shut off the power and police watched his building. Eventually Huff, 41, was evicted. He has been living in his car.

"They wanted to run us out, totally," he said. "The mayor owns the whole town. He controls it."

Huff sued along with the other newcomers after the city of fewer than 100 residents threw their names off the ballot. A judge reinstated them as candidates.

In their legal papers, the challengers charge that voters in Vernon are beholden to a City Hall that dispenses paychecks and arranges sweetheart rents. Vernon, they say, is a company town where the government is the company.

On Tuesday, acting City Clerk Bruce Malkenhorst Jr. said he would keep the ballot box locked until the court fight is resolved. An attorney for the challengers, Albert Robles, called the move "absolutely not legal," and said he planned to file a federal complaint accusing the city of violating voters' civil rights.

"I've never seen anybody, en masse, take an election and say, 'I'm not going to count the ballots until a court tells me,'" said election-law attorney Fred Woocher, who is not involved in the dispute.

Founded in 1905, the five-square-mile city consists in large part of rutted roads, railroad tracks, and a densely packed maze of warehouses, meatpacking plants, fuel tanks and an occasional vacant lot. There is no high school, no movie theater, no parkland. The city's motto: "Exclusively Industrial."

Under an unusual arrangement, Vernon owns virtually all the roughly two-dozen homes in town. In its century-long history, it has had just four mayors, all related to its founders. Mayor Leonis Malburg has been on the council since the Eisenhower administration and has been mayor since 1974.

The last contested election was in 1980; the city had not bothered to hold an election since then because there were no challengers who qualified for the ballot.

About the only city official to talk in recent days has been Police Chief Sol Benudiz, who issued a statement saying that the department is committed to the rights and safety of all residents.

City officials have charged that Huff was part of a group, linked to a corrupt politician from the nearby city of South Gate, trying to engineer a coup.

Last year, the Los Angeles Times reported that a city administrator had been paid $600,000 in annual salary, bonuses and other compensation, and his benefits included a leased Cadillac Escalade, use of a city-owned apartment and $120,000 for limousine services. The administrator, Bruce V. Malkenhorst Sr., father of the current clerk, retired last year.

"We like the way things run," said one five-year resident and city employee who declined to give his name. He stood on the lawn in front of his small, stucco home, which he said cost about $200 a month in rent. "We can't afford to live outside here."