In a community where about half of the housing stock is owned by City Hall, the mayor of the City of Industry has secured quite a bargain — a 5,500-square-foot house that underwent $450,000 in renovations at city expense, according to newly obtained documents.

The rent? Just $700 a month.

A similar property in nearby communities would fetch six times as much, according to property listings and a local real estate agent. At the subsidized rate — if the property had no other expenses during that time — it would take Industry 53 years to recoup the cost of the renovations

While some large cities and universities offer housing to their leaders, there’s a benefit to the public agency, said Jessica Levinson, a professor of law at Loyola Law School and president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission. If the mayor took a pay cut for subsidized housing or paid full price to live there, the trade-off might outweigh the costs, she said.

“If the city spends money on an investment, then they owe it to the taxpayers to obtain fair-market value as a return on that investment,” Levinson said. “It strikes me as wildly inappropriate to spend city funds renovating a residence that is then used by the mayor for well below fair-market value.”

Industry’s housing board — appointed by the City Council — approved Mayor Mark Radecki’s wife as a tenant shortly before construction on house ended. It was never advertised as available to the public and the Radeckis did not fill out an application, according to city officials. The family was already renting from the city and did not have its rent increased, though the renovated home is significantly larger.

Despite pledges to reform its housing program over the last three years, Industry still doesn’t have a basic application process for any of its roughly two dozen rentals.

Most of the beneficiaries are City Council members, their family members and friends. With only 200 residents, the housing market — and the voter pool by extension — are tightly controlled. None of the tenants living in Industry-owned housing pays more than $700 a month, a price that has gone unchanged since the 1990s. An investigation by the Southern California News Group in 2016 found that Industry could owe millions in back taxes because the subsidy may qualify as an employee benefit.

Levinson said the mayor’s new home appears to be the most egregious example of a “systemic inappropriateness” in the city.

“It seems to be part of the culture and behavior in this city, but that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable, and, in fact, it indicates to me that there is a much larger problem,” Levinson said.

The four-bedroom, three-bath home occupied by the Radeckis is in a gated area on the grounds of the Industry Hills Expo Center, an event venue nestled in the hills of the community. City officials refused to provide access to view the public property.

Aerial images show a tree-lined, secluded home just south of a dirt parking lot used by the Expo Center. The home has five striped parking spots, likely because it was previously used as a nonprofit’s office before the renovations.

Originally built as a home for former Industry Mayor David Winn, no one has lived on site for two decades. The Gabriel Foundation, which puts on Industry’s annual charity rodeo, used the property as an office after Winn moved out.

The sprawling residence is a bit of an oddity in today’s market as its only a single story. The recent renovations merged an existing two-bedroom house with a two-bedroom addition that was started when the Winns lived there. The addition was left incomplete and uninhabitable for years.

The improvements included granite counter tops to the kitchen, quartz fixtures to the master bathroom, and a 4-ton heating and air-conditioning system. The city installed $10,000 in high-end appliances, including a $3,400 refrigerator, before the family moved in.

Through a technicality, only two council members voted to approve the costly remodeling project in late 2016. On the day of the vote, two members were absent and a third abstained. Only Mayor Radecki — the eventual beneficiary of the renovations — and colleague Councilman Abraham Cruz voted in favor.

Cruz is Radecki’s closest ally on the City Council and his co-worker at Square Root Landscaping, a city contractor that employs both men. The improvements passed because a majority of the present quorum supported it.

In March 2017, Mary Radecki sent a letter asking the city’s housing board to relocate her family to a single story-home because of a medical condition. That same day, the City Council approved a $76,000 change order that revamped and redesigned the plans for the home.

At the time, the Radeckis lived in a smaller two-story, three-bedroom home overlooking the Industry Hills golf course. They paid the same rent before the move.

“Unfortunately due to medical reasons being that our home is a two-story, I am unable to no longer (sic) go up and down stairs,” she wrote. “I am asking for your heartfelt consideration to relocate my family into the first available single family home that will accommodate my family of 5.”

The newly renovated home was the only property in the city that fit that description.

In an email, Mark Radecki said the home had extensive mold and structural deficiencies. He supported the renovations because he saw it was a way to expand Industry’s housing supply. He denied having the repairs done so his family could move in.

“The house was not assigned to me, nor anyone else when this work was done due to its dilapidated state,” he said. “Due to her disability, my wife asked the Housing Commission to assign us to a one story floor plan as soon as one became available.”

Radecki declined to answer questions about the appropriateness of the discounted rent.

He stated rental prices in the city are set by a three-member housing authority. If rents increased, the prices would need to factor in the environmental impacts of living in Industry, he said. He pointed to 24-hour truck traffic, the proximity to freeways, heavily used railroads and many factories, including the Quemetco, a lead battery recycling facility in the city.

“Many of our residences are required to have EPA particulate testing INSIDE their homes due to high levels of air borne toxicity,” he wrote in an email.

Radecki’s new home in the Industry Hills is approximately two miles from the nearest freeway and four miles from Quemetco. Residents in Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights and La Puente, in many cases, are much closer to those hazards, but they would pay $3,000 or more for homes that are half the size of Radecki’s new residence, according to real estate listings in those areas.

Interim City Manager Troy Helling, who was promoted to the position after the renovation was finished, declined to comment on the previous administration’s decision. He is scheduling a joint meeting next month with the City Council, the Planning Commission and the housing authority, to discuss revamping the city’s housing program.

At least three homes are being kept vacant until a process is developed, he said.

“Moving forward, we have to be fiscally responsible,” he said. “The council is very interested in moving forward and getting this stuff done.”

Earlier this year, the City Council fired its reform monitor and a lawyer hired to assist with the housing reforms that never quite materialized.

Industry’s housing program had a $533,175 deficit last year because of the low rents, and expects to lose another $450,000 in the next fiscal year, according to a budget presented June 20.