Cities, Bankrupt City | featured news

Detroit may be broke but it will soon have a first-rate motor pool, featuring 23 new ambulances and a fleet of 100 new police cars. Some city parks also are getting tender loving care. New fruit trees and shrubs have been planted, and mowing crews are beginning to make the rounds to keep the green spaces tidy.

Stockton and San Bernardino, the two California cities that have filed for bankruptcy protection, are both considered test cases in the epic battle over whether municipal bondholders or pensioners will absorb most of the pain when a government goes broke.

The only winners in the financial crisis that brought Detroit to the brink of state takeover are Wall Street bankers who reaped more than $474 million from a city too poor to keep street lights working.

At the Detroit Auto Show earlier this month, luxury was in the air. Pricey new Bentleys and Maseratis glittered - including a Maserati 2014 Quattroporte with a $132,000 price tag; U.S. Cabinet Secretaries and dignitaries rubbed shoulders; and many of the well-heeled attendees ponied up for a $300-a-ticket black-tie charity ball.

Jeffrey A. Michael, a finance professor in Stockton, Calif., took a hard look at his city’s bankruptcy this summer and thought he saw a smoking gun: a dubious bond deal that bankers had pushed on Stockton just as the local economy was starting to tank in the spring of 2007, he said.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) says it's too early to make changes in a mediation process for municipalities seeking to file for protection. Legislation that could have delayed some municipal bankruptcies has been tabled after being opposed by the mayors of California's largest cities, including Los Angeles' Antonio Villaraigosa.

San Bernardino must cut government spending by a third, almost assuredly resulting in widespread layoffs or pay reductions for city workers, as it prepares to officially file for bankruptcy protection, city officials said.

San Bernardino leaders' decision means the city could avoid months of state-mandated mediation as it seeks bankruptcy protection. The San Bernardino City Council on Wednesday declared a fiscal emergency, an acknowledgment that the city is nearly broke and a legal maneuver that will allow leaders to file for bankruptcy protection without going through months of state-mandated mediation.

The Sheriff's Department said Thursday it was working with police and the district attorney's office to investigate possible criminal activity within the government of San Bernardino, where city officials voted this week to take the rare step of filing for bankruptcy.

The San Bernardino City Council votes to file for bankruptcy. Facing a $45-million budget shortfall and the prospect of not being able to pay city workers, the panel Tuesday voted to file municipal bankruptcy, the third California city to do so in recent weeks.