San Bernardino Latest California City To File For Bankruptcy
SAN BERNARDINO (AP) — In this sweltering Southern California city, officials tried to keep the budget in check by selling assets, cutting spending and asking public employees to take a hit as tax revenues dwindled.
But San Bernardino officials found themselves staring at a bleak prospect Tuesday night: Vendors hadn't been paid and cash was running out to make payroll, threatening to shut down the city altogether.
That prompted elected officials in the city of 210,000 people to take the bold and sudden move of authorizing the city attorney to seek federal bankruptcy protection, becoming the third California city poised to do so in less than two weeks.
"The city needs breathing room and the bottom line is we cannot default on payments to our employees without violating the law," City Attorney James Penman told the council ahead of the contentious vote.
Bankruptcy experts say the decision in San Bernardino — some 60 miles east of Los Angeles — could sound an alarm to cities across the state and country that are grappling with weak property and sales tax revenues as their pension obligations continue to rise.
"People are waiting to see whether these are the exceptions to the rule or whether we have a new trend," said Jim Spiotto, a Chicago attorney who tracks municipal bankruptcies. "I do think it may be something of a wake-up call."
In some instances, cities like Harrisburg, Penn., and Mammoth Lakes have considered bankruptcy as a way to cope with a specific debt. In contrast, cities like Stockton and Central Falls, R.I., have sought bankruptcy to deal with an unbearable financial outlook due to rising costs and stagnant revenues, said Michael Sweet, a bankruptcy attorney with Fox Rothschild's San Francisco office.
"Those are the ones you want to watch," Sweet said. "The cities that have a higher reliance on property tax revenue to support their general funds are the ones that are going to feel the most pain."
San Bernardino is facing a budget shortfall of $45 million and annual deficits over the next five years. That's even after the city slashed the workforce by 20 percent over the last four years and negotiated $10 million in annual concessions from employees in each of the last three years.
The problems stem from weak property and sales tax revenues combined with escalating pension costs and slashed state redevelopment funding, city officials said.
At a packed City Hall meeting, Penman said budget officials had presented falsified budget documents to the City Council for 13 of the last 16 years, masking the city's deficit. Jim Morris, the mayor's chief of staff, said Wednesday that some inaccuracies in past budget reporting diminished the size of the problem but he did not believe officials deliberately misrepresented the data.
Four council members voted for the authorization, two opposed it, and one abstained.
It was not immediately clear when the city planned to file.
Marcus Nelson, owner of a local barber shop, wasn't surprised by the announcement, noting there are only three businesses on his block.
"It is kinda scary, knowing that the city doesn't have money," the 40-year-old said. "Small businesses know we can't make money, so it is kinda scary."
San Bernardino, which soared economically during the housing boom and has suffered since the bust, could become the second largest in the nation ever to file for bankruptcy. Stockton, with a population of nearly 300,000, became the biggest when it filed for Chapter 9 on June 28. The much smaller city of Mammoth Lakes voted for bankruptcy July 3.
Those two cities used a new state mediation process to contemplate bankruptcy over a period of several months — a stark contrast to San Bernardino's quick-fire decision under a dire cash crunch.
Before Stockton, a California city had not filed for bankruptcy since Vallejo in 2008.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.)
