The L.A. Times reports on how democracy failed:
This one-time shipyard city turned Bay Area commuter village is considering a move that is rare both in California and across the nation -- declaring bankruptcy.
A somber City Council prepared to vote this evening after putting the bankruptcy issue on the table earlier in the week during an emotional hearing that drew hundreds of concerned residents.
City Manager Joseph Tanner has recommended the council file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, allowing the city to renegotiate its debt, but also substantially reduce services for years to come.
For residents, the prospects are grim. Potholes left unfixed. Trees not trimmed. Longer waits for police.
Civic leaders blame the city's current money woes -- a looming $9.2-million shortfall -- on a downturn in the housing market and the high cost of providing public safety.
Police and firefighters account for 80% of Vallejo's budget, city officials say, due to ballooning overtime bills and lucrative union contracts that have boosted base salaries, benefits and retirement plans.
Vallejo was for generations a hard-knuckle but fiscally stable city, home to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, which provided jobs and a trove of tax revenue to the city.
But with the shipyard's closure in the mid-1990s, Vallejo, perched on the north shore of San Francisco Bay, evolved into a bedroom community of 117,000.
Vallejo today is a tale of two cities, with struggling old shipyard neighborhoods west of Interstate 80 bumping against new subdivisions of commuters to the east.
On the west side, many residents see the prospect of bankruptcy as the inevitable end to what's been a long slide.
Jackie Kane, a mother of three children ages 9 to 13, waited at a taco truck for lunch, just past a sign on the outskirts of town that proclaims Vallejo the "City of Opportunity."
She said life hasn't been the same since the shipyard closed.
"When they lost Mare Island it pretty much took the town away," said Kane, whose grandfather arrived in Vallejo with the Navy. "This place is like the bottom of the ghetto now. There's no money, the streets don't get fixed, the schools don't have counselors. If you have kids this is not the place to be."
The fallout in the coming months is expected to mean reduced library services, fewer recreation programs, rotating fire station closures and deferred maintenance to streets, parks and buildings.
Police, meanwhile, are advising residents to avoid calling 911 except for dire emergencies because there are simply not enough dispatchers to take the calls. Commanders say the troops will focus on only the most serious crimes.
Plans call for staff cuts that would eliminate 40 positions, cut salaries by 5% and lop off the 15% raises police and firefighters have seen since 2006.
The firefighters union in particular has become a lightning rod for blame among bitter local residents, particularly after news hit that 10 different fire department employees received salaries topping $200,000.
Gee,couldn't they find someone to be a fireman for cheaper than $200,000? This is an exciting time for libertarians: the coming nullification of union contracts,assets sales,and a limit on the growth of government.Having government workers vote for people who can overpay them is the road to Chapter 9 Bankruptcy.Here's the mission statement on
Vallejo's website:
The City of Vallejo celebrates its cultural and ethnic diversity, preserves its history and maritime heritage, cares for its children and their future, and provides cost effective quality services second to none.
That includes firemen at $200,000 a year.
