How a vicious circle of self-interest sank a California city

tomdavis · Nov 14, 2012

As a resident of California I've watched city after city file for bankruptcy. The article below is a fascinating study of just how corrupt our local governments have become.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/13/us-bernardino-bankrupt-idUSBRE8AC0HP20121113

How a vicious circle of self-interest sank a California city

... Yet on close examination, the city's decades-long journey from prosperous, middle-class community to bankrupt, crime-ridden, foreclosure-blighted basket case is straightforward â and alarmingly similar to the path traveled by many municipalities around America's largest state. San Bernardino succumbed to a vicious circle of self-interests among city workers, local politicians and state pension overseers

hughb · Nov 15, 2012

Wow, according to wikipedia, out of the top 10 employers in San Bernardino, 8 are government or government related. The only two private sector employers were Wells Fargo and Stater Brothers.

Amazon is planning to open a distribution center there sometime soon.

nutmeg · Nov 15, 2012

Those three cities that filed for bk in CA are a different/unique type of municipality, for the life of me I can't remember the term but I get the impression this is not a good form of gov't.

tomdavis · Nov 15, 2012

Quote from nutmeg:

Those three cities that filed for bk in CA are a different/unique type of municipality, for the life of me I can't remember the term but I get the impression this is not a good form of gov't.

The problem in California is corrupt politicians, public employee union thugs and their crooked fund managers. They all worked together to suck the town dry.

Blaming the legal form of the municipality is like blaming the bank for a bank robbery. The one to blame is the bank robber. Bad people do bad things.

Scataphagos · Nov 15, 2012

Quote from tomdavis:

"... The problem in California is corrupt politicians, public employee union thugs and their crooked fund managers. They all worked together to suck the town dry.

Aren't we now in the process of doing the same thing on a Federal level?

nutmeg · Nov 15, 2012

I found it. It's calle a charter city.

From wiki

For example, in California, cities which have not adopted a charter are organized by state law. Such a city is called a General Law City, which will be managed by a 5-member city council. A city organized under a charter may choose different systems, including the "strong mayor" or "city manager" forms of government.[1][2]

One example of abuse of the charter system was in Bell, California. The charter was created after a lit_tle-no_ticed spe_cial elec_tion, where few voters understood what becoming a charter city meant. After a charter was approved, state laws limiting city salary no longer applied and City Manager Robert Rizzo gave himself a salary of $1.5 million for managing a city of about 36,000 people.[3]

As of June 2008, 112 of California's 478 cities are charter cities. A few examples include Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, and Irvine.[4]

tomdavis · Nov 15, 2012

Quote from nutmeg:

I found it. It's calle a charter city.

From wiki

For example, in California, cities which have not adopted a charter are organized by state law. Such a city is called a General Law City, which will be managed by a 5-member city council. A city organized under a charter may choose different systems, including the "strong mayor" or "city manager" forms of government.[1][2]

One example of abuse of the charter system was in Bell, California. The charter was created after a lit_tle-no_ticed spe_cial elec_tion, where few voters understood what becoming a charter city meant. After a charter was approved, state laws limiting city salary no longer applied and City Manager Robert Rizzo gave himself a salary of $1.5 million for managing a city of about 36,000 people.[3]

As of June 2008, 112 of California's 478 cities are charter cities. A few examples include Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, and Irvine.[4]

I live in Newport Beach and I'm adjacent to Irvine and Huntington Beach. I know these cities well. The charter is not what creates the problem. The probem is corrupt politicians, union thugs and their crooked money managers. Bad people do bad things.

nutmeg · Nov 15, 2012

Quote from tomdavis:

I live in Newport Beach and I'm adjacent to Irvine and Huntington Beach. I know these cities well. The charter is not what creates the problem. The probem is corrupt politicians, union thugs and their crooked money managers. Bad people do bad things.

i'll take your word for it.