LA Times from 5 Sept
Rating agency Standard & Poor's announced Wednesday that it has suspended its ratings on the city of Compton's bonds, as the city has yet to get an audit firm to sign off on its financial statements from last year.
In June, the city's former audit firm, Mayer Hoffman McCann, refused to sign off on its financial statements and quit, citing allegations made by Mayor Eric Perrodin that waste, fraud and abuse of public funds may have contributed to the city's financial distress.
Atwater, California, is going broke under the weight of public employee costs, lost revenue and a stagnant economy, pushing it toward becoming the state’s fourth city to seek bankruptcy protection.
The city of 28,000, situated among Merced County’s dairies and almond groves about 100 miles (about 160 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco, has a $3.3 million deficit that may leave it insolvent before year’s end, according to budget documents.
Atwater’s City Council is set to vote Oct. 3 on a fiscal emergency declaration that would permit it to follow other California cities — Stockton, San Bernardino and Mammoth Lakes — into bankruptcy court. Across the state, the recession and the foreclosure crisis have depleted property-tax revenue at the same time municipalities are burdened with rising costs including pensions.
