Longtime Alipacers will remember this sanctuary.

The L.A. County community, facing a $450,000 budget deficit, plans to lay off its employees, disband its Police Department and contract its operations to the Sheriff's Department and the neighboring city of Bell. Experts say it is the only city in the state to take such drastic action.
June 23, 2010|By Ruben Vives, Jeff Gottlieb and Hector Becerra, Los Angeles Times

Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles TimesMaywood, a small working-class community south of downtown Los Angeles, plans to lay off all its employees, disband its Police Department and turn over its entire municipal operations to a neighbor — an action that appears to be without precedent among California cities.

Several cities in the state have said that they are close to bankruptcy because of the sharp drop in sales and property tax revenues caused by the deepest recession in decades. But experts who track California cities say Maywood is the only case they know of in which a city has dismissed all top positions except for the city manager, city attorney and elected officials. Under the plan adopted by the City Council on Monday night, council members would continue to be paid to set policy, but all services would be contracted out.

"Most cities would generally maintain a certain workforce," said Sam Olivito, head of the California Contract Cities Assn. Vallejo, in Northern California, filed for bankruptcy in 2008, but City Hall and the Police Department continued to operate independently.

Maywood officials said they had no choice but to adopt the drastic plan.

Maywood's $10.1-million general fund budget has a deficit of at least $450,000, officials said. Beyond that, the city has been unable to obtain insurance because of a history of lawsuits, many involving its Police Department, which also patrols Cudahy. Operating without insurance would make even routine government services highly risky.

"We're limited on our choices and limited on what we can do," Councilman Felipe Aguirre said. "We don't want to file for bankruptcy. We don't want to disappear as a city."

Aguirre said filing for bankruptcy was not an option for Maywood because its problems were related specifically to insurance coverage and not cash flow.

But during a contentious City Council meeting that stretched late into Monday night, opponents of the plan accused council members of managing the city incompetently by failing to maintain the city's insurance coverage.

"You single-handedly destroyed the city," Lizeth Sandoval, the city treasurer, told the City Council.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/23 ... d-20100623