At best, just incompetent
Gary Katz is the Principal of Downtown Capital Partners (based in Tarrytown, New York), a firm which specializes in the trading of distressed debt.
In essence, he loans money to bankrupt companies.
He is a former bankruptcy attorney for Skadden Arps, a prestigious New York City law firm. He is also a graduate of Harvard Law School.
In short, while not an expert in municipal bankruptcy, it’s familiar territory. And as a Sheet subscriber, he has followed Mammoth’s legal travails with interest.
And he is very dubious about Mammoth’s ability to get into bankruptcy.
As he said via a telephone interview this week, “Bankruptcy is not something that happens overnight or as a result of one or two problems.
“Everyone tries to blame their troubles on just one thing, but if you look deeper, you’ll find it’s the culmination of years and years of mismanagement and neglect. At worst, the mismanagement is deliberate. At best, it’s just basic incompetence.
“Orange County’s bankruptcy [in the ‘90s] was a unique Madoff-type problem with bad derivatives trades … But generally, there are municipalities around the country that have made errors similar to Mammoth’s. And the vast majority of them have not filed for bankruptcy. They make painful political decisions. Careers are ruined. But they take their medicine and move on the best they can.
“If you have 10 cops and have to fire eight of them, or shut down your only hospital or fire department, that’s one thing, but if you don’t have to do that, you’re just the victim of really bad decision – both about the proposed project and then in not reaching a settlement in regard to the judgment.”
As Katz said, the strategy (some of which the Town has used) is to cut your budget and then threaten bankruptcy to negotiate better terms. While acknowledging he has limited knowledge of the case based simply upon newspaper reports, he gave this best guess:
“Thirty million over 15 years at 4% interest would be a great deal for them [the Town]” he concluded.
That’s what “Friends” are for … MUSD Superintendent Rich Boccia (left) honored former Town Councilmember and Mayor Skip Harvey as a “Friend of Public Education” last Thursday evening.
Thought the Skip Harvey recognition as a “Friend of Public Education” was fairly hilarious. The Ice Rink deal has to go down as one of the Town’s greatest financial boondoggles, and the entity that ate your lunch, Mammoth Unified, has the nerve to reward you for being a dupe … and you accept!!As Rich Boccia said when presenting the plaque: “I had the opportunity to work with Skip, who was Mayor at the time, and he helped us through headaches and challenges, but also took the time to introduce me to the Council and many wonderful townspeople,” Boccia recalled.
“I’m honored,” Harvey stated. “[The ice rink] was a collaborative achievement, and a huge step, especially for the kids. I’m very proud of that.”
As far as the air subsidy issue goes, it’s time for Rick Wood to look in the mirror, make the tough decision, and tell his fellow runners that funding for the Whitmore Track Project will have to wait. That $450,000 pledged to the track project is needed for the air subsidy. We can’t fund both. We’ve got 25 years and untold millions invested in the airport. Operate it or shut it down. And have the balls to defend that decision either way.
At the very least, give me some financial analysis showing me that building a track will drive more business long-term than continued air service. Then again, I cringe at the thought of Council contracting out another $500,000 consultant. Never mind.
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In our recent follow-ups from the Town’s budget balancing measures and passage of the 2012-2013 fiscal year budget, one thing that escaped mention (until now) is some errant data in an attachment to a budget balancing Agenda Bill that has since been corrected by the Mammoth Lakes Police Department.
Chief Dan Watson said that instead of losing two sworn police officer positions as a result of the budget that was approved by the Town Council on June 20, the MLPD will lose only one officer.
After that report was prepared, the Police Officers Association (POA) agreed to additional concessions totaling more than 16%, according to Chief Dan Wason. The cut position is for Traffic Enforcement Officer. It is unknown at this time whether the School Resource Officer (SRO) will continue or be reassigned to patrol duties in an effort to reduce overtime.
Watson added that if the decision is to no longer have a SRO, the officer in that position will return to patrol. An officer has accepted a tentative job offer with another police department which means he will most likely leave in 2-3 weeks, which means that no one will be laid off. -Geisel
And a correction to our recent story on the Long Valley Hydrologic Advisory Committee (The Sheet, June 30, page 8). Ormat representative Charlene Wardlow wrote in, “Glad you could attend the meeting. One correction: you note the new CD-4 project will be at Shady Rest Park. The well field will be in that area, but the power plant is proposed up by the Southern California Edison substation, just north of the existing facilities at Casa Diablo.” Apologies to readers for any confusion. –Geisel
thanks for calling out that banner. saw it during the parade. that was embarrassing. wtf?
Well said!
One thing you left out of the Chief Watson section, is the fact that he will retain his insane annual salary of over $300K. He lost not one cent of his salary in the budget cutting in order to “balance the budget”.
I truly wonder how the town leaders are going to answer to the states bankruptcy investigating attorneys, how a town of 7500 people, warrants paying their Police Chief the insane salary that they do. Let us not forget all the 100’s of thousands of dollars this town has spent in the past year alone on attorney consultant fees because it does not have one of it’s own. There is more but you all catch the jest of this.
Chapt 9 aint gonna happen. When that goes down, the leaders are back to square one. Oh, and the interest to MLLA just keeps on ticking higher while all this stalling crap goes down.
Tick Tick Tick…..
Rick,
I’d like to correct a number of inaccurate comments you have posted.
My salary is nowhere near $300,000. Never has been and never will be.
I agreed to the same 16% in concessions that the Police Officers Association agreed to.
My pension from Los Angeles, for which I worked over 28 years and contributed 7% of my salary, is less than 50% of what you stated it is in an earlier comment.
Marianna Marysheva Martinez never said in the Council meeting where the budget was approved that two officers would be terminated. And, I did not leave the Council meeting immediately afterwards. I stay to the end of all Council meetings.
Feel free to contact me at the Police station if you would like to discuss this any further. If you are going to post comments about the Police Department or me I’m sure you would like to have accruate information.
Chief Watson,
I will give you the opportunity to post up and let us know, for the record, what your salary is. As a Public Servant, it is totally accessible to the Public and can be found here :
The approved Town of Mammoth Lakes 2011- 2012 Budget (Found here in the PDF File: http://www.ci.mammoth-lakes.ca.us/index.aspx?NID=192) which clearly includes the Public Safety/Police Department and your Salary which is sub located within the Police Administration Section and was approved by the Town Council last year.
Again, it is public knowledge Chief Watson and anyone can access it. So please verify what was approved last year as your annual salary, for the record.
As far as your comment regarding the the Town Council Mtg of June 20, 2012 which Marianna made her2012-2013 budget comments and then you in fact departed, it is all right here on video. I was there and observed you depart through the double doors and never returned.
Here is the streamlined video: http://mammothlakes.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=185
Notice how you are still leaning on the blue podium at 2:08:14 and then you are gone at 2:29:10
Transparency Chief Watson. Let us see and read the real numbers from you. Remember, it is all totally accessible to the Public either on the web or in the town finance offices upon request.
Oh, Chief Watson, please indicate the Town of Mammoth Lakes budget file web page as your reference.
Again, you are a tax payer supported Public Official, so post what is in the latest TOML approved 2012-2013 Budget.
Thank you sir.
Rick,
I was unable to find any salary information on the link you provided and the salary information contained on the Town’s website is outdated. You are correct that my salary is paid by the taxpayers and therefore public information. My current salary, effective July 1, 2012, is $183,548. That does not include benefits.
I remained at the June 20 Council meeting until the end. I can be seen seen in the video standing at the rear of the room when Marianna is talking about budget reductions. Shortly after she mentions the “possible elimination of two positions” (not the termination of two officers), I can be seen moving out of view. What the video doesn’t show is about half the Council chambers. I normally am seated on the north side underneath the windows and outside the view of the camera. I was in the Chambers from the beginning of the Council meeting until the end with the exception of once or twice going into the hallway for a private conversation.
I again invite you to contact me at the Police station where I will answer any questions you or anyone else has. I’ll leave all future comments to those who contact me and will not comment on this matter any more on this website.
Allow me to elaborate on what the TOML has budgeted for the current Chief of Police for the 2011-2012 & 2012-2013 Budgets.
2011-2012
Base Salary $175,000 Annual
Paid Benefits $129,000 Annual
$304,000 total allotted for the Chief Of Police of Mammoth Lakes
2012-2013
Base Salary $183,548 Annual
Paid Benefits $132,000 Annual
$315,548 total allotted for the Chief of Police of Mammoth Lakes
What in God’s name is in the annual “Paid Benefits” component of over $130K in this allotted budget for the Chief of Police???
How many other outlandish “Paid Benefits” packages are there out there within the TOML’s payroll that could be applied to this MLLA payment that the Bankruptcy Court most certainly is going to scrutinize with a microscope?
I have no need to contact you Mr. Watson as this is not a personal front towards you. Rather, an example of the fiscal irresponsibility that continues within the Administration of the TOML.
PS: It is all available Mr. Watson. Just got to know how to dig and prod through the files to find it. Seems someone within the Town Admin has done their homework in assuring that it takes time to locate all this “Public” information.
You guys are missing the real issue. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Mammoth is the only town of its size in CA with its own PD. The Town could cut the PD in half and still have twice the PD necessary to serve the population of Mammoth. The Town doesn’t have its own Fire Dept. It doesn’t need its own PD. It can contract for PD service like any other sane town of this size. I worked for cities much larger than Mammoth. We contracted for what we needed, had the benefit of 24/7 service, no officers in coffee shops, no personnel issues, no “benefits” issues,and also had cute little black and whites with our city name.