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The question you have to ask about the officially bankrupt city of Vallejo, and other California cities with similar financial profiles, is this: Didn't you know something was wrong when you realized you were spending 75 cents of every dollar in the general fund on public safety costs? In a broader sense, how can any city anywhere make a legitimate claim of vibrancy when so many essential social services are shortchanged? It seems we're about to find out in Vallejo, a city with a population of 117,000 whose City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to file Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection...

Vallejo has become the first city of its size in California to seek bankruptcy protection. The decision to file for bankruptcy came in a unanimous vote by the city council Tuesday night as hundreds of residents watched. The dramatic vote came despite a last-minute appeal by state Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, and an aide for Assemblywoman Noreen Evans for the city to avoid bankruptcy. Mayor Osby Davis said he had "turned over every rock he could find to find a solution" but none came and there is no longer an ability for the city to pay its debts. Vallejo...

Vallejo has become the first city in California to file for bankruptcy because it didn't have enough money to provide basic services. This is dreadful news for Vallejo - and its citizens - but it's also an ominous report for the rest of us. The city council's unanimous decision Tuesday night, which came after hours of impassioned public comment, represents a failure of Vallejo's police and firefighter unions to understand basic economic realities. The unions - whose members are among the highest-paid in the state - refused to allow the city to cut their pay. Perhaps they didn't believe that...

VALLEJO — With hundreds of concerned residents looking on, the Vallejo City Council voted unanimously late Tuesday to file for bankruptcy, making the city the first of its size to seek protection due to unaffordable labor contracts. The dramatic vote came despite a last-minute appeal by state Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, and an aide for Assemblywoman Noreen Evans for the city to avoid bankruptcy. Four council members — Michael Wilson, Tom Bartee, Hermie Sunga and Erin Hannigan — joined Mayor Osby Davis in switching in favor of filing for bankruptcy. In the past they had been part of a...

Vallejo's city manager advised the City Council on Friday to declare bankruptcy next week after weeks of negotiations with police and fire unions failed to turn around the city's economic tailspin. If the council votes Tuesday to file for Chapter 9 protection, the city of 117,000 people would be the largest in California to declare bankruptcy - and the first to do so because of long-term economic woes. City Manager Joseph Tanner made the recommendation after city officials scrambled for two months to fix the budget before the fiscal year ends on June 30, when the city faces a projected...

Vallejo will inch closer to financial ruin Tuesday when the City Council lets pass its do-or-die date to avert bankruptcy. City staff members have been unable to come up with a detailed, long-term financial plan because negotiations with the police and fire unions are still ongoing. The city is asking for steep concessions from the unions, whose members are among the highest paid in the Bay Area and whose salaries comprise about 74 percent of the city's budget. "We had hoped to have an agreement by April 22 to give to the council," said Mayor Osby Davis, who has sat...

While Vallejo's finances were plunging faster than a roller coaster at the Six Flags amusement park, the city's firefighters were going abalone diving, grilling tri-tip and drinking cocktails on the public's dime, records show.Under their contract, the firefighters union has been allowed since 2003 to charge the city 600 hours a year - at a cost of more than $24,000 annually - for union activities that were approved by the union's chief. The junkets included an annual Seafood Extravaganza at the fairgrounds, a 10-kilometer run ending with a party at the amusement park and a dunk tank at the Waterfront...

The city of Vallejo was in trouble long before James Moore bought a freshly butchered pig's head, mounted it on a Weber barbecue grill and wheeled it into a packed City Council meeting last week. "Vallejo has been hogtied by its police and fire unions," Moore, a local businessman, said later. "The unions are killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Do I need to bring a dead goose to next week's meeting? I hope not." Crippled by a free-falling economy, an inability to create tax revenue, management recklessness and a legacy of generous contracts for police officers and...

VALLEJO -- Vallejo's fire union has unanimously ratified a hotly debated four-month labor agreement aimed at keeping Vallejo out of bankruptcy court and finding a long-term solution to the city's fiscal crisis. Forty-six of the 78 members of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1186 approved the labor agreement in secret ballots cast Tuesday and Wednesday, said fire union president Kurt Henke. "It was unanimous," Henke said. "If people weren't in favor of it they would have shown up to vote no," he said. Some could not cast ballots because they were on duty, he said. Secret ballots cast...

VALLEJO -- A tentative labor agreement designed to keep Vallejo out of bankruptcy court calls for police and fire employees taking a 6.5 percent pay cut, the closure of two fire engine companies and fewer on-duty staff members. The tentative agreement, reached Thursday and released Friday evening, is designed to close a $6 million general fund shortfall. It also provides for a one-year contract extension to 2011, but only if the two sides can work out a long-range fiscal plan by April 22. "Execution of the agreement will allow the parties a short period of time to develop and begin...

VALLEJO -- Eleventh hour talks between city officials and public safety labor unions resulted in a tentative agreement today designed to keep Vallejo's coffers from running dry in a month, city and union officials said Thursday. Both sides held last-minute talks to salvage a deal Wednesday night and Thursday, hours before the council was set to vote on possibly filing for bankruptcy. Mayor Osby Davis revealed the existence of the tentative agreement shortly before entering a closed-door session with the council on labor negotiations. Vallejo firefighters union president Kurt Henke said "we have a framework of an agreement. The council...

Vallejo may decide to file for bankruptcy today, which is a dire and difficult situation for all who live, work and do business there. What tilts this story over into tragedy, however, is that Vallejo is only the first large city in California to find itself in such a mess. Expect many other cities in California - including perhaps your own - to be faced with the same disaster soon. What happened in Vallejo is a preview of what is slowly developing all over the state, and it can't be blamed on the crumbling housing market. Property values have eroded,...

Vallejo, Calif. (AP) -- Officials were expected to meet Tuesday night to discuss Vallejo's financial crisis that has it edging closer to declaring bankruptcy. Labor talks aimed at keeping Vallejo solvent broke down Monday, and top administrators recommended the City Council file for bankruptcy protection. Vallejo, a former Navy town northeast of San Francisco, faces a $6 million shortfall and officials say it will run out of money by the end of March. Chapter 9 bankruptcy would allow Vallejo temporary protection from creditors while a plan, subject to court approval, is devised to regain fiscal stability. The city would join...

The city of Vallejo is on the brink of becoming the first California city ever to declare bankruptcy, City Council members said Tuesday. Vallejo may run out of cash as early as March, council member Stephanie Gomes said. "Not only that, but now we have 20 police and fire employees retiring because they are afraid of not getting their payouts," Gomes said. "That means we have another few million dollars in payouts that we had not expected. So the situation is quite dire." Gomes said the situation has been building for more than a decade. "This has been happening for...

Boozy politicos, contested election results and a union leader claiming he was assaulted - the little city of Vallejo is looking more and more like its wacky cousin across the bay.The newest installment of the reality show known as Vallejo politics kicks off today, as City Councilman Gary Cloutier faces off against former Solano County Supervisor Osby Davis for a recount of the Nov. 6 mayoral election that Cloutier won by only five votes.The recount, which Davis is paying for, is expected to take at least three days - with Cloutier, Davis or their supporters looking on at every turn.Meanwhile,...

Vallejo -- Openly gay Vallejo City Councilman Gary Cloutier won the mayor's race by four votes, elections officials said this afternoon, just hours after the councilman apologized for his weekend arrest for public intoxication after drinking too much at a bar in Palm Springs. Cloutier beat former Solano County supervisor Osby Davis by a hair-thin margin of 5,722 to 5,718 votes, according to final results from the Nov. 6 election. Assistant registrar of voters Lindsay McWilliams said he expects to certify the results as final on Monday. The mayor's race has been in a virtual dead heat since Nov. 6,...

VALLEJO, Calif. (AP) - When Melvin Ainsworth went for his routine stroll on the Carquinez Bridge, the last thing he expected was to end up with six stitches above his left eye, a swollen lip and a sprained wrist. Without warning, a Vallejo police officer tackled the 77-year-old Crockett man from behind on Saturday morning, he says. "They ruined my 227th trip across the bridge," Ainsworth said. "The second half of the trip, I rode in an ambulance." Ainsworth later learned that a tipster called police to report that a man in his 20s or 30s wearing a San Francisco...

Arson?By J.M. BROWN and RACHEL RASKIN-ZRIHEN , Times-Herald staff writersAuthorities say a two-alarm blaze that damaged portions of Vallejos only synagogue Thursday was likely the work of arsonists, leaving members to wonder if they were the target of a hate crime. While the blaze at Congregation Bnai Israel was tentatively classified as suspicious in origin, Vallejo Fire Department spokesman Bill Tweedy said it appeared the cause was probably arson. Tweedy also said it appears more than one crime occurred in connection with the fire, but he could not confirm if vandalism or burglary played a role. He would not comment...

Police: Vallejo Girl May Have Been Kidnapped POSTED: 5:15 PM PST November 5, 2003 Vallejo police say they are looking for a 13 or 14-year-old girl who may have been kidnapped around 1:35 p.m. Wednesday. Police say the girl was walking along the 300 block of McGrue Avenue when a late-model black pickup with a covered bed and tinted windows pulled up alongside her. The driver was wearing a ski mask, police say, and the girl was forced into the truck as it drove away. The girl is described as white, wearing a light blue shirt and black pants with...

<p>Admin moderator here. If you are interested in seeing the original article, hit the history link above. However, I wanted to put here some information that I think is more interesting. I will be adding to it as I pull some more information together. Please stand by.</p> <p>The original article was posted on Sierra Times at this location: http://www.sierratimes.com/03/05/20/ar_sara_worden.htm.</p> <p>It is a bogus story. Sierra Times did not validate its sources. Astraea Kelly is a communist labor organizer and is using a blog on Rense.com to try to unionize part-time employees at Kaiser-Permanente in Vallejo.</p>