Orange : City Asks State for Bankruptcy Mercy

The City Council, hoping to distinguish Orange from the clutch of cities caught up in the county bankruptcy, sent a letter to Sacramento on Tuesday pleading for mercy.

“In light of the $5 million the state Legislature has already diverted from this organization . . . since 1991, the city of Orange feels it has already given more than its fair share toward solving the financial problems of other units of government,” read the letter signed by Mayor Joanne Coontz.

Gov. Pete Wilson, state Sen. John R. Lewis (R-Orange) and 11 others in the Legislature will find copies of the letter in their in-boxes.

Coontz said she was prompted to draft the letter after attending about 55 meetings on the bankruptcy recovery issue. Those ended Monday with a plan to take funds from transportation agencies and possibly force cities to forgive their losses.

“Cities are just agreeing to this because they don’t want a bite taken from their sales taxes,” Coontz said, referring to earlier plans that would have raided city coffers. “We just want [state officials] to understand the long travail cities have gone through.”

The letter outlines four “principles” the city wants legislators to keep in mind as they consider recovery efforts to deal with the $1.7-billion loss suffered by the county in the December bankruptcy.

Topping the list is a request for no new taxes, fees, charges or rate increases (including “backdoor” mandatory rate increases).

Other principles state that “municipal revenues should not be used to bail out the criminal acts of the former county treasurer” and “the largest portion of the solution should come from within Orange County government itself.” The fourth urges that cities retain a fairly high standing when legislators divvy up any proceeds from litigation.