Hints of what happened during three months of tense negotiations between the city of Stockton and its creditors as the city struggled to avoid bankruptcy are beginning to trickle out -- and the city is eager to reveal more details, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday. Stockton's city manager, Bob Deis, told the Stockton Record that the city would ask a bankruptcy judge to make records from the three-month confidential mediation public to show how Wall Street attorneys behaved behind closed doors. After failing to reach compromises with some of its largest debt-holders, Stockton on June 28 became the nation's largest city to have ever filed for bankruptcy protection. New York-based Assured Guaranty, which insures $161 million worth of debt the city has stopped paying down, issued a scathing statement criticizing the city for seeking bankruptcy protection, accusing it of shirking its debt.
