Mammoth Lakes, Calif., could slash its police force to help bolster its post-bankruptcy finances, an official with the resort town in the state's Sierra Nevada Mountains said on Wednesday, according to a Reuters report yesterday. The city of 8,000 residents spends about a quarter of its $16 million annual budget on its police department, and the cuts would leave Mammoth Lakes' police department with 10 sworn officers and three civilian employees. The savings would help the city pay $2 million annually as part of a $29.5 million settlement agreement with a property developer. The developer had been awarded a $43 million judgment against the city over a property dispute. Saying that it could not afford the judgment, Mammoth Lakes became the second city in the most populous U.S. state to file for chapter 9 protection from its creditors this year. Mammoth Lakes follows on the heels of Stockton, a city of nearly 300,000 residents in California's Central Valley, in filing for bankruptcy. San Bernardino, a city of 210,000 residents east of Los Angeles, was the third California city to file for chapter 9 protection this year and Atwater, a Central Valley city of 28,000, is contemplating a bankruptcy filing.
