A key San Bernardino bondholder and opponent of the California city's proposed plan to exit bankruptcy offered this week to delay some proceedings in the case the wake of last week's devastating attack, Reuters reported on Friday. Luxembourg-based bank EEPK, at odds with the city over its proposal to pay a penny on the dollar for nearly $50 million in pension obligation bonds, offered to push back a key hearing set for later this month. The city, now in its fourth year of navigating a thorny municipal bankruptcy, declined the offer in order to keep the case on track. The December 2 shooting thrust San Bernardino's police force into the national spotlight, as its chief and officers responded to what the FBI considers an act of terrorism, possibly inspired by the Islamic State, and one of the deadliest armed attacks on U.S. soil in several years. San Bernardino's police budget has been cut 15 percent to $59.9 million for the current fiscal year from the $70 million spent the year before the city went into bankruptcy in August 2012. The bankruptcy, among the longest running in U.S. history, was the result of the 2008 financial and housing foreclosure crises as well as years of budget mismanagement. While other areas of the country have solidly rebounded from the recession, San Bernardino has been much slower to bounce back and remains among the poorest cities of its size in California. The city's police have gone from about 350 sworn officers in 2009 to 290. The city has also slashed police pensions and overtime and wants to introduce a salary cap.
