Mammoth Lakes

Mammoth Lakes hardly fits the profile of other cities that have recently plunged into bankruptcy. It was not pensions or plummeting property values or questionable accounting practices that pushed the tiny mountain resort town over the edge: It was a $43-million court judgment in a lawsuit brought by a developer after the town tried to back out of an agreement. The town finally reached a tentative settlement agreement in the case last month, but not before filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection.

Forecasters are warning vacationers as far west as Houston to keep track of Hurricane Issac. The storm is expected to make landfall late Tuesday . . . . Flight cancellations due to the storm were well into the thousands by late Monday. Some airlines are giving passengers nearly a year to rebook while others are requiring passengers to be on planes as quickly as Friday. George Hobica of AirfareWatchdog.com  says the process should be standardized. “It's not the passengers' fault that a hurricane happened, ” he told the Associated Press . . . . The Lake Tahoe Autumn Food and Wine Festival starts Saturday and runs through through Labor Day. Go to www.TahoeFoodandWine.com . . . . Three days of fly-fishing classes,  beginners to advanced, will be offered at a fly-fishing fair at Mammoth Lakes , Sept.

JUNE LAKE, Calif. - A dark cloud has enveloped this sunny lakeside town in the Eastern Sierra ever since the owner of the nearby June Mountain ski resort announced it would not open this coming season. This town of about 650 people on the shores of an aspen- and pine-ringed lake depends on the spending of anglers in the summer. But wintertime ski visitors support a much bigger portion of the local economy. The owner of the resort said it had lost money for decades and declined to give a target date for reopening.

SACRAMENTO - San Bernardino, Stockton and Mammoth Lakes all screwed up and became bankrupt. But the rest of us shouldn't get sanctimonious. For starters, the federal government under President George W. Bush really screwed up by fighting two long wars while cutting taxes. That sort of fiscal management is guaranteed to run up a huge national debt. The state government in Sacramento - under Democratic and Republican governors - cut taxes and increased spending. Same outcome: a colossal deficit.

The San Bernardino City Council postponed a vote Monday to declare a fiscal emergency, which would allow the city to move forward with filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection without going through months of state-mandated mediation. The city's flirtation with bankruptcy began last week when the council confronted a fiscal report showing it faced a $46-million budget shortfall and might not be able to make its August payroll. Interim City Manager Andrea Travis-Miller told the council Monday that a "host of creditors" had contacted the city by telephone, some of them threatening to sue, after the council voted last Tuesday to authorize moving toward bankruptcy.

This isn't one of those cushy Fish-Carltons like those über-expensive Montana trout resorts. Hot Creek Ranch in Mammoth Lakes has nine no-frills cabins whose biggest amenity is one of the sweetest spring-fed creeks you'll ever see, right out your front door. You and other guests will have a two-mile stretch of it all to yourselves. Isn't that the ultimate VIP perk, anyway? Plus, it's an easy five-hour drive from L.A. The bed As noted, nothing fancy. The two-room cabins come in various configurations, but most sleep four if you include sleeper-couches.

The whole point of a state or local government keeping money in reserve for fiscal emergencies is to have it on hand for - well, for fiscal emergencies. What does an emergency look like? It could take the form of an earthquake or other natural disaster that creates a need for immediate rescue expenditures while shutting down revenue-producing businesses for weeks, months or longer. Or it could come in the shape of economic collapse. Or in some form we can't currently imagine. Money socked away in reserve, often called a "rainy-day fund," can help the struggling city, county or state continue to operate during the emergency.

Facing the same financial stressors that pushed San Bernardino toward bankruptcy, cities across California are slashing day-to-day services and taking other drastic actions to skirt a similar fiscal collapse. For some, it may not be enough. San Bernardino on Tuesday became the third California city to seek bankruptcy protection in the last month and, while no one expects the state to be consumed by municipal insolvencies, other cities teeter on the abyss. PHOTOS: California cities in bankruptcy "There are likely to be more in the future, but it's hard to know, since a lot of struggling cities may manage to work things out," said Michael Coleman, a fiscal policy advisor for the California League of Cities.

The HighSierra town of Mammoth Lakes said Monday that it filed for bankruptcy because it cannot afford to pay a $43-million breach-of-contract judgment in a lawsuit brought against it by a developer. In a prepared statement, Mammoth Lakes officials said "bankruptcy, unfortunately, is the only option left" for the town, whose largest creditor, Mammoth Lakes Land Acquisition, had won a state court order requiring full payment by June 30, 2012. Facing a judgment nearly three times the size of its annual operating budget and a $2.8-million shortfall in its 2011-12 fiscal year, the town had already cut many services and asked employees to take reductions in pay. Compounding problems, the adjacent Mammoth Mountain ski resort was forced to lay off 70 full-time employees last year because of a dearth of snow.

Re "Uphill battle with the DWP," June 29 The article tells of a possible water-rate increase of $20 a year because the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power had to expand its remediation of the Owens River. Now we find that the DWP is suing the Mammoth Community Water District because it uses 1% of the water the DWP is entitled to because it owns the water in Mammoth Creek. Really, I'm going to be almost ashamed to be a tourist from L.A. on my holiday in Mammoth Lakes this year.