While much of the talk about the city declaring bankruptcy has faded, at least one downtown law firm continues to look at it as a potential source of business.
Latham and Watkins, one of the premier firms in the region, has prepared a 46-page Power Point presentation outlining the possibilities and limits of a city going bankrupt and citing examples of jurisdictions that have gone into and come out of bankruptcy.
Attorneys with the firm met last week with Controller Wendy Greuel. She said she had not requested the meeting and had no comments about what was told her.
The firm’s paper details the legal requirements and what can or cannot be accomplished under bankruptcy.
However, missing from the presentation was the most important point to elected officials – the political fallout.
In nearly all cases where a jurisdiction has declared bankruptcy, its politicians have been voted out of office in the next election.
For some Los Angeles city officials, the troubled transition to Google’s Gmail has not been worth the cost.
With several officials threatening to withhold their support for the complete transition to the system, a number of Google competitors are salivating at the prospect of taking over the Los Angeles city e-mail system.
It is expected to come to a head this week, when the full City Council gets a report on whether Google is willing to pick up what could be hundreds of thousands in extra costs incurred when the city was unable to transfer over completely to Gmail.
Councilmen Paul Koretz, Bernard Parks and Dennis Zine said they will oppose any further dealings with Google unless it picks up the costs associated with running two e-mail systems.
“If this was a car, the company would have given us a warranty and fixed it,” Zine said. “We haven’t even driven this off the lot and it’s broken down and I am not hearing they will help.”
