Marysheva-Martinez says negotiations are worth continuing since both sides are making progress on the amount under consideration for collection.
In the new year, Town of Mammoth officials continue to negotiate with Mammoth Lakes Land Acquisition over the $42 million court judgment owed by the Town. The uncertainty over Town government money continues.
Financial advisor Marianna Marysheva-Martinez told Sierra Wave that the Town did get a response from MLLA to its last proposal on December 14th. Since then, Martinez said, the Town has scheduled a special closed session for January 10th to review the response and to draft the Town’s own counter proposal. Martinez said this will be the first time all five council members will be available to meet.
Earlier, Martinez had explained the process the Town continues to go through. She said they face three basic options. One, the settlement discussions now going on. Two, if talks fail the two sides will go to mediation. Three, the final step would be bankruptcy. Martinez made it clear that before the Town would ever consider bankruptcy, officials would have to fully exhaust other options which include current attempts to arrive at an agreement.
Martinez also explained that the Town’s payment of the debt could be handled through what’s called a judgment bond. The Town would borrow the money to pay MLLA. While Town officials had hoped to reach an outline of settlement by the end of last year, they still hope they can reach an agreed on plan with MLLA. Martinez said that talks are “worth continuing as long as both sides are making progress regarding the amount that will be paid and that’s still happening,” she said.
In other words, the Town and MLLA are apparently both making compromises toward an agreed upon payback amount and terms. It is still unknown when details will go public for discussion and input by citizens. Town Manager Dave Wilbrecht had suggested that any citizen with a definite view on the MLLA issue should talk to members of the Town Council.
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The bureaucrats responsible for this debacle should be in jail. Until criminal liability can be associated with the fraudulent risk of taxpayers’ money, a similar scenario will no doubt happen again.
Kleptocracy!
If you were making $4000 a week working at a task that you could make last as long as you want — would you hurry to complete the task???
One has to respect “…TML’s financial consultant…” for at least knowing where the treasure is buried….
Yada, yada, yada . . . Two days and nobody has commented on this breaking news release. So, let me try:
It looks to me like the TML’s financial consultant will have to continue her negotiations with MLLA (at $4000 a week, courtesy of the Town Council) a little longer, at least until she can land a more rewarding government gig somewhere/ANYWHERE else. Unfortunately for Marianna (and for the Town’s cash flow), she didn’t quite make it to the finals in her recent bid to land the city manager’s job in Tacoma, WA.
I’m sure that, sooner or later, she’ll hit pay dirt and say “Do svidaniya” to her Council benefactors. But then what will the Iron Lady and her Four Horsemen do to continue to postpone the final act of their seemingly endless, tragic opera?
Maybe they’ll send in their recently hired, $85,000-a-year, financial whiz kid (and, apparently, overnight computer genius at an additional $5,000-a-year) to “negotiate” with MLLA. (Does anyone even remember him?)
And, if worse comes to worse, they may even burn through another town manager. After all, at the Council’s pay scale, town managers are only 24-million-dimes-a-dozen (that’s $200,000-a-year each for anyone, especially on the Council and in its crack Finance Department) who may be arithmetically challenged) and there are a few also-rans still available from Tacoma’s recent recruitment.
yes our Government is Out of CONTROL..
GGW