During the course of the last 7 years, the city lost its entire reserve, failed to maintain enough revenues to pay for its insurance and lost its coverage, and is now a shadow of a fully-functional city.
It all started by helping out a neighbor with a police contract that was well conceived but poorly managed. Then, a string of inconsistent hirings and rapid departures of staff drained the city of experience and leadership.
In just a few years, they had six interim city managers; three finance directors, city attorneys, and police chiefs. They held three regular elections, a recall election, and a special election.
It was a mess. And still is.
From the Los Angeles Times:
This summer, the small city of Maywood made national headlines when it laid off most of its workers, disbanded the Police Department and contracted most city services to the neighboring city of Bell
Maywood’s move was quickly overshadowed by the salary scandal in Bell, which resulted in the indictments of eight current and former city officials on charges of public corruption. Now Maywood is working to extricate itself from Bell and rebuild its own city government.
But an examination into how Maywood found itself in this position offers a window into the struggles of this group of small, largely working-class communities that straddle the 710 Freeway southeast of downtown L.A.