"Brokeland" talk premature?

Word that Oakland, the eighth largest city in California with a population of some 350,000, may file for bankruptcy is apparently premature if today's San Francisco Chronicle report refuting yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle report is to be believed.

Oakland City Council members may have privately bandied about the possibility of the city filing for bankruptcy, an unusually rare event in U.S. history. But none says it's likely, and Mayor Ron Dellums virtually ruled it out Tuesday.

"Bankruptcy is not a strategy that has been seriously considered, nor is it being pursued at this point," he said in a statement.

Council members Jean Quan, Ignacio De La Fuente and Pat Kernighan each said in interviews that although the topic had been mentioned as a possibility, it was not seriously discussed in their closed meetings. They also have not been briefed by staff members about the possible implications of entering bankruptcy.

The pending extraction of almost $20 million in property and gasoline taxes by the State of California to help square its budget isn't helping the situation any. According to this story at NBC, Mayor Ron Dellums is in Washington to see how the city can avoid "pulling a Vallejo".