Degree of L.A.'s fiscal problems splits mayoral candidates

City Hall outsiders talk of a city on the brink, and Perry has adopted their more urgent tone. Garcetti and Greuel deny any imminent threat to solvency.

A virtual unknown straining to make his mark in the race for mayor of Los Angeles offered an alarming assessment of the city's finances. "We are actually on the brink of bankruptcy," Emanuel Pleitez, a tech executive and former aide to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, said in a recent debate. "This is not a joke."

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