Richmond officials spent most of 2015 dancing around the city's severe financial plight. As its credit rating dropped to junk bond status, they acted as if everything was hunky-dory.

Meanwhile, we learned that City Manager Bill Lindsay had in May 2014 blocked release of a forecast predicting the city's financial fall. The report warned of mounting general fund shortfalls as expenditures continued to exceed revenues.

Read the full editorial on the Contra Costa Times.