“Nobody does squat for you with Calpers,” said John Cussins, Loyalton’s retired maintenance foreman, who now serves on the City Council. “I contacted every agency possible. To me, it’s just unbelievable that there isn’t some kind of help out there with the legal side of things. It leaves us at the mercy of the city and Calpers.”

Mr. Cussins said he had a severe stroke last year and was recently told he had Parkinson’s disease. He needs continuing care and said he might not be able to afford his health insurance if his pension were cut. Every time the pension issue comes up at City Council meetings, he is told to leave because, as a retiree, he is deemed to have a conflict of interest.

“I’d like to see somebody go to jail for this,” he said.

Calpers has total assets of $290 billion, so an unpaid bill of $1.6 million would hardly be a deathblow. But if Calpers gave one struggling city a free ride, others might try the same thing, causing political problems. Palo Alto may have lots of money, but its taxpayers still do not want to pay retirees who once plowed the snow or picked up the trash in far-off Loyalton.

“I think this is all about precedent setting,” Mr. McGee said.

In September, Calpers sent “final demand” letters to Loyalton and two other entities, the Niland Sanitary District and the California Fairs Financing Authority. The Niland Sanitary District has struggled with bill collections, and the fairs financing authority was disbanded several years ago when the state cut its funding. Both entities stopped sending their required contributions to Calpers in 2013 but have continued to allow Calpers to administer their pension plans.