These towns put themselves into "dictatorship" by their own corruption and cronyism.
Don't want a dictatorship? Bite the bullet and change the whole system into one that is sustainable OR...
raise the taxes to whatever obscene level is needed to fund the Democratic kleptocracy.
Short of that, deal with the dictatorship just like Greece is doing now.

Without doubt, recievership is the seizure of electoral powers and denial of the franchise. But haven't the CF voters abdicated? Still, if we believe that certain rights were "endowed by the Creator", does poor use, or no use, result in a loss? I don't think it is subject to "adverse possession".

Perhaps all it needed was a good newspaper. Perhaps voters who cared.

Democracy isn't necessarily a good thing on any scale or in any environment. This is recognized by Chapter 9 Bankruptcy law. Such a corrupt and badly damaged city will either be reorganized by a "dictator" receiver or a "dictator" bankruptcy judge. My preference is the latter since the unions will be unable to scream unfairness and blame it on a "conservative, corporate-controlled state" or whatever, but it all leads to the same place in the end, which was decided the moment the city signed its unsustainable, irrevocable union contracts.

Consult section 904 of the Federal bankruptcy code. A judge doesn't have nearly the scope dictatorial powers that have been assigned to a Rhode Island "receiver".

Beyond that, authoritarian government is not the pathway to guaranteed efficiency that some folks seem to think it is.