Maywood Loses S&P Rating

Standard & Poor’s Wednesday withdrew its BBB rating on the Maywood Public Financing Authority’s Series 2008A lease revenue bonds because of a lack of timely information from the city of Maywood.

Maywood made waves when the City Council voted to dismiss the city’s employees and to contract services out, effective July 1, largely because it was unable to obtain general liability insurance coverage.

The insurance issue stemmed from a series of legal judgments against the city’s police force. Maywood contracted with the Los Angeles County sheriff for police services, with other city services provided by Bell, its neighbor in southeast Los Angeles County.

Bell soon became infamous in its own right, after the Los Angeles Times revealed how much it was paying city officials: almost $800,000 in the case of chief administrative officer Robert Rizzo. Rizzo resigned, as did two other top city officials, including the $376,288-per-year assistant city manager, Angela Spaccia. Spaccia has been serving as acting city manager for Maywood.

Standard & Poor’s had put Maywood on CreditWatch with negative implications June 25.

“In particular, the CreditWatch placement reflects our view of the recent council vote to contract out all city services to neighboring governmental entities, including public safety, financial operations, records management, parks and recreation, and public works activities,” Standard & Poor’s wrote at the time. Standard & Poor’s supplied the only rating for the 2008 bonds.

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