California

San Bernardino has chosen a new finance director after more than a year of vacancy in the position.

Rainfall wasn’t enough to alleviate credit pressure on California water utilities, according to rating agencies.

Loma Linda University Medical Center received mixed messages from two rating agencies as it prepares what will be the municipal bond market’s largest junk rated deal of the year so far.

State and federal officials signed an agreement to remove four hydroelectric dams in California and Oregon at an estimated cost of $290 million, part of which will be paid through California bonds.

Four California energy agencies warned Tuesday of power outages as they released a joint plan for handling a natural gas shortage resulting from a leak at Southern California’s primary gas storage facility.

Berkeley Unified School District, Calif. will sell $18 million of general obligation bonds next week, buoyed by a Fitch Ratings AAA.

This week’s Los Angeles Department of Water and Power water revenue bond sale will benefit from an upgraded bond rating and a rate increase.

San Bernardino’s bankruptcy settlement agreement with pension bondholders is a credit negative, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Los Angeles emphasized the tech industry’s growing importance as an economic driver at its third regional investor’s conference.

Legal and political processes must lead to pension fixes in Chicago, California, and around the country, said leaders of an advocacy group dedicated to public sector pension reform.

The San Diego Chargers have proposed a financing plan for a $1.8 billion joint use stadium-convention center in downtown San Diego that includes the issuance of $1.15 billion of tax-exempt bonds backed by a hike in the city’s hotel tax.

San Bernardino, Calif., reached a settlement agreement that gives bondholders a major haircut that is still substantially better for them than the city originally proposed in its Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority could ask voters to approve an additional half cent sales tax in addition to extending one passed in 2008 to fund $120 billion of transportation projects.

Fitch Ratings’ recent guidance on school bond ratings won’t bring across-the-board higher ratings to California school bonds; the agency will require a legal opinion to consider such GO bonds to be special revenues in a bankruptcy case.

Junk-rated California hospital chain Verity Health received an outlook boost Wednesday, when Standard & Poor’s boosted its outlook to stable from negative while affirming its CCC rating.

The West Contra Costa Unified School District’s settlement of a lawsuit over parcel tax revenues is a potential credit hit for parcel tax levying school districts in California and a boost for charter school credits, Moody’s Investors Service said.

Fitch Ratings says that California school general obligation bonds meet its “high bar” to determine if the revenue backing bonds would be considered special revenues in a bankruptcy, and therefore more secure.

A Los Angeles utility rate increase aimed at reducing the city’s dependence on coal was deemed a credit positive by Moody’s Investors Service.

Californians are gearing up for election season in what may prove to be “the year of the initiative,” with two explicitly bond-related questions already qualified for the November ballot and several more of interest to public finance likely to follow.

An employee group at KNN Public Finance has bought back the California municipal advisory firm from its parent company, Zions Bank, citing the regulatory environment and its emphasis on duty of care to clients.