California

Hercules, Calif., said it has tentatively settled a $4 million lawsuit brought by Ambac Assurance Corp. over a default by the city's redevelopment agency.

LOS ANGELES — La Mirada, a city of 50,000 southeast of downtown Los Angeles, on Friday received a downgrade from Moody's Investors Service to A1 from Aa3 on $13.6 million of outstanding lease revenue bonds after officials declared a fiscal emergency.

Several bond lawyers said they were pleased the IRS settled a tax dispute over a $10.2 million of BABs issued by Half Moon Bay, Calif., in 2009 by reducing its subsidy payment from the federal government to 29% from 35% of interest costs.

SAN FRANCISCO — In an attempt to reassure some investors, Stockton, Calif., officials said Thursday that bonds tied to its utilities will be undamaged by the city's effort to restructure its general fund debts as it tries to avoid bankruptcy.

Half Moon Bay, Calif., has settled a tax dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over $10.9 million of Build America Bonds it issued in 2009 by agreeing to make a one-time payment of $174,000 and to reduce its subsidy payment to 29% from 35% of interest cost over the life of the bonds.

The California state controller’s office launched a two-month investigation in Riverside on Monday that they characterized as a routine review of a transportation project.

Santa Ana, Calif., and Orange County Fire Authority leaders on Monday signed a contract to have the county fire department absorb the city’s 128-year-old fire department.

Los Angeles’ top financial official sent a letter to union officials Tuesday saying that the city cannot afford pay raises due nearly 20,000 workers July 1, according to published reports.

The City Council of troubled Hercules, Calif., voted Tuesday to put a half-cent sales tax on the June ballot.

San Jose city leaders voted Tuesday to ask residents to decide on pension reform.

SAN FRANCISCO — The National Federation of Municipal Analysts warned Wednesday that uncertainty surrounding California redevelopment agencies' $23 billion of debt could lead to further defaults.

LOS ANGELES — Officials from Los Angeles travel to San Francisco, Chicago and the East Coast twice a year to talk to investors, but this year city officials decided to host a conference of their own and invite investors to come to them.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts plans to release a paper outlining possible negative consequences to a California law dissolving some 400 of the state's redevelopment agencies.

SAN FRANCISCO — Stockton is not alone. The ski town of Mammoth Lakes is also using a new California state mediation law to try to avert Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Controller Wendy Greuel has released an economic forecast projecting a $200 million deficit next year and recommending that the city focus on structural budgetary changes instead of relying on one-time revenues and expenditure deferrals.

SAN FRANCISCO — Standard & Poor's downgraded Stockton, Calif., for the third time in less than two weeks, to "selective default" from CC.

A Superior Court judge on Wednesday denied a request for an injunction from a San Diego hotel workers union seeking to block a vote on a special tax to fund the San Diego Convention Center expansion.

Though plentiful doubts remain about California's ability to balance its budget, those concerns were no deterrent to bond investors recently.

A 25-year-old San Diego utility customers advocacy group is disbanding in the wake of a federal grand jury investigation into its business practices and leadership.

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved a diluted version of a bill that would have forced the city to stop doing business with banks that had poor lending records in the city.