SAN FRANCISCO Recently elected Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has named Karen Sisson to be his finance director.
Sisson moved to City Hall from Los Angeles World Airports, where she served as chief financial officer for nine years.
She will be watching our budget to be sure the city is managing itself in the most fiscally sound manner it can, Villaraigosas spokesman, Janelle Erickson, said yesterday. Sisson began her new job Monday.
In a news release, Villaraigosa credited Sisson for helping the Los Angeles Department of Aviation earn high credit ratings for its airport revenue bonds.
The department, which runs Los Angeles International Airport, Ontario International Airport, and two other airports, has bond ratings of AA from Standard & Poors, AA from Fitch Ratings, and Aa3 from Moodys Investors Service.
The airport will be looking for a new CFO as Los Angeles International Airport prepares to embark on a multibillion-dollar capital campaign to improve security and aviation safety.
On Tuesday the airport released for public comment its draft environmental statement for a project that will relocate the airports southernmost runway approximately 55 feet to the south and construct a new center parallel taxiway between the two south runways.
Before joining the airport department as CFO, Sisson was a vice president at financial advisory firm Public Resources Advisory Group and a senior finance officer in the finance department of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency.
Moodys rates the city Aa2 with a stable outlook. Standard & Poors assigns the city its AA rating and stable outlook. Fitch in July affirmed the citys AA rating but changed its outlook on the credit to stable from positive.
