TITLE
Recommendation to authorize agreements and any necessary amendments thereto between the City of Long Beach and the law firms of Best Best & Krieger; Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP; and Norton Rose Fulbright LLP for as-needed legal services as bond disclosure counsel.
DISCUSSION
The City and its various departments, including the Water Department and the Harbor Department, engage in bond financing transactions from time-to-time. The firms above, together with Stradling Yocca Carlson & Routh, P.C. (the City's existing disclosure counsel), will form a pool from which disclosure counsel shall be selected as the need arises. Disclosure counsel generally ensure that the offering documents published and circulated by the City and its bond-issuing agencies comply with all State and Federal law regarding financial disclosures to potential investors and ongoing reporting requirements.
Qualified firms in California were invited to submit proposals and six firms submitted. A panel including David Nakamoto, City Treasurer and Deputy City Attorney Lauren Misajon, reviewed the proposals, interviewed the six firms and recommend the three listed above.
Each of the firms have several decades of relevant experience and are otherwise highly qualified to provide disclosure counsel services to the City, its departments and bond-issuing entities. Disclosure counsel fees typically range from $25,000 - $50,000 per bond issuance, depending upon, among other things, the size and complexity of the subject issuance.
FISCAL IMPACT
Payment for disclosure counsel services is included as a cost of issuance of municipal bonds and will result in no direct cost to the General Fund.
SUGGESTED ACTION
Approve recommendation.
Respectfully Submitted,
CHARLES PARKIN
CITY ATTORNEY
APPROVED:
THOMAS B. MODICA
ACTIN CITY MANAGER