Article 12. Financial Advisers And Bond Counsel of California Government Code >> Division 2. >> Title 5. >> Part 1. >> Chapter 3. >> Article 12.

The following terms shall have the following meanings for purposes of this article:
  (a) "Bond counsel" means any attorney or firm of attorneys that represents the issuer of a new issue of bonds with respect to the issuance of the bonds and that renders a written legal opinion to, or as counsel for, the issuer with respect to the validity of the bonds.
  (b) "Bond" means any bonds, notes, or other evidences of indebtedness issued by any local agency or certificates of participation in any lease, sale, or other obligations of any local agency. "New issue of bonds" means the original issuance of bonds, including refunding bonds, by the issuer to one or more purchasers until, in the case of underwriters, the end of the underwriting period. In the case of bonds with a tender or put option feature, or commercial paper, "new issue of bonds" means only the original issuance and not any remarketing, rollover, or reissuance.
  (c) A "financial advisory relationship" exists when an investment firm, or other person or firm in the business of providing financial advisory or financial consulting services to issuers with respect to municipal securities, renders, or enters into an agreement to render, financial advisory or financial consultant services to, or on behalf of, an issuer with respect to a new issue or issues of bonds, including advice with respect to the structure, timing, terms, and other similar matters concerning the issue or issues, for a fee or other compensation or in expectation of such compensation for the rendering of those services. However, a financial advisory relationship does not exist when, in the course of acting as an underwriter, an investment firm renders advice to an issuer, including advice with respect to the structure, timing, terms, and other similar matters concerning a new issue of bonds or when, for any new issuer of bonds, an investment firm advises and assists an issuer with respect to obtaining consent from holders of previously issued bonds in connection with, among other things, amendments of covenants or defaults.
  (d) "Investment firm" means any bank, investment bank, partnership, corporation, association, or other firm engaged in the business of buying and selling bonds for its own account or for the account of others as part of its regular business.
  (e) "Local agency" means a public district, public corporation, authority, agency, board, commission, county, city and county, city, school district, or other local public entity.

No investment firm that has, or has had, a financial advisory relationship with respect to a new issue of bonds shall acquire as principal either alone or as a participant in a syndicate or other similar account formed for the purpose of purchasing, directly or indirectly, from the issuer all or any portion of the issue, or arrange for the acquisition or participation by a person controlling, controlled by, or under common control with the investment firm, unless the issue is to be sold by the issuer at competitive bid and the issuer has, prior to the bid, expressly consented in writing to the acquisition or participation. The limitations and requirements set forth in this section also apply to any investment firm controlling, controlled by, or under common control with the investment firm having a financial advisory relationship. The use of the term "indirectly" in this section does not preclude any investment firm which has a financial advisory relationship with respect to a new issue of bonds from purchasing any of those bonds from an underwriter, either for its own trading account or for the account of its customers, except to the extent that the purchase is made to contravene the purpose and intent of this section.

Each financial advisory relationship shall be evidenced by a written document executed prior to, upon, or promptly after the inception of the financial advisory relationship, or promptly after the creation or selection of the issuer if the issuer does not exist or has not been determined at the time the relationship commences. That written document shall set forth the basis of compensation for the financial advisory services to be rendered, which, except for bonds issued prior to January 1, 1988, to finance single-family or multifamily housing, shall be on a basis other than as a percentage of the amount of the bonds to be sold.

No bond counsel with respect to a new issue of bonds shall also be counsel, with respect to that new issue of bonds, to the underwriter or other initial purchaser of the bonds. This section does not preclude the bond counsel from rendering one or more opinions to the underwriter or purchaser with respect to the bonds, the documents or laws pursuant to which the bonds are issued, the official statement, offering circular, or other disclosure document describing the bonds, or any related matter, if the opinion is rendered as bond counsel and not as counsel to the underwriter or purchaser.

Injunctive relief shall be available, subject to judicial discretion, to prohibit or enjoin any violation of this article, but no violation shall affect the authority, validity, or enforceability of bonds.