Gov. Code, § 53590

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.