As used in this article, “local agency” means county, city, city and county, including a chartered city or county, school district, community college district, public district, county board of education, county superintendent of schools, or any public or municipal corporation.

Except as provided in subdivision (a) of Section 27000.3, all governing bodies of local agencies or persons authorized to make investment decisions on behalf of those local agencies investing public funds pursuant to this chapter are trustees and therefore fiduciaries subject to the prudent investor standard. When investing, reinvesting, purchasing, acquiring, exchanging, selling, or managing public funds, a trustee shall act with care, skill, prudence, and diligence under the circumstances then prevailing, including, but not limited to, the general economic

conditions and the anticipated needs of the agency, that a prudent person acting in a like capacity and familiarity with those matters would use in the conduct of funds of a like character and with like aims, to safeguard the principal and maintain the liquidity needs of the agency. Within the limitations of this section and considering individual investments as part of an overall strategy, investments may be acquired as authorized by law.

When investing, reinvesting, purchasing, acquiring, exchanging, selling, or managing public funds, the primary objective of a trustee shall be to safeguard the principal of the funds under its control. The secondary objective shall be to meet the liquidity needs of the depositor. The third objective shall be to achieve a return on the funds under its control.

The Legislature hereby finds that the solvency and creditworthiness of each individual local agency can impact the solvency and creditworthiness of the state and other local agencies within the state. Therefore, to protect the solvency and creditworthiness of the state and all of its political subdivisions, the Legislature hereby declares that the deposit and investment of public funds by local officials and local agencies is an issue of statewide concern.

The authority of a local agency to invest funds pursuant to Section 53601 includes, in addition thereto, authority to invest in financial futures or financial option contracts in any of the investment categories enumerated in that section.

As used in this article, “corporation” includes a limited liability company.

The purchase by a local agency of any investment authorized pursuant to Section 53601 or 53601.1, not purchased directly from the issuer, shall be purchased either from an institution licensed by the state as a broker-dealer, as defined in Section 25004 of the Corporations Code, or from a member of a federally regulated securities exchange, from a national or state-chartered bank, from a savings association or federal association (as defined by Section 5102 of the Financial Code) or from a brokerage firm designated as a primary government dealer by the Federal

Reserve bank.

The legislative body shall invest only in notes, bonds, bills, certificates of indebtedness, warrants, or registered warrants which are legal investments for savings banks in the State, provided, that the board of supervisors of a county may, by a four-fifths vote thereof, invest in notes, warrants or other evidences of indebtedness of public districts wholly or partly within the county, whether or not such notes, warrants, or other evidences of indebtedness are legal investments for savings banks.

The legislative body may make the investment by direct purchase of any issue of eligible securities at their original sale or after they have been issued.

The legislative body may sell, or exchange for other eligible securities, and reinvest the proceeds of, the securities purchased.

From time to time, the legislative body shall sell the securities so that the proceeds may be applied to the purposes for which the original purchase money was placed in the sinking fund or the treasury of the local agency.

The bonds purchased, which were issued by the purchaser, may be canceled either in satisfaction or sinking fund obligations or otherwise. When canceled, they are no longer outstanding, unless in its discretion, the legislative body holds then uncanceled. While held uncanceled, the bonds may be resold.

The authority of the legislative body to invest or to reinvest funds of a local agency, or to sell or exchange securities so purchased, may be delegated for a one-year period by the legislative body to the treasurer of the local agency, who shall thereafter assume full responsibility for those transactions until the delegation of authority is revoked or expires, and shall make a monthly report of those transactions to the legislative body. Subject to review, the legislative body may renew the delegation of authority pursuant to this section each

year.

The legislative body of a local agency may deposit for safekeeping with a federal or state association (as defined by Section 5102 of the Financial Code), a trust company or a state or national bank located within this state or with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco or any branch thereof within this state, or with any Federal Reserve bank or with any state or national bank located in any city designated as a reserve city by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the bonds, notes, bills, debentures, obligations, certificates of indebtedness, warrants, or other evidences of indebtedness in which the money

of the local agency is invested pursuant to this article or pursuant to other legislative authority. The local agency shall take from such financial institution a receipt for securities so deposited. The authority of the legislative body to deposit for safekeeping may be delegated by the legislative body to the treasurer of the local agency; the treasurer shall not be responsible for securities delivered to and receipted for by a financial institution until they are withdrawn from the financial institution by the treasurer.

Notwithstanding the provisions of this chapter or any other provisions of this code, funds held by a local agency pursuant to a written agreement between the agency and employees of the agency to defer a portion of the compensation otherwise receivable by the agency’s employees and pursuant to a plan for such deferral as adopted by the governing body of the agency, may be invested in the types of investments set forth in Sections 53601 and 53602 of this code, and may additionally be invested in corporate stocks, bonds, and securities, mutual funds, savings and loan accounts, credit union accounts, life insurance policies, annuities, mortgages, deeds of trust, or other

security interests in real or personal property. Nothing herein shall be construed to permit any type of investment prohibited by the Constitution.

Deferred compensation funds are public pension or retirement funds for the purposes of Section 17 of Article XVI of the Constitution.

its revenue, Proposition 1A receivables sold pursuant to Section 53999.