O.C. Business Leaders to Lobby Wall Street : Bankruptcy: They will stress to wary lenders that local economy is still growing despite budget problems here and in L.A. County.

In a bid to help restore Orange County’s reputation on Wall Street, local business leaders plan to lobby financial market leaders in New York on Oct. 16, hoping to distance private enterprise from the dulling impact of the county’s unprecedented bankruptcy filing.

Leaders of the Orange County Business Council said they plan to tell Wall Street that the local economy has continued to grow, despite Orange County’s bankruptcy and Los Angeles County’s ongoing budget turmoil.

“Our message also is that a lot of private sector enterprises in the county might be going for financing soon and that Wall Street shouldn’t confuse the local economy with the county bankruptcy,” said Roger Embrey, general manager of Southern California Gas Co.

“Some people hear bankruptcy and think the whole county is bankrupt, that there’s no money available,” he said. “We want to clarify that situation.”

Embrey--joined by Business Council Chairman Wayne D. Wedin and Irvine Co. Executive Vice President Gary Hunt--will meet with Wall Street’s leading bond rating agencies, a handful of large investment fund directors and key members of New York’s financial press.

Orange County officials made a similar trip in late September.

Elected officials and the business community are pushing Wall Street to improve the county’s credit rating, which plummeted to junk-bond status in the wake of the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy.

A healthier credit rating would save taxpayers millions of dollars in added borrowing costs.

Moody’s Investors Service Inc., one of the leading bond rating agencies that the trio hopes to meet with, is reviewing Orange County’s overall economic health to see if an upgrade is warranted.

Moody’s currently rates the county’s debt at Caa, one notch above its lowest ranking.

“We want to knock on some doors and tell them what’s going on from an independent perspective,” Wedin said. “We’re not going there as a government agency, but as businessmen who’ve got . . . a huge interest in the county’s economic health.

“We think we’re able to talk to Wall Street as someone who’s not directly involved in the recovery. That’s important, because these are the kind of folks who, in the long run, have to have a sense of confidence that this recovery will, in fact, be implemented. We think we can help with that confidence.”

The Business Council’s decision to make a separate trip “makes sense,” said Dennis Aigner, dean of the UCI Graduate School of Management.

“The business community probably knows its way around Wall Street better than the county does, and they’d probably have an extra degree of credibility.

“Wall Street will recognize the fact that the business community doesn’t have any official power,” Aigner said. “But it’s probably good to have the power of the private sector put behind the public sector.”

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Critics might argue that business leaders are simply looking out for their own financial well-being. But Aigner maintained that there’s nothing wrong with business protecting its interests.

“If it helps the Gas Co. or Southern California Edison to facilitate business development or retention by doing this, then I’m all for it,” Aigner said. “There’s nothing at all wrong with that.”

Wedin, Hunt and Embrey hope to meet with Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s Corp. and Fitch Investors Service, the nation’s three leading bond rating agencies.

They also hope to meet with directors of funds that might eventually loan money to the county, as well as members of Wall Street’s financial press.

“You’re going to see a whole lot of agencies--from the toll road people and the transit district through to school districts going to Wall Street to start telling their stories again,” Wedin said. “We think we can pave the way for some of that by giving Wall Street a good perspective on what’s going on.”

The Orange County delegation’s trip to New York City dovetails with a four-day visit by a statewide economic development group that’s designed to showcase California’s strengths at a time when media coverage continues to focus on the state’s wave of bad economic news.

Team California, an umbrella group that includes local economic development groups and the state of California, will meet with corporate relocation consultants and heads of major, New York-based corporations.

“We’re trying to give people a better idea of what’s really going on in the state,” Embrey said. “As far as the timing of this visit, it couldn’t be better, particularly after what’s been going on in Southern California.”