WENATCHEE — Mayor Frank Kuntz is headed to San Francisco today to try to convince Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s to upgrade the city’s bond rating.

The rating has been downgraded twice by the two agencies because of the Town Toyota Center debt crisis.

“My hope is to start repairing that,” Kuntz said Thursday at the City Council meeting. “It’s time to start trying to get our credit rating back in place.”

The city’s bond attorney, Roy Koegen, will go with the mayor.

The rating does not affect the city’s day-to-day operations. But it does affect how much it will cost the city the next time it wants to borrow money, Kuntz said.

It also affects the investors in the city’s exiting debt. It costs more to trade that debt and affects how much interest is earned by investors.

Moody’s downgraded the rating to the lowest investment rating last May, after the city decided not to loan the money for the arena’s owner, the Greater Wenatchee Regional Events Center Public Facilities District, to make an interest payment to investors.

Moody’s and S&P also lowered the city’s rating after the arena’s debt went into default in December 2011.

Both rating agencies have set the city’s credit rating in the “B” range, which indicates a weakened ability for the city to meet its financial obligations.

Kuntz said he would like it back in the “A” range.

The agences do not have to upgrade the rating. But Kuntz said the beginning of the year seems like a good time to ask for a change.

“My guess is that they are quick to downgrade and probably slower to upgrade,” he said. “But we have a great story to tell now.”