TUSTIN : 4 Lauded for Warnings on Investment Pool

Four local officials were honored with city proclamations this week for prompting Tustin to withdraw its funds last April from the Orange County investment pool.

Tustin pulled out its $4 million in principal because the city investment policy conflicted with financial strategies pursued by the county. Tustin had $185,000 in accrued interest in the pool when the county declared bankruptcy Dec. 6.

Receiving the official proclamations were Councilman Jeffery M. Thomas, Finance Director Ron Nault and city Audit Committee members George Jeffries and Daniel O’Connell.

“Everybody’s collective wisdom here averted a catastrophe for the city,” Mayor Thomas R. Saltarelli said.

The city has an operating and capital-expenditure budget of $81 million this year.

Among those present at the council ceremony was John M.W. Moorlach, the Republican who ran unsuccessfully last June against former county Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron.

In addressing the council, Moorlach threw a few verbal jabs at his political critics, then praised his ally Thomas as a “hero” and a “leader.”

Thomas “took a lot of flak from within and without,” Moorlach said, for criticizing Citron’s investment policies and calling for Tustin’s funds to be pulled out of the county pool.