ANAHEIM : City OKs Investment Oversight Commission

In response to the county bankruptcy, the City Council gave final approval this week to an Investment Advisory Commission that will provide an additional layer of oversight of Anaheim’s financial matters.

The council-appointed commission members, who will serve on a voluntary basis, will be required to have experience in investment banking. Qualifications and precise duties have yet to be determined, but in general commissioners will advise the council and the city treasurer on individual investments and on overall investment policy for the city and its redevelopment agency.

Councilman Bob Zemel, who spearheaded the commission proposal, called Anaheim’s action “the single-most responsible legislation that’s come out of the council since the financial debacle of the county.”

“Being elected to the City Council doesn’t make someone an investment specialist,” Zemel said. He speculated that if the Board of Supervisors had received advice from an investment commission, the county’s staggering financial losses could have been avoided.