Laguna Beach council denies treasurer’s request for full-time workload and pay

With significant growth in Laguna Beach’s investment portfolio over the years to point to, city treasurer Laura Parisi says she deserves an upgrade to full-time worker. But she found little sympathy from the City Council on Tuesday.

Council members decided that her hours should not increase from the current 25 a week. The vote was 4 to 1, with Mayor Pro Tem Toni Iseman dissenting.

“This is absolutely not about Laura,” said Councilman Robert Zur Schmiede said. “It’s about this position and how it fits into the organization.”

The city pays Parisi, an elected official and certified public accountant, $89,900 yearly. She requested $126,300 to be full time.

Parisi’s duties include managing and selecting the city’s investments, which have grown to $87 million at the end of last year from $26 million when she began 17 years ago; reporting and tracking city funds; auditing transient occupancy tax collected from Laguna’s hotels; and overseeing payments from residents in assessment districts, which are set up to pay for specific projects like the undergrounding of utility wires.

“It’s growth in revenue, portfolio size and the number of investments that I would like you to consider,” Parisi said told the council.

The topic of Parisi’s hours arose during previous budget discussions, prompting Zur Schmiede and fellow Councilman Kelly Boyd to call for consultant Mark Flannery to analyze Parisi’s duties and compare them with those of treasurers in other Orange County cities.

Flannery polled six cities that have elected treasurers and concluded that certain duties should not require as much time as Parisi claimed.

Treasurers in Brea and San Clemente, for instance, work less than 10 hours a week, Flannery wrote in his report. Both cities’ general fund balances fall within $5 million of Laguna’s $55-million general fund amount.

“Although they do not perform the scope of duties listed by the Laguna Beach city treasurer, they are involved in the custody of public funds, management of investments and debt administration, although the Brea city treasurer does not perform any debt administration duties,” Flannery reported.

Regarding assessment district payments, Flannery wrote, “This should require about one-fourth of the 156 hours claimed as the city’s financial consultant.” He added that tabulating daily deposits should be the job of account clerks.

Parisi said she called Brea and San Clemente treasurers and discovered that they are not involved in day-to-day banking, assessment district administration or handling transient occupancy taxes.

San Clemente pays an outside consultant $62,500 to handle its $75 million in investments, Parisi said.

While not a requirement for a treasurer, Parisi said being a CPA is valuable.

Orange County treasurer Shari Freidenrich echoed Parisi’s claim that the CPA distinction carries merit. Freidenrich, a CPA, was Huntington Beach’s treasurer for 16 years.

“I was amazed at the lack of controls over cash,” Freidenrich said. “Cities take in lot of cash. Being a CPA, you understand how internal controls are so important. How many cities do you read about in the news that embezzle?”

Boyd commended Flannery for the job he did in compiling the report.

“It’s a bonus to have a CPA, but certainly in our state a majority of people who are city treasurers are not CPAs at all,” Boyd said. “If [Laura] feels that things which were turned over to her from the finance department, if she wants to give anything back because she feels overburdened, then maybe she should send that back to the finance department, where they could take care of it.”