ON THE TOWN:Keen eyes supervise county money

During a recent interview with newly minted county Supervisor John Moorlach, a light bulb went off over my head, and I finally realized why, even with some disagreements on key issues, I appreciate his role in county government.

More than any public official with whom I have ever communicated, Moorlach has his eyes (not one, but two) on our money. Whether it’s investing to make more of it or finding and plugging the bottomless pits standard in bureaucracies, Moorlach is all over this money thing.

The reason for my call was to find out how Moorlach was adjusting to his new role. I started off the conversation by reminding him that not so long ago, if I called him late in the day at his office, he would answer the phone himself. Those days are over.

“The days blow by,” Moorlach said. “My staff does a good job of prepping, but I am still a little anal on certain things.”

Moorlach called it “anal,” but with these left-brainers, it is more a matter of being detailed — of being interested in the things that are important but invisible to us.

One of Moorlach’s challenges is scheduling — of meeting the demands of all those who want a piece of him.

“Today, for example,” he said, “I was invited to a dinner, but I looked at my schedule that week and found 35 hours of other events I had committed to, and I called back to say there’s no room.”

I asked Moorlach how the county is doing.

“The biggest issue facing the county is our pension plan liability,” he said. “The second is the retiree medical fund.”

Minus all the administrative language that confuses things, the county has made promises that are costing us enough money to unions and retirees to be very concerned — again — about the county’s fiscal health.

For years no one disputed any of the additional benefits for, say, law enforcement because the idea was that nothing was too much for people who put their lives on the line for us.

Unfortunately, those who are pushing back on the questions he is raising have painted him as uncaring and unappreciative of their work. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Moorlach only wants to know how much is enough: How much do we extend ourselves before we start to affect the county’s bond ratings and its ability to conduct all of its other business?

“The pension is the tail that wags the dog,” said Moorlach. “We are keeping the wolf at bay by earning 13%, but that won’t last forever.”

As a taxpayer, you should be very concerned. The county’s last fiscal year gave $225 million to pension spending, which was more than half of the increase from recent higher tax assessments.

As of August last year, the county owed about $3.7 billion to the pension and retiree medical funds. To give you some perspective, the county declared just $1.7 billion in debts when it filed for bankruptcy in 1994.

If there are some ruffled feathers along the way and some pushback, Moorlach can handle it. He knows that he volunteered for this job and approaches each day with progress in mind.

“I remember my mom telling me, ‘Don’t sit there — ask me what you can do next.’ But that’s how my mom raised me. So now, I figure out what I’m going to do first, second, third and fourth.”

You should be satisfied that Moorlach is asking these tough questions — questions that are supposed to grow and protect the hard-earned money you generously give to the government each year.

And if anyone tells you he doesn’t care about people, you can respond as a taxpayer that he does.