OC County Treasurer Shari Friedrich is responsible for a $6.5 billion investment pool for Orange County. The good news, she keeps our money safe guarded and is responsible for investment of public funds and collecting taxes. She sits on OC Pension board and is a member of the public finance committee. Her responsibilities also include banker for school district funds (writing checks for payroll) and some OC districts also use her funds as a safe investment vehicle for their district's money. Her goal is safekeeping by providing safety, liquidity and yield (no risk). She has an unblemished record of safety, never having lost one dollar of tax payer monies.
Shari oversees a staff of 97 and a budget of $18 million. She's made changes to continue safety including reviewing exposure to risk, hiring a dedicated analyst for reviews investment instruments daily; she's redesigned reporting structures; streamlined investment operations; reduced administrative costs over 10%. Unfortunately our yields are at rock bottom. She conducts an annual treasurer's conference, is reaching out to each OC city to assist them with their investments through a monthly conference call. She has brought best business practices to the treasury. Her staff is responsible for collecting on behalf of 200 agencies; $4.7 billion in collections (a 97% rate); and 54% OC taxes have been collected before the end of the calendar year. 40% goes back to schools; 19% to each city and 34% to the state.
For us taxpayers, although she does not set tax values, she is working to make it easier to pay our taxes through online services. She's brought cost-effective practices to government,including restructuring her office. Including a better customer service office.
Irvine is the sixth largest economy in the US with 3.1 million people, we are doing better than state in revenues. Taxes collecitng rates are up for Irvine, 1.45% in 2011; .87% for California.
