Board Told Investments Aren't High Risk : Finances: Supervisors also hear that no local school district invested in the financially troubled Orange County portfolio.

Board Told Investments Aren’t High Risk : Finances: Supervisors also hear that no local school district invested in the financially troubled Orange County portfolio.

By CARLOS V. LOZANO

Dec. 7, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Ventura County does not make the same type of high-risk investments that led to the $1.5-billion loss in value to Orange County’s investment fund, county Treasurer-Tax Collector Hal Pittman assured the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

“We may be conservative,” Pittman said, “but I sleep better at night knowing we’re getting a reasonable rate of return.”

Pittman also assured the board that none of the county’s 20 school districts had invested money in the Orange County portfolio. And a survey of Ventura County’s 10 cities showed none had invested money with financially troubled Orange County.

“We’re not involved in any way, shape or form,” said Anita Bingham, Camarillo’s finance director.

Officials in Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley said a large chunk of their investments were in the California State Treasurer’s Local Agency Investment Fund and in U.S. Treasury bonds.

“We have a very conservative investment strategy,” said Mike Sedell, assistant city manager in Simi Valley.

Pittman, however, told supervisors that two local school districts had consulted with him and the county superintendent of schools office six months ago about putting money into Orange County’s investment pool.

But Pittman declined to name the two school districts, because he and Ventura County school officials talked the districts out of making the investments.

“It’s always tempting when someone says you can get 2%, 3% or 4% more on your interest rate than what you are currently getting,” Pittman said. “But when something seems too good to be true, it generally is.”

Veteran Orange County Treasurer Robert L. Citron resigned Monday after it was disclosed that the investment pool he managed for the county and 180 other public agencies across the state had lost $1.5 billion, or 20%, of its value this year. Citron’s office had borrowed more than $12 billion in complex transactions designed to heighten the funds’ return if interest rates held firm or fell.

Orange County got into trouble when interest rates began climbing, Pittman told the supervisors.

“What’s happened is that the debt service on the money borrowed now exceeds the income they have coming in, therefore they have a cash-flow problem,” Pittman said. “In order to get cash, they either have to borrow additional money or sell off investments at sizable losses.”

Pittman said Ventura County does not borrow money to make investments, but that he could understand how others would have been attracted to Orange County’s strategy because it was successful for several years.

“These are difficult times,” Pittman said. “I think you can liken this to putting a plate of food in front of someone who is extremely hungry or starving. The temptation is really there.”

Mike Saliba, executive director of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn., praised the county for its conservative investment strategies. He said the first priority should always be the protection of taxpayers’ money.

“We believe the county is on the right track with its investment philosophy,” Saliba said. “The key element is maintaining the county’s good credit rating.”

Indeed, a survey in May of the state’s 14 largest counties singled out Ventura County for having the strongest financial standing.

Ventura County’s low debt level, coupled with a $34-million surplus in last year’s budget, put the county at the top of the list, according to the San Francisco-based banking firm of Prager, McCarthy & Sealy.

County Auditor-Controller Thomas Mahon said that even before the study came out the county’s bond rating had improved from A to A+, which makes it cheaper to borrow money through bond sales.

Still, Mahon said Orange County has also had high bond ratings, and as a result the rating system will probably come under fire.

“So we’re still going to have to prove to the rating agencies that there’s Orange County, and there’s Ventura County, and that we’re on top because we do things the right way,” he said.

Times correspondents Scott Hadly and J. E. Mitchell contributed to this story.