Lack of Public Sector Experience Adds Risk

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Editor,

I just received a slick postcard in the mail, urging me to vote for Anne McGraw for city treasurer.

On the card, Ms. McGraw asked if I realized that we’re paying nearly $160,000 annually for the current treasurer of Laguna Beach.  Frankly I don’t think anyone realizes how much any city employee makes, but it inspired me to go to the city’s website to check out the big picture.

Turns out that what we pay our city treasurer, including benefits, is a minuscule portion of the city’s entire payroll, which is budgeted at over $44 million dollars a year.

Ms. McGraw went on to promise that she would do the same job as our current treasurer at a much lower cost. The savings in the context of the city’s payroll would be virtually nothing. But the cost in experience and security would be far higher, and a big risk!

If we replace our existing treasurer, Laura Parisi, a CPA and certified municipal treasurer with many years experience in government finance, with a bookkeeper who’s never worked in the public sector, we should absolutely pay less.  But we’d get what we pay for, which would be someone with zero experience in the complex management of almost $100 million of our – the citizens’ – money.

Thanks for the postcard. You’ve convinced me that voting to re-elect Laura Parisi as city treasurer is the only way to go.

 

Rick Gold, Laguna Beach

 

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