Treasurer wants more hours, pay

City Treasurer Laura Parisi thinks she is worth more money and is willing to spend the time to earn it.

Parisi petitioned the City Council during the 2007-08 budget discussions to make her job full--time with a commensurate increase in her salary. The job, an elected post, has been part-time since 1979 and the council declined to make a change.

“I think the hours are still appropriate,” said Councilman Kelly Boyd, who was on the council from 1978 to 1982. “And we just gave her a raise. If she feels there is too much work, we could easily shift some of it to the finance department.”

Parisi wants time for more work, not less, she said.

“I don’t want to sound negative, but I am frustrated that I don’t have support from either the staff or the council to go full--time,” Parisi said.

Parisi also wants to be compensated on the same hourly level as other department heads, who are city employees.

“I see no reason for my salary to be on a lower scale than other department heads,” she said.

Elected officials, including the council and the city clerk, are not paid on the same scale as other department heads. The council recently voted to increase their own stipend to $560 a month, starting Dec. 1, 2008, their first raise since July 1, 2005.

Parisi and City Clerk Martha Anderson, who is also elected, both received raises for this fiscal year.

According to information released by Parisi, her proposed pay this year will be $53.81 an hour, which totals $68,900 a year for a 25-hour week, compared to the proposed hourly wage of $79.71— $161.600 a year — paid the fire and police chiefs and the heads of the water quality department, administrative services and public works.

Parisi’s estimated her request for additional hours and higher compensation would cost the city $100,000 a year more than her current pay.

The council approved a 7% cost of living raise and an additional 5% for performance, but denied her request to upgrade the job to full-time at the June 19 meeting, the same meeting at which the 2007-08 budget was approved

“Laura is an elected official like the council and the city clerk and she knew what she was getting into,” City Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman said. “It was a part-time job and the council unanimously wants to keep it that way.”

At one time, Parisi worked part-time, while serving as city treasurer, for the Laguna Beach Unified School District to fill in between chief business officials, but she said that was not her forte.

“I would be happy to consider reducing her hours so she could take another part-time job, if that would make her happy,” Kinsman said. “It would save the taxpayers money.” “I would like to make the treasurer’s position full-time, mainly because of the increase in the city’s portfolio from $22 million to over $60 million, the increased complexity of the investment composition and cash flow and the additional responsibility of administering 20 different assessment districts and more to come,” Parisi said.

Kinsman, a certified public accountant, said she was familiar with Parisi’s duties and some of the workload could be transferred to the city’s Finance Department if the treasurer finds the job too onerous for her comfort.

“The amount of money [in the portfolio] does not necessarily increase the amount of time needed to manage it because the city has not materially changed its investment policy in many years,” Kinsman said.

On the contrary, Parisi said, the portfolio influences the number of people recommended for treasury management. Based on conversations she said she had with the California Debt and Investment Advisory Committee, the city’s portfolio could warrant four full--time treasury positions.

“However, at this time, I am only recommending an increase in the treasurer’s position to full-time,” Parisi said.

State law and the council determine the treasurer’s job description, according to Parisi.

“Basically, I oversee all receipts,” she said. “I am money in — the council is money out — and I verify all disbursements authorized by the council. I manage the bonds and make all investment decisions for the city.

“As of the June report — the final one for fiscal year 2006-07, the investments have made $866,094.35 more than the estimated earning for the year by all funds.”

Parisi also reviews city hotels’ for accuracy in reporting transient occupancy taxes — an important contributor to the city’s economic uptick.

Given more paid working hours, Parisi said the first thing she would do is formalize the cash flow.

“The city has an annual budget that needs to be broken down into receipts and disbursements every month,” Parisi said. “I want to plan ahead so I know how to invest and for what length of time. That would increase returns, which translates to revenue.”

She said that would give her a better idea of how much she would have to invest and what funds would be needed when for immediate or long-term projects so the city isn’t caught short.

Disasters can and have put a severe strain on the city budget, but City Manager Ken Frank is known for underestimating income and overestimating expenses so the council has come to rely on him to dig up the money for its projects not previously funded.

Frank declined to comment on Parisi’s requests for more hours and more money.

“She is an elected official,” Frank said.

Parisi has been asking for increases in hours and pay since 2003, prior to her second run for the office.

She was appointed to fill out the term of retiring City Treasurer Susan Morse in 1999 and ran for office in 2000 and 2004 unopposed. She is up for re-election in 2008.

At her request, Parisi’s hours were increased from the four hours a day that Morse worked to five hours a day.

“The job has always required more than 20 hours a week,” Morse said. “I once requested six hours a day, rather than four, but I got a raise instead.

“Laura is very connected in Sacramento to the legislative board of the city treasurers’ association and that puts her in a good position to know who to go to and have them aware of city needs — and you learn a lot.”

Morse said department heads are encouraged to network and it pays off.

“I don’t know what the city would have done during the [county] bankruptcy without the contacts I had made,” Morse said. “But you don’t get paid for volunteer jobs.”

Parisi enjoys her volunteer work as vice chair of the Orange County Division of the California Treasurers Assn. and the state legislative chair for the association.

“I wrote my first legislative bill in 2006, creating the state Treasurer’s Day,” Parisi said. “That was fun.”

She was a speaker at the annual Local Agency Investment Fund Conference in November and was commended by state Treasurer Bill Lockyer in June for her participation in the working group of the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission’s update for local agency investment guidelines.

Parisi is a certified public accountant and certified California Municipal Treasurer. Laguna has had an elected treasurer since it was incorporated. The job was created June 30, 1927 at a meeting to organize the city’s government, according to Parisi’s research.

“The duties are vague and the number of hours for the position were not specified,” she said. “But on Dec. 4, 1979, the hours were reduced to 20 a week.”

Although only a part-time position, the treasurer does get benefits.

“I am supposed to get the same benefits as other department heads — let’s leave it at that,” said Parisi, declining to expand on her statement.

An independent auditor has verified Parisi’s benefits are correctly calculated, according to Kinsman.

The benefits became part of the treasurer’s compensation package when Morse took over the job.

Treasurer Fran Engelhardt resigned effective Oct. 30, 1982, due to illness, two years before her term was scheduled to end. Morse was appointed Nov. 2, 1982, to complete Englehardt’s term, with a salary of $800 a month, and elected to the position in 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996.

Morse, who had benefits as a city employee, kept them and passed them along with the job to Parisi.

Parisi said the city isn’t getting short-changed by her limited hours on the job, but an increase would allow her time to do a better job.

“I love my job with the city,” Parisi said.