Street is out, now we just have to get rid of Moorlach’s other creation, appointed Sheriff Sandra Hutchens!
Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street has decided not to run for re-election and he has announced that he will cede control over the County investment pool to the O.C. Board of Supervisors.
“Amid calls for his resignation and a stern rebuke from a federal judge, Treasurer Chriss Street said he would give up authority over the county’s roughly $5-billion investment pool. The drama has rekindled painful memories in a county that is still paying off the debt from a history-making 1994 bankruptcy that cost thousands of people their jobs,” according to the L.A. Times.
Prospective candidates to replace Street have an extra week to file for the office, since he waited so long to announce his withdrawal.
Currently there are four candidates who have pulled papers, according to the O.C. Voter Registrar. They include some guy named Gary Capata; an audtor/college professor named Pat Desmond; Huntington Beach City Treasurer Shari Freidenrich; and some guy named David Lang.
Word on the street is that the OC GOP is desperately trying to recruit someone other than Freidenrich. Apparently she has some issues that the party is worried about. It should be an interesting week…
The OC Register today quotes Moorlach as saying he didn’t know about Street’s problems prior to endorsing him. WAIT A MINUTE! I knew about Street’s problems before his election, including his using Fruehauf as his personal ATM (charging his Botox shots, luxury trips, etc.). If average outsiders like me knew about it, how could Moorlach not know?
Look at all the political idiots who provided cover for Street while the accusations swirled around him for years!
Moorlach’s credibility is severely damaged, as it should be.
*Chriss Street was one of the few people who were willing to help us our during 1994 NB City Council run. He agreed with John Moorlach that Citron was gaming the system. We were excited to have anyone step up with a ethical stance to the wide array of wrong doing that was going on at the County level….back then.
Hey, it is always easy to beat up on someone when they are down. The reality is: This is all too bad! You hate to see people expose their feet of clay to the masses.
There might have been an indication when of a glitch when Chriss decided in his wisdom to “upgrade the Treasurers Office” after his initial election.
Pat Bates, John Moorlach also were doing the same thing…and Chriss with an adequate “ego” figured – Hey, we can get a deal on all those big screen TV’s – if we buy more!
Well, that is all water over the bridge…and this is just “Politics” and not real life.
Chriss will survive, with perhaps less cash in his kick….and for a while people will talk. The truth is: Chriss learned a lot as OC Treasurer. Hopefully, he can keep a good attitude and keep his life firmly grounded in the concept…..that helping others is a wonderful outlet for falling on “hard times”! Chriss can run for something else in a couple of years, when his name recognition is still high enough that the people won’t recall exactly what ran down.
Good luck Chriss, and we are still grateful for your moral support during our 1994 campaign. Dig Hao!
Things will get better!
The Winships oughta be writing the Fantasyland newsletter. What a pair of idiots. Pedroza and #1 are right — Moorlach screwed us with these two and ought to pay for it. His judgement is flawed and he’s caused a lot of damage.
Winships, your response is a disappointment. You sound like some of the Newport Beach elite that believe most anything goes as long as it is profitable. The guy is a crook, plain and simple. You need to learn when to fold ’em.
Everyone should take note from the fact the Supervisors are about to reassign investment responsibility away from the Tax Collector-Treasurer, that it is the Board of Supervisors who decides who it is that is to be in charge of investing the county treasury. It always has been, even before the famous bankruptcy. That is why the Board was ultimately responsible for the bankruptcy, in spite of the risky investments made by Citron. The Board failed to engage in adequate oversight of Citron, that was the problem. The ultimate resting place for the investment pool collapse and bankruptcy rests with the (then) elected Board of Supervisors, including the late General Tom Riley of Newport Beach.
Folks. I just attended a Rush Limbaugh Fan Club meeting where Chriss Street was the guest speaker.
Let me end this comment by reporting a remark from Chriss that while “California is going over a cliff, Orange County has a positive cash flow.”
I don’t think I have ever met a perfect individual in my short lifetime. We have all made mistakes of one form or another, myself included.
Chriss has decided not to run for reelection and that is the end of the story.
Unless someone can confirm that he has engaged in any corruption or sexual harassment while serving in his current elected capacity I suggest we simply leave him alone as he completes his term in office.
Larry,
I think the problem is the recent judgement against him. Street has since ceded his control over the County investment pool, so even he recognizes that there is an issue.
Is there corruption in his office? Not that I know of but he has misdirected County funds, as detailed in the press, and lost millions in the process.
Personally, I think he should resign immediately.
Art.
At no time either during or after the meeting did Chriss or anyone else discuss his decision not to run for reelection. I agree with your guess that there is no corruption within his department.
As to the safety of the funds he managed I would need to see evidence that he misdirected funds other than away from high risk investment choices.
Larry,
Here you go. http://www.ocregister.com/news/county-190939-committee-street.html.
Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street’s $800 million bet on complex securities “was an imprudent pursuit of yield compromising the safety of principal,” the Orange County Grand Jury reported Tuesday.
Street’s predecessor, Superivsor John Moorlach, started investing in SIVs around 2002. In the eight months after he succeeded Moorlach, Street more than doubled the county’s SIV holdings to $860 million by July 2007.
But the worldwide credit crunch that began that August crippled the market for SIVs. Whistlejacket went into default in February 2008. Street sold another, Sigma, at a $6 million loss in September 2008, weeks before it too went into default.
The county’s last healthy SIV will mature Wednesday. That leaves only Whistlejacket on the county’s books. Street declined to sell it for an $8 million loss in April.
Can’t wait to say adios to Appointed Sheriff Hutchens…
Larry,
Bernie Madoff was’nt perfect either, but he still abused peoples trust.
Would he be a good person to put in charge of the county bank roll?
He may not be required to resign, but it sure would be the honorable thing to do. But, it sounds (from what I know) he is among the least honorable people you would ever meet.
Hindsight and wisdom is always 20-20. There have been a lot of people with bi-focals trying to resurrect the Titanic! The truth is: Chriss should have re-signed way back three years ago. That didn’t happen and “The Supervisors” all called us “stupid” as we recall. Well, whoever takes over the OC Treasurer’s Office will be facing what? How much oversight? How much scrutiny? How much second guessing and double think? Reducing the OCTA bus schedule by 150,000 hours should be telling us all something.
In the great “sphere” of things: Chriss Street is no Richard Nixon, Dan Rostonkowski or Larry Craig. For those reasons alone….we call all agree that he should not be running for re-election or anything else…for a while!
*Kurcheon While – by the way….who was your choice to replace Chriss Street again?
Ron & Anna,
The trouble is, Many of us had the FORE-Sight, from personal experience and in some cases financial losses to back up our vision, to oppose Street, but the machine bowled us over.
I have visited Alba, Alabama. I have had the uniuque apportunity to discuss, Chriss personal interaction with those affected by his actions. I can tell you, it does not bode well for him. I have formed the opinion after dining, meeting walking the floor of the factories that Chriss is a LIAR, A THIEF and AT BEST A SELFISH F&%K. His wife scores lower on my list for the comments she made, her treatment of the employees of the trailer makers.
This guy used his Newport beach hose to spray the fine working people of this American city.
\
TO BE STRAIGHT: I am biased, I visited and discussed this with those affected. My opinions are not based on a Martin Wiskol commentary. I spent six bills and found out for myself.
I will go to my grave knowing what a sh*tbag this guy is.
I just attended a Rush Limbaugh Fan Club meeting where Chriss Street was the guest speaker.
So… I’d seen something like that, and assumed, like anonster, that it was a joke. But apparently not.
A Rush Limbaugh Fan Club meeting. Larry attended, and Chriss Street spoke. Where did I get the impression that Rush was considered an extremist and embarrassment to you guys? I guess not?
So now, I can begin to quote Rush’s crazier ravings, and assume that Larry is on the same page?
Hmmmm….
Larry on Chriss Street’s conduct that was RELATED (because of it’s fiduciary nature) to his job as OC’s Tax Collector;
“I don’t think I have ever met a perfect individual in my short lifetime. We have all made mistakes of one form or another, myself included.
Chriss has decided not to run for reelection and that is the end of the story.
Unless someone can confirm that he has engaged in any corruption or sexual harassment while serving in his current elected capacity I suggest we simply leave him alone as he completes his term in office.”
Larry Gilbert on Lance MaClean’s conduct that was UNRELATED to his mayoral duties;
“How is it acceptable for UCI to investigate his conduct which led to Lance’s early retirement yet watchdogs in our city cannot promote his removal without being attacked for protecting a Mission Viejo resident or visitor in the event Lance again loses his temper and attacks another individual?
How much insurance does our pool carry by our recent rewarding rather than censuring him?”