Download it: recallmanny THE PETITION TO RECALL COUNTY TREASURER MANNY ORTIZ... Created December 2013. Need 82K signatures. On June 30, 2013, at the end of the fiscal year, the value of the investments held by the Bernalillo County treasurer resulted in a mark to market (unrealized) loss of $12.8 million. This required the county to reduce its budget by that amount as it must have a balanced budget. Then, in August and September 2013, to raise working capital, the treasurer sold about $30 million in bonds, which resulted in an actual loss of $758,000. As a result, at a special meeting of the Bernalillo County Board of Finance held on November 4, 2013, all five Bernalillo county commissioners voted NO Confidence in County Treasurer Manny Ortiz. Tom Zdunek, county manager of Bernalillo County, ordered all county departments to cut their budgets by 5%. Several investigations are currently underway. The New Mexico State Securities Division is investigating the investing activities of both the current and past county treasurers. In addition, the state auditor asked for approval to hire a public accounting firm to investigate the treasurer’s investment activities.Then, at a regular meeting of the Bernalillo County Board of Finance held on February 11, 2014, an investment advisor was hired to work with the treasurer on managing the county investment portfolio. On February 12, 2014, Judge Alan Malott signed an order that the Petition to Recall County Treasurer Manny Ortiz could move ahead on Count 1 of the Complaint: “Malfeasance in Mismanaging Bernalillo County’s Investment Portfolio.” During the hearings about the recall measure, Treasurer Ortiz said that he had NO investment experience before joining the county treasurer’s office in 2005 other than investing in equities for his own account. Also, he is not a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). On March 5, 2014, the county sold $90 million in securities to restructure its portfolio, avoiding future larger losses but assuring that there would be plenty of cash on hand. However, these transactions incurred an actual loss of $10 million. Because this matter is really a question of the practice of good governance, plaintiff George Richmond formed the Committee for Good Government in Bernalillo County to work on getting adequate signatures for the recall vote to be added to the ballot for the Tuesday, November 4, 2014, general election and to assure passage of the measure. This committee can accept contributions online on the Donate page accessed above or by check sent to: Committee for Good Governance in Bernalillo County Attn: Sheila Richmond, treasurer 152 Juniper Hill Rd NE Albuquerque NM 87122
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 14:26:54 +0000
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