Focus on Finances After $25-Million Loss : Camarillo Hires Orange’s City Manager

A new city manager with a background in municipal finances has been hired by Camarillo, which recently lost $25 million after its former treasurer made a series of investments that backfired.

J. William Little, 52, will take over as city manager of Camarillo on Nov. 28. Until then, he will continue working as city manager of Orange, a position he has held since 1984.

Little began his career 29 years ago as a budget analyst for the city of Wichita, Kan. His responsibilities in Camarillo will include overseeing the city’s $15-million annual budget. In Orange, he was responsible for a $57-million annual budget.

“Bill Little has a vast amount of financial experience that will help us tremendously,” Councilman F. Burrows Esty said. “And he very definitely is a people person.”

Predecessor Quit

Camarillo officials have been looking for a city manager since July, shortly after Thomas W. Oglesby resigned.

Oglesby quit after auditors said he should have known that former Treasurer Donald Tarnow lost virtually all the city’s savings through risky investments.

Tarnow traded heavily in government securities that he would agree to buy at a certain price 30 days before the bonds were issued and the payment was due. When the bond market rose, with eager buyers bidding up the price of government securities, Tarnow could sell the bonds at a profit when the payment was due without having to spend any cash.

But when the bond market fell in 1987, Tarnow was caught holding more than $270 million worth of bonds that he was forced to sell at a loss, according to auditors. He used cash remaining in the city’s savings accounts to pay money he owed securities dealers. All told, he lost about $22 million in the bond market and invested about $3 million in failing businesses, auditors said.

Checks Bounced

The losses were first discovered in November when $16,000 in city checks bounced. Tarnow was fired in February.

City officials reviewed 130 applications before hiring Little, who will earn an annual salary of $98,000. Former City Manager Oglesby was earning $88,740 when he resigned in June, Acting City Manager Larry R. Davis said.

In July, the City Council set $93,744 as the top salary for the city manager. The council Thursday night said it raised the salary when it became apparent that “we would have to compete in a very intense and competitive marketplace.”

Little earned about $87,000 a year in Orange, a city of about 100,000 people. He said he is leaving his job to run Camarillo, which has about 48,000 people, because he wants to escape the urban sprawl of Orange County.

“Camarillo is a strong, viable community that just had a bad experience,” Little said. “My job is to take my considerable experience with municipal finances and close the chapter on that part of the city’s history.”