Manhattan Beach to Pick New Treasurer--Fast

If you live in Manhattan Beach and feel comfortable handling an investment portfolio worth $10 million to $15 million, city officials would like to hear from you.

And soon.

Council members voted 4-1 Tuesday night to appoint someone to fill the vacancy created when Duncan Kelly, the city’s treasurer for 12 years, died Dec. 16.

However, those interested in the part-time, $200-a-month job must act fast--by noon Monday. State law requires the council to either schedule an election or appoint someone within 30 days of Kelly’s death.

Council members could have voted to hold a special election to fill the post but dismissed that idea primarily because of the cost: as much as $20,000.

Another option for the council--to schedule an election in November, when voters will elect three school board members--was also rejected.

“It’s an important position,” Councilman Bob Holmes said Wednesday. “It shouldn’t stay vacant that long.”

Special Session

The council will meet in special session Tuesday and announce its selection.

The appointee will hold office until April, 1992, when Kelly’s term would have expired. Applications for the post can be picked up at City Hall and must be filed with the city manager.

Councilwoman Connie Sieber, the lone dissenter in Tuesday’s decision, urged a November vote, arguing that city voters should have the right to choose the treasurer. In the meantime, she said, city employees who had worked closely with Kelly could perform the treasurer’s tasks.

“I feel there would be absolutely no disruption to the city to wait until November,” Sieber said.

Essentially, the treasurer’s job is to manage the city’s surplus funds, which fluctuate between $10 million and $15 million, officials said. Most of the money is kept in certificates of deposit from banks or savings and loan institutions.

The treasurer is required to draw up an investment policy, which must be approved by the council, and to report monthly to city officials. The treasurer is busiest during April and December, when the city receives its share of property tax revenues from the county.

Kelly, who died at 76 of a blood infection, had lived in Manhattan Beach for 43 years. A co-owner of a food brokerage company until his retirement, he was reelected to a fourth term last May.