Torrance’s Investment Wizard Lost Magic Touch : Finances: Officials are wondering whether one man should control portfolio after $6 million disappears.

To Torrance officials, City Treasurer Thomas C. Rupert has been their financial wizard.

Laboring largely in obscurity in an office at one end of City Hall, Rupert has been the longtime guardian of Torrance’s $77-million investment portfolio, keeping track of vast sums of city money in scores of accounts.

The City Council received regular written reports listing his investment decisions in fine print but filed them away without asking questions. Rupert, an elected official, only attended a handful of council meetings a year.

Then came last month’s disclosure that $6 million of Torrance’s money is missing. The money was entrusted to Newport Beach investment adviser Steven D. Wymer, who has pleaded not guilty to 30 counts of securities fraud and other charges.

And now Rupert finds himself in an unfamiliar and uncomfortable position on center stage, having his decisions questioned by city officials who are wondering whether the city treasurer should continue to have sole authority over the city’s investment portfolio.

Rupert, in an interview last week, dismissed the City Council’s talk of reining in his authority as “an overreaction.” But he acknowledged that it is hard to explain how the money disappeared.

“It would have been better,” Rupert said, “if Wymer had walked in the door, pointed a gun at me and said, ‘Give me your money. . . .’ I know that’s what happened. We were robbed.”

And that experience, he said, his voice gripped with emotion, “is the worst thing that’s happened to me my entire life.”

Rupert, 58, a former travel agency owner who has been Torrance’s treasurer since 1964, is well-respected inside and outside the city. James R. Armstrong, Torrance’s mayor from 1978 to 1986, credits Rupert with earning tens of millions of dollars for the city. “I think he’s a great treasurer,” Armstrong said. “Absolutely great.”

On the state level, Rupert was a longtime leader of the California Municipal Treasurers Assn. and speaks proudly of helping write state laws governing how public money can be invested. He was the prime mover for at least three bills sponsored by state Sen. Robert G. Beverly (R-Manhattan Beach) that set guidelines for municipal investments.

Rupert is “a very imposing and impressive guy,” said Colton Treasurer Mike Williams. “He’s kind of like the godfather (of treasurers), so if you could get Tom to buy into something, that was kind of like the seal of approval.”

Despite the controversy, Rupert frequently came across as assured and feisty during last week’s interview. He strongly defended his decision--unrelated to the Wymer case--to invest $1 million in 10-year U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development mortgages, saying: “I don’t consider one-sixtieth of the portfolio (as) tying up funds.”

And while he is following the advice of city auditors and is removing $10 million to $15 million of Torrance’s $40 million from the financially struggling Glendale Federal Bank, Rupert adds, “I don’t think Glendale has a problem. Just too much money in one place--in their opinion.”

At other times, Rupert seemed less sure of himself.

Pressed for details about the HUD mortgages, he repeatedly referred a reporter to Timothy McDuffie, whom Rupert described as the agent handling the investment. McDuffie did not return telephone calls last week.

Rupert is also being asked why he invested $1 million in the 10-year HUD mortgages, despite a city policy encouraging investments to be limited to five years.

And a review of city records shows flaws in Rupert’s reporting of investments to the City Council. The reports, due monthly, are often filed late. Reports for June through December, 1987, were not filed until late March, 1988. And many of the reports for 1988 and 1989 were apparently never filed. Computer problems may have been partly to blame, Deputy Treasurer Linda Barnett said.

Rupert says the city’s system for handling managing and reporting investments is sound, saying that it has served the city well over the years. For instance, Rupert’s investments earned $5.9 million for the city in the 1990-91 fiscal year. In Torrance, the treasurer has sole authority to manage the city’s investment portfolio.

But now, some council members are rethinking that authority.

“We don’t have simply the loss of $6.1 million. We have that and the disclosures of other problems that need an answer,” said Councilman Dan Walker, who says he has long supported having the treasurer appointed rather than elected.

After being appointed city treasurer in 1964 to fill an unexpired term, Rupert was elected to the post in 1966. He has been reelected ever since with little or no opposition. The job pays $68,642 a year.

A Midwest native, Rupert grew up in San Pedro and Long Beach and has lived in Torrance since 1957. During high school, he washed airplanes at Los Angeles International Airport.

He said he spent four years in the U.S. Air Force, where he studied business administration for two years. He later opened a travel agency called Space Age Travel and another called Action Travel. He was active for years in area Democratic politics.

Later he was made the city’s state legislative analyst. And in 1975, city records show, the City Council granted him the authority for city investments.

Friends describe Rupert as highly intelligent and energetic.

“He’s got a fine mind, and he studies things, and reads, until he understands things,” said City Clerk John Bramhall, citing Rupert’s interest in automobile restoration.

“He’s always done his homework on people we’ve invested in,” Barnett said.

And he has an uncanny sense of the stock market, she said: “He amazes me. He’ll say things are going to do this, or that. . . . “

Rupert often arrives at his office at 5:30 a.m. or 6 a.m. to check the East Coast markets, departing around lunchtime, Barnett said. He monitors the stock market on a television set while he punches information into a computer and places calls to banks.

He can tie into the city computer system from his homes in South Torrance and in Palm Springs. “The first thing I do in the morning is pull up all the bank activity,” Rupert said.

Computers have become a sideline for Rupert, who says he is intrigued by them. He established his own computer hardware and software sales and leasing business, called Computer Media Systems, which he valued at more than $100,000 in his 1990 economic disclosure report.

He estimates he sold only three computers last year. Recent customers include Bramhall and City Councilman Timothy Mock.

Rupert has prided himself over the years on his financial acumen. When he ran for reelection in 1990, Rupert issued a statement to voters touting his prudent policies.

“Many public agencies have lost millions of dollars due to mismanagement and/or a blatant disregard for the rules of public money management,” he wrote. “I have always known whose money I held in trust. . . . “

The missing $6 million has devastated Rupert, according to one friend.

“I think he’s absolutely shocked to think this could happen,” said Mayor Katy Geissert.

His wife, Marie Rupert, said Rupert has always taken pride in his job. “He did everything in his power to avoid anything like this,” she said. “He’s made a lot of money for the city because he’s had good investments. And now, all of a sudden, the pressure’s put on him.”

When Rupert speaks of Wymer now, his voice is tinged with bitterness. He said he only met Wymer in person a few times and had no reason to believe that Torrance’s money was in jeopardy.

Wymer called the treasurer’s office frequently. “The phone calls always said the same thing: ‘I’m sure making you a lot of money,’ ” Rupert recalled.