The Situation, City by City

Except for Garden Grove and San Juan Capistrano, all of Orange County’s cities have at least some municipal funds in the county’s investment pool. Officials explained Monday what their cities’ exposure is and how they are responding:

Anaheim, $169 million:

“It’s unknown what we’ll do down the road, but we have no immediate plans to withdraw.”

--City Treasurer Charlene Jung

*

Brea, $9 million:

“We don’t plan to withdraw the funds. That’s what will cause a crisis, if everyone starts to take money out.”

--Assistant City Manager Tim O’Donnell

*

Buena Park, $18 million:

“At this point we’re not making any plans to consider that money lost.”

--Chief Financial Officer Greg Beaubien

*

Costa Mesa, $2.6 million:

“We understand their situation, but our request (to withdraw money) was made some two weeks before the announcement, and we expect them to honor it.”

--City Manager Allan L. Roeder

*

Cypress, $5.85 million:

“We’re going to be watching. . . . We’re not in a position where we have to cash out.”

--City Manager Darrell Essex

*

Dana Point, $16 million:

“When the dust settles, we’ll sort of know what’s going on, but getting all excited at this point in time doesn’t solve the problem.”

--City Manager Stephen Julian

*

Fountain Valley, $6 million:

“You buy an investment for the purpose of holding it to maturity. . . . Why would I withdraw from a fund I’m getting a good return from?”

--Treasurer and Fiscal Services Manager Elizabeth Fox

*

Fullerton, $18 million:

“We don’t anticipate that there will be any losses, so I don’t want to speculate about what could happen.”

--Accounting Manager Glenn Steinbrink

*

Huntington Beach, $43.5 million:

“To prematurely withdraw the funds before we know what we’re doing might be a mistake. . . . I don’t think I want to rush into that until we know the facts.”

--City Treasurer Don Watson

*

Irvine, $209 million:

The city, which had planned to withdraw $25 million in January, is now seeking to do so immediately. “Now that the cat is out of the bag, I think we all need to have a much clearer at-the-table knowledge.”

--City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr.

*

La Habra, $8.2 million:

“It’s my belief that there is a liquidity problem but not a problem of losing a dime.”

--City Manager Lee Risner

*

La Palma, $5 million:

“We’re going to take a look and do some analysis of our situation. . . . Unless there’s a drastic change, I think probably the recommendation will just be the status quo.”

--City Manager Pamela Gibson

*

Laguna Beach, $7 million:

“It doesn’t really appear to have any effect on our cash-flow position.”

--City Manager Kenneth C. Frank

*

Laguna Hills, $900,000:

“It is premature to say whether the city will withdraw money.”

--City Manager Bruce Channing

*

Laguna Niguel, $18.7 million:

“The city is looking into what the pros and cons are of staying in the pool and withdrawing from the pool.”

--City Manager Tim Casey

*

Lake Forest, $9.6 million:

“My advice has been that we stay where we are and not put any more money in but not cause a run on the pool.”

--Director of Administrative Services David Bass

*

Los Alamitos, $2 million:

“Obviously, we’re taking a look. But no action is contemplated at this time.”

--Chief Financial Officer Richard Patino

*

Mission Viejo, $18 million:

“We want to see what some of the larger players do and how the county will react. It is a complicated situation, and we certainly don’t want to do anything that will jeopardize our investment.”

--Assistant City Manager Dan Joseph

*

Newport Beach, $2.7 million:

“The council met Thursday evening and decided there was just not enough information at this time.”

--Chief Financial Officer Dennis Danner

*

Orange, $28 million:

“We’re in the process of hiring an outside consultant. . . . I think all of the agencies are calling upon advisers.”

--Mayor Joanne Coontz

*

Placentia, $20.7 million:

“We’ve already met and/or spoken to the majority of the council,” and have no plans at this time to take money out of the fund.

--Finance Director Howard Longballa

*

San Clemente, $34.6 million:

The city had no earlier plans to withdraw money and is “not seriously considering it, although we will monitor the situation closely.”

--City Treasurer Ken Carr

*

Santa Ana, $55 million:

“We don’t see this as an immediate problem. . . . We do have other types of investments.”

--Finance Director Rod Coloma

*

Seal Beach, $2 million:

“We will demand more information.”

--City Manager Jerry L. Bankston

*

Stanton, $3 million:

“It’s too early to know what direction to go. . . . We’re waiting to see if there are any further developments.”

--Director of Administrative Services Dean Porter

*

Tustin, $4 million:

The city began withdrawing its money from the pool in April after learning about the investment strategy “because we had a policy that prohibited the type of investments undertaken by the treasurer’s office.”

--City Manager William A. Huston

*

Villa Park, $1.3 million:

“We’ll be watching this very carefully. We’re not planning on bolting the system, but we’ll be watching it.”

--City Manager Fred Maley

*

Westminster, $100,000:

“We won’t be impacted. Even if we withdrew the $100,000, we’d lose $20,000. . . . We would just lose some interest.”

--Mayor Charles V. Smith

*

Yorba Linda, $13.5 million:

“The game plan is basically to stay put. . . . If everyone stays in, the principal is safe. We won’t make as much interest, but we didn’t plan on it anyway. We didn’t assume we’d get maximum benefit.”

--Assistant City Manager David A. Gruchow