Who Now Should Replace Citron? : Just pick the best person, and make Moorlach a top candidate

The Board of Supervisors in Orange County faces a crucial challenge. It must appoint someone to fill the vacancy in the treasurer’s office until the next regularly scheduled election, in 1996.

The county, having declared bankruptcy, has assembled a solid team to manage its fiscal crisis. But the post vacated by the man at the center of the storm, Robert L. Citron, who resigned earlier this month under fire, is for obvious reasons emblematic of the county’s efforts to get back on its feet. A lot can happen by 1996, when voters decide who fills the remainder of a four year-term that hasn’t even begun yet.

John Moorlach, the CPA who challenged Citron in last spring’s election, has said he wants the job. He has a strong claim in view of the concerns he raised. Though he lacks investment experience, a resume gap that stuck out last spring, a good case can be made that he should be given the chance to show what he can do.

Before there is a coronation, however, the county should be open to filling the vacancy with a top-tier professional money manager. Moorlach certainly should be considered first among contenders.

Let’s be clear, however, about exactly what sort of Paul Revere he was, at least for the bulk of the campaign. In recent weeks, Moorlach has been hailed by supporters as a prophet of impending calamity who was ignored. A letter he sent to the Board of Supervisors, just days before the voting, has gotten attention. Much of his campaign, however, centered on more modest claims. He raised questions about his comfort level with investment strategies that by his acknowledgment reaped the county generous benefits. He knew, and everybody who looked at this understood at the time, that the investment tools of the incumbent were being viewed widely by experts as risky but not inherently reckless.

What is now clear in hindsight is that everything depended on how the fund was managed as interest rates continued to rise in 1994. Only a prophet or mind reader could have known in the spring that Citron, with a long record of accomplishment, would essentially drive the fund off the edge. After the election, and even into the summer, he still borrowed unwisely to cover a bet from which he refused to retreat. And nobody in county government called him on it.

Even so, Moorlach’s contribution was considerable. He drew attention to the risk in assuming that the treasurer would make sound judgments when the going got rough. That was no small insight into investing or into human nature. His campaign promise, “I will conservatively invest the county’s portfolio,” now looks better than ever. If no clearly superior candidate turns up, give him the job.