Countywide : Supervisors to Decide on Advisor

The Board of Supervisors is set to decide today whether to hire former state Treasurer Thomas W. Hayes as the county’s co-financial advisor.

Under the proposal, Hayes’ brokerage firm, Metropolitan West Securities, would be paid $500,000 to serve as financial advisor along with Salomon Bros. Inc. The contract is expected to run through the summer, when the county is scheduled to emerge from bankruptcy.

Salomon Bros. has agreed to reduce its annual compensation from $3 million to $2.5 million so the county will not have to pay extra for Hayes’ services.

Gov. Pete Wilson appointed Hayes for a short stint to help restructure the county’s collapsed investment pool in the weeks following the December 1994 bankruptcy. Since then, he has been tapped to oversee the county’s bankruptcy-related litigation.

The board is also expected to decide today whether to pay the Arthur Andersen accounting firm $340,000 to appraise a variety of county-owned parcels and buildings that officials plan to pledge as security for an $800-million bond sale.