Board of Supervisors Appoints Saladino as Treasurer-Tax Collector

The Board of Supervisors, meeting behind closed doors, voted 4 to 1 to name attorney Mark Saladino the county’s treasurer and tax collector, replacing Larry Monteilh, who is retiring after 30 years of county service.

The 40-year-old Saladino, now principal deputy county counsel, will head a sprawling financial bureaucracy that manages not only the county’s treasury, but also its investments. In the coming months, the supervisors will also appoint new directors of mental health, probation and internal services after a round of retirements by longtime county officials.

Supervisor Gloria Molina cast the only vote against Saladino’s appointment, during the executive session late Tuesday.

Her spokesman said the Eastside lawmaker felt that the board should have done a more extensive search, that she wasn’t prepared to make a decision just yet, and that the decision was “predetermined” by a board majority before the closed session.

Saladino has worked for the county counsel’s office for eight years. Before that, the New York law school graduate was a lawyer with the law firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, where he managed complex financial transactions for corporations, banks and public agencies.

Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Yvonne Brathwaite Burke also worked for Jones, Day before becoming a county supervisor.

While at the county counsel’s office, Saladino, 40, was its point man on treasury-related issues in recent years.

He will be paid $126,500 and started his new job Wednesday.

“I’m thrilled and I’m honored that the Board of Supervisors has seen fit to appoint me to this position,” Saladino said. “It’s quite an important position; the county borrows and invests a lot of money on behalf of itself and a lot of other jurisdictions.”

The treasurer is responsible for investing not only the county’s money, but the funds of about 90 school and community college districts and those of other cities and special districts that voluntarily “bank” through the county treasury.

The treasurer also is responsible for collecting and disbursing those monies, and for billing and collecting personal property taxes.

The treasurer collects transient occupancy taxes for the unincorporated areas of the county, as well as fees required under county business and public health licensing ordinances and monies owed the county for debts arising from receipt of public services such as medical care at county hospitals and health clinics.

And the office serves as the public administrator of the estates of county residents who die without known heirs, and provides trust accounting and property management services for mentally disabled people who are under the conservatorship of the public guardian.

As treasurer, Saladino will serve on the two boards of the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Assn., which oversees pensions for more than 100,000 current and former county employees.

Saladino said he would like to make the tax collection and billing system “a little more efficient” and more user-friendly by better integrating his office with the county assessor’s office, which values properties and assesses taxes, and the auditor-controller’s office, which prepares the tax bills.

Asked how he plans to do that, Saladino said: “That remains to be seen. I have various ideas I would like to look into.”

The supervisors’ decision paves the way for other searches for department heads.

The county’s mental health director, Areta Crowell, has already retired. The supervisors have not said whether they want to conduct an outside search for her replacement. Dr. Rod Shaner, the department’s medical director, has been named acting director.

William Stewart, director of the Internal Services Department, also retired recently. His former chief deputy, Joan Ouderkirk, is acting director while the board decides whether to go outside for a new chief.

The Internal Services Department handles all county computer systems, maintenance, purchasing, telecommunications and other administrative activities.

Meanwhile, the county is conducting a national search for a new chief probation officer after the retirement last year of longtime chief Barry Nidorf.

Acting Chief Probation Officer Walt Kelly is among those under consideration, as is Francisco Alarcon, director of the California Youth Authority. Also named as finalists are Kelly’s executive assistant, Richard Shumsky; Orange County’s chief probation officer, Michael Schumacher, and David Tristan, deputy director of the state Department of Corrections.