Rio Arriba County commissioners voiced frustration with the County Treasurer Monday for failing to come up with a plan for moving around millions of dollars of County money.
“The whole intention of this meeting was to have a plan in place,” County Commission Chairman Elias Coriz said indignantly at a special meeting of the Commission in Española.
County Treasurer Livia Olguin told the Commission Oct. 29 the County would need to move several million dollars from Community Bank in Tierra Amarilla. Olguin’s announcement came in a response to a letter from Community Bank Manager Jerry Miller explaining new policies at the bank would limit the County’s investments there to $13 million.
Miller said the new policy is in response to a directive from federal regulators. Community Bank is only a $200 million bank and the County’s investment was too high, he said.
“To have 10 percent of deposit from one customer is not prudent,” he said.
But rather than develop an investment strategy during the seven-and-a-half hour meeting, the Commission directed Olguin to come up with a plan later with County Manager Lorenzo Valdez and Comptroller Christine Montaño. A special meeting was scheduled for Monday to deal with the issue.
Olguin didn’t correspond with the other County officials because they were busy, Olguin said.
As of Monday the County had about $11.5 million in Community Bank, but that number would have risen above $13 million once the County collected property taxes in December, Valdez said. The issue Monday concerned $9 million in certificates of deposit, which were due to mature Tuesday.
“(Community Bank) will not accept reinvestment on the $9 million,” Olguin said.
Olguin said the County gets 2.08 percent interest on the CDs at Community Bank, and comparable investments at Valley National Bank would draw a flat 2 percent. Olguin said Century Bank offered 1.05 percent interest. The decision was important because the differences in interest rates could cost the County tens of thousands of dollars each year, Valdez said.
When pressed for a plan, Olguin suggested moving $5 million into a checking account at Community Bank and moving $4 million to another bank in the County. She justified the use of a checking account saying the money in the account would earn 3.3 percent annual interest, an amount that Valdez later said was actually .33 percent.
“If it’s .33, it’s not enough,” Olguin said after Valdez suggested she misstated the rate.
The Commission ultimately voted to give Valdez authority to deal with the financial issue himself, essentially sidestepping Olguin. Valdez said he intended to include Olguin in the decision-making process Tuesday.
“We’re just going to get a CD at Valley National Bank,” Valdez said after the meeting.