Supervisors’ Double Standard for County Treasurer

Following revelations that the investment pool managed by San Mateo County Treasurer Lee Buffington lost $155 million in the wake of the collapse of the Lehman Brothers Investment Bank, San Mateo County Supervisors’ have called Buffington on the carpet, according to an article in the Almanac Newspaper.

Much of the investment pool consisted of city and school district reserve funds as well as bond funds. Districts such as the Sequoia Union High School District lost as much as $6.5 million. The San Mateo County Community College District, which has approximately $500 million invested with fund managed by Buffinton’s office, lost as much as $25 million – a loss that will likely impact the capital improvement program at the three colleges which as funded by bonds passed by county voters. Meaning simply, San Mateo County taxpayers will be paying off bonds for which they will get literally nothing in return for.

But the Supervisors’ quick call for answers from Buffington in no way mirrors the year of silence in which the Supervisors refused to require similar answers from San Mateo County Sheriff Greg Munks who was detained in April of 2007 at a Las Vegas brothel.

It was not until an in-depth expose was published in the San Mateo Daily News that the Supervisors’ even contemplated any public response to the Sheriff’s scandal – an incident that had the county sheriff and undersheriff detained at a Las Vegas brothel hosting underage women who were likely trafficked into the U.S. And the best part, the lawmen’s trip to Sin City was financed by San Mateo County taxpayers to the tune of $10,000.

But Munks had some political cover that Buffington does not have. As it turned out, Munks and his family had been and likely will be substantial political contributors to Supervisor Jerry Hill, who was running to succeed Gene Mullin in the State Assembly. Following the brothel incident, Hill consistently defended Munks despite mounting criticism. It wasn’t until Hill’s financial ties to Munks were exposed by his Assembly opponents that he and his fellow Supervisors took action. In an articled in the San Mateo County Times, Hill was blasted by his Assembly opponents for failing to take action.

Only weeks later, according to an article in the Times, did the Board of Supervisors finally take action by creating a Citizens Review Panel to investigate other county elected officials suspected of malfeasance. Such a panel, to be comprised of retired judges, prosecutors and Bar lawyers, will have the power to subpoena, hire investigators and return with a recommendation to the board of supervisors.

But Munks was never to be brought before this panel.

In the Times article, Jerry Hill stated that "This was created to deal with conduct prospectively, not retroactively," he said.

Unlike Munks, however, Buffington, when called by the Supervisors to respond to criticism, was compelled to defend his investment strategy under aggressive questioning by Hill, according to the article in the Almanac Newspaper. Perhaps Buffington should have donated as much to Hill as Munks.