TTC Update & Membership Meeting Invite for Wed., March 5, 2025

Dear OCEA member,

As you may know, the Orange County Board of Supervisors decided late last year not to renew the investment authority of Treasurer-Tax Collector Shari Freidenrich to manage the County’s investment pool of about $17 billion.

At this Tuesday’s Board meeting Feb. 25, 2025, the Supervisors discussed multiple reasons for their action. These included claims of a hostile work environment created by TTC Freidenrich; concerns of fiscal mismanagement; delays in processing transactions; high staff turnover; and an independent investigation from 2022 which found TTC Freidenrich violated the County’s workplace violence policy when she threw office keys at an employee.

At the meeting, Supervisor Wagner asked County employees to report issues and wrongdoings they see at their agencies.

“Come to our staff. Raise an issue, and allow us to do our oversight role, which was, frankly, too long in coming,” he said. “But I will say, it was long in coming because the courage of the employees that was demonstrated … that courage is rare. And I want to encourage the County family to have that courage going forward. We want to hear from you if there are problems we need to hear about. Because we want to fix them.”

You can watch the video here by clicking Item S36F at this link, and you can read an article about the meeting at LAist by clicking here.

For OCEA members and staff, we have worked to bring TTC issues to light since 2021 when we surveyed membership about the culture at TTC and reported our findings to the County.

After years of effort, much of it behind the scenes, OCEA is both vindicated and relieved that the Supervisors are addressing the TTC issues head on.

As a next step, OCEA staff will host a virtual TTC member meeting. We'll review the current status and provide members with an opportunity to provide feedback and make recommendations going forward.

TTC VIRTUAL MEETING ON ZOOM
When: 6-7 p.m. Wednesday, March 5, 2025 
Check home email for Zoom details or contact Michelle or Adam.

We’ll see you soon. If you have any questions before then, please message OCEA Senior Labor Relations Representative Michelle Rubio (mrubio@ocea.org) or OCEA Organizer Adam Ribota (aribota@ocea.org).

In Solidarity,

OCEA

Publication Date: February 28, 2025