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In the beginning
there was Tim Shugrue, Treasurer of Glendale, California.
Because he felt it was important that City Treasurers get
together for lunch on a regular basis, to discuss common problems,
he invited several local treasurers to participate in monthly
meetings. By 1959, this group had grown to 20 and they chartered
the California Municipal Treasurers Association with Tim as
its first President.
Letters were mailed
to treasurers of all cities over 5,000 in population, explaining
the purpose of the organization and inviting them to the first
seminar that was held in San Mateo in April 1960. Annual dues
were established at $5 for city members and $20 for associate
members. At the Sacramento seminar in 1961, the state was
divided into seven divisions to facilitate holding luncheon
meetings within reasonable driving distance in each division.
With the help
of the State Treasurer, Bert Betts, and the use of the well-written
brochure, Let's Climb on the Band Wagon, membership and attendance
at the annual seminars in Monterey in 1962, San Diego in 1963,
and Santa Rosa in 1964 grew by leaps and bounds. In 1964,
The City Treasurer and the Law was published by the League
of California Cities. At the 1965 seminar in Bakersfield,
board members were asked to come up with the logo or emblem.
The logo chosen, and still used by CMTA, was designed by Leona
(Paine) Gealta, San Fernando. The first roster was printed
as a booklet. Also it was decided to send invitations nationwide
to cities of over 10,000 in population for the 1966 seminar
in Palo Alto, and 20 out-of-state treasurers attended.
In 1967, at the
seminar in Anaheim, more out-of-state treasurers attended
which led to the first meeting of the National Municipal Treasurers
Association in Washington, D.C. in 1968. CMTA met in Sacramento
that year, proud that their leadership was instrumental in
starting the National Association. For the next year, both
organizations shared the newsletter, Treasury Digest, after
which it became the communication medium for MTA. In 1967,
CMTA began its support of proposed legislation by authorizing
Walter Reed, Pasadena, to travel to Sacramento to speak on
CMTA's behalf. This was just the beginning of CMTA's active
legislative roll.
In April 1968,
the Constitution was amended to provide for membership of
retired treasurers as "sustaining members." After
the seminar in Santa Barbara in 1969, the first Treasurers
Newsletter was published to keep everyone informed on CMTA
announcements, treasury-related issues, and a handbook was
authorized for printing and sale.
The seminars held
in Pasadena in 1970, San Jose in 1971, and San Diego in 1972,
reflected continued strong leadership that refined CMTA's
goals and objectives. After the 1973 seminar in Fresno the
roster was expanded by Gloria Curry, Del Mar, to include individual
and organization names.
Additional membership
growth was reported at the seminars held in Monterey in 1974
and Palm Springs in 1975. After the Santa Cruz seminar in
1976, Jesse Unruh, State Treasurer, established the Local
Agency Investment Fund, which has been very helpful to small
cities. At the seminar held in Newport Beach in 1977, George
Ramos, Imperial Beach, volunteered to head a committee to
develop what became The City Treasurers Handbook. In San Jose
in 1978, Dewey Evans, Mountain View, proposed what has become
CMTA's Certification Program to advance the professional level
of Municipal Treasurers. It became the model for the certification
program instituted by the Municipal Treasurers Association
of the United States and Canada.
In 1978, a team
of Treasurers made up of Mary Turner, Fullerton; Yvonne Calmes,
West Covina; Richard McCoy, San Jose; Tom Rupert, Torrance;
George Ramos, Imperial Beach; Dewey Evans, Mountain View;
and Marcus Woodard, Sierra Madre, realized the need to further
educate Treasurers and their staff. As a result of recognizing
this need they organized and facilitated the first educational
workshops.
At the 1979 annual
seminar in San Diego, the membership approved a budget, which
included two educational workshops a year, one in the North,
the second in the South. The committee conducting these workshops
has continued to receive its inspiration and dedication from
the example set by the late Marcus Woodward, Sierra Madre,
which led to the establishment of the Marcus Woodward Memorial
Fund in recognition of his efforts.
Marcus Woodward
was a soft spoken, gentle and easygoing person. His life was
dedicated to helping others. After working for the County
of Los Angeles for 40 years, he "retired" and became
Treasurer of Sierra Madre. In his spare time he was on the
Boy Scout Board of Directors, edited and produced a 12-page
monthly newspaper for the Masonic Order, taught communication
at a nearby college and was on the board of directors for
CMTA. Although he was in his 70s, he completed a salary survey,
initiated a statewide membership drive and helped get our
education program off the ground. He died while serving as
president-elect in 1980.
The seminars held
in Sacramento in 1980 and Indian Wells in 1981 had important
sessions on the increasing complexity of investments. After
the 1982 seminar in San Mateo, mini-workshops were held in
each of the seven divisions, pre-conference workshops also
began this same year. In 1988, the Board added an advanced
two-day workshop, which was held in Arcadia, and in 1989,
it was held in Yountville. Our Association celebrated its
25th Silver Anniversary in 1984. At this anniversary seminar,
the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct was approved by
the membership.
In 1984-85, President
Tom Friery, Sacramento, appointed a joint Professional Standards
Committee to work with the California County Treasurers Association
and the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers on
issues relative to all three organizations. Mary Turner, Anaheim,
chaired a committee, which developed a document of Investment
Policy and Guidelines.
In 1988-89, Zenda
James, Union City, chaired a committee to review and update
this document. In 1989-90, Patricia Elliott, Pomona, chaired
the committee, which completed and distributed the revision
of the Statement of Investment Policy. The revision is a new
document, which offers generic policy suggestions and considerations
when creating a policy for your agency.
Pat Elliott also
came up with the idea of a "Past-President's Pin"
and the first pins were presented to all the past-presidents
in Bakersfield in 1986. This same year, our first Past-President's
raffle was held. Chaired by Mary Turner, Anaheim, members
and associates donated the gifts, which were raffled off to
the tune of $1,200 with the proceeds pledged to the CMTA Education
Fund.
In 1988, the Board
approved a Certificate of Compliance for Governmental Associates,
which states they have completed all the requirements for
Certification. President Pat Elliott, Pomona, appointed a
General Plan Committee to review such items as divisional
boundaries, divisional activities, term of office and other
matters relating to how CMTA does business.
In 1989, the newsletter
received a new look and purpose. CMTA contracted with a graphic
designer to redesign the newsletter and give it a new name,
Dollars & $ense. As the newsletter is the most important
communication tool that we have, educational articles were
introduced making it a professional publication.
During 1990-91,
President Gordon Ford, Palo Alto, stressed improving the image
of municipal treasurers and building better relations with
other organizations. Mary Turner, City of Anaheim, developed
a manual called Understanding Your Treasury and Finance Departments.
In 1991-92, the
CMTA Board of Directors placed high priority on actively working
for state legislation, which would improve Treasury operations.
With the assistance of many Treasurers throughout the state,
CMTA succeeded in introducing AB 2274 (Alpert), which will
allow full cost recovery for processing NSF checks. During
this year, as a result of Suzanne Salter's efforts, a much-needed
new brochure was produced for the CMTA Certification Program
and the new Certificate of Compliance for Government Associates.
During 1992-93,
the Board of Directors made a concerted effort to review our
organization's policies and procedures. Steps were taken to
improve our internal control system of accounting for receipts
and disbursements between our committees and the league office;
discussions began to review the membership status of our government
associate members; general guidelines were established to
help determine which items of proposed legislation we should
support, oppose, or take no position; and, division chairs
were asked to review their boundaries to determine if changes
were necessary to make divisions more efficient. The 1993-94
board was then left with the task of completing each of these
projects.
1993-94 proved
to be a "clean-up" year. Committee work that had
started some four years earlier was concluded with the addition
of four new divisions, one in the southern half of the state
and three in the northern. Another committee researched negative
input from Government Associate members and recommended that
the Board of Directors equalize the dues structure and the
educational workshop registration fees for both active and
Government Associate members. This was accepted by the Board
and the new dues/registration fee structure went into effect
for the 1994-95 fiscal year.
In 1994-95 Orange
County filed bankruptcy due to enormous losses in the County
Pool. This action by Orange County affected the confidence
in local government's investment and borrowing programs in
California. The losses and lack of confidence created quite
a flurry in Sacramento with twenty-four plus proposed senate
bills before the various committees in Sacramento to vote
on. President Mirabelli appointed three additional members
to CMTA's Legislative committee to assist the Legislative
Chair with review and reporting on the status of this proposed
legislation. In addition, CMTA worked very closely with our
sister organizations, CSMFO, CACTIC, and the League of California
Cities in developing joint responses on the proposed legislation.
1995-96 was a
very active year both externally and internally for CMTA.
As a follow up to 1994-95, SB866 and SB564 became laws mandating
reporting and investment related requirements.
In addition to
the beginning and advanced education workshops, the Education
Committee also held five Governing Board Workshops throughout
the State of California. The workshop purpose was to assist
local governing boards for both cities and special districts,
in understanding their role and responsibility as it relates
to investments. The response to the workshops was extremely
positive.
CMTA also worked
on a join project with CDAC, the League, Special Districts
Associations, the California Association of County Treasurers
and Tax Collectors and CSMFO to develop an information video
on investments.
Internally, the
Board of Directors held a workshop devoted entirely to reviewing
and updating CMTA Bylaws. Along with the revisions to the
Bylaws, policy and procedure manuals were developed for all
of the Standing Committees and Chairs.
1996-97 was a
year of polishing and refining. Our CMTA Treasurer's Handbook
was completely revised from front to back, including the Appendixes,
to reflect to current law. The Handbook also, for the first
time, became available on disk. The final printed Board Manual
was presented to the Board by Past President Adair Most who
was the catalyst for its creation. The information video on
investments was mailed to all Mayors in the State of California.
The Local Agency Investment Guidelines, a joint effort of
CMTA, CDAC, CSMFO and others, were mailed to City Treasurers
and are available nationally through the League. We became
a member of the World Wide Web with the help of Eric Frost
and the City of Watsonville. We can be reached at www.cmta.org.
Our education
committee, under the leadership of Jean Ruth, revised our
workshop format by adding a highly successful Intermediate
Workshop. Jean submitted our workshops programs to MTA US
& C and for the first time, CMTA received pre-approved
MTA certification points. The committee also presented a Governing
Boards session at both the League of California Cities Annual
Conference and their Leadership Academy.
During 1998-99,
President Gierhart added a position of Special District Liaison
to the Board of Directors. The Board voted unanimously to
recommend a change in the by-laws to allow special district
and other local government treasurers full active membership.
This change was voted on at the annual meeting on April 21,
1999 and was approved by the general membership. An effort
was led by Commercial Liaison, Les Wells to form a consortium
of commercial associate members. At the 1999 annual conference,
the consortium became a reality and was a huge success.
During 1999-2000,
Commercial Liaison Les Wells recruited Camee Lewis to lead
a committee of Commercial Associates who developed and successfully
implemented the first CMTA Education Golf Tournament for the
benefit of the education programs.
During 2000-01,
the Board decided to develop a Conference Committee to help
coordinate and organize the Annual CMTA Conference. The purpose
is to work along with the Host City, distribute work assignments
and responsibilities among Committee Members. The goal is
to relieve the overall burden of a Host City to be fully responsible
for the coordination of the Annual Conference from year to
year. It is a process of forming a partnership between the
Host City and CMTA. And making this a positive experience
for City's interested in hosting an Annual Conference.
During 2003/04
there was a significant permanent change in the annual conference
as the membership voted to officially have the Conference
Chair and Conference Committee brought back in-house and to
not rely on cities to host an annual conference. This came
after a two-year successful pilot program. In addition, the
President-Elect's duties were changed to no longer be the
Conference Program Chair and to focus on membership recruitment
and retention. In conjunction with the above, a complete update
of the standing rules including updates of all board positions
was started. A commercial resource directory by type of services
performed was completed by the Commercial Associate liaison
in time for the next year's CMTA roster and should be useful
tool for new and existing Treasurers looking for services
and whom might provide them.
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