Oceanside city treasurer charged on many fronts

Oceanside Treasurer Victor Roy faces serious charges from a city official he is supposed to work with, according to correspondence leaked to the public last week.

Those charges include allegations that Roy tried to get a city employee to contribute to his 2020 reelection campaign, that Roy lobbied to get the city to invest with brokerages already rejected by the city, and that Roy caused city staff to become “uncomfortable” because he was watching “inappropriate material” at the Mission Branch library.

Those charges were made by Treasury Manager Steve Hodges, the full-time employee who oversees Oceanside’s $550-million investment portfolio. He says that when he started working for Oceanside in October 2019, the city’s portfolio was approximately $350-million.

The Oceanside city treasurer is an elected official who regularly sits at city council meetings and his signature appears on all city checks. The position is largely ceremonial although his job duties say he is supposed to oversee and advise how Oceanside invests in income-yielding bonds.

Hodges lamented that he had to do “100 percent of the Treasury duties” due to Roy’s lack of input. “This has been brought to your attention on several occasions,” Hodges wrote to Roy.

It August 2021, wrote Hodges, when Roy was, “...caught looking at inappropriate material at the Mission Library across from your [mobile home]” Hodges wrote to Roy. “When I asked the branch manager about this, I was informed you thought it was OK because ‘nobody was there.’ This [news] made [finance department] staff very uncomfortable as you only came into the office after hours. I was informed by Jane [McPherson, former finance director] this concern was brought to management as a safety concern since we have females here at night actually doing work.”

The June 6 letter from Hodges to Roy followed a June 3 letter from Roy to Hodges that urged Hodges to start investing again with Higgins Management of La Jolla.

The Oceanside Code of Ethics and Conduct for Elected and Appointed Officials spells out that appointed officials should never get involved with the awarding of contracts.

Shortly after he joined the city of Oceanside as its principal investment decision maker, Hodges claims he stopped doing business with brokerages that sell riskier, high-commission products. He says that before he arrived and under Roy’s lax “oversight,” Oceanside lost millions due to poor investments. Hodges says that instead of doing business with nine different brokerages, Oceanside now just deals with two.

Roy was first elected treasurer in 2018 and re-elected in 2020. Hodges reminded Roy in the June 6 letter that Roy had asked Hodges to donate to his reelection campaign and that those donations should be made by friends or family members.

The Oceanside Code of Ethics and says elected officials should never solicit political support from city staff.

That code forbids elected officials from berating staff in public forums. At the May 24 meeting of the Citizens Investment Oversight Committee which Roy chairs, Roy chastised Hodges and his boss Financial Services Director Jill Moya. Roy said Hodges “...stopped performing his duties” and he accused Moya of not reading an investment policy.

Roy did not respond to attempts to get comments for this story.

Also at the Citizens Investment Oversight Committee meeting of May 24, Roy appeared to be in violation of the so-called Brown Act which governs public meetings in California. Roy would not let Assistant City Manager Michael Gossman speak. Roy made decisions unilaterally without asking for a vote of the committee, and at one point Roy said he would kick out the public and make the meeting private.

City attorney John Mullen verified that his office mandated that the Citizens Investment Oversight Committee reconvene for a special meeting two weeks later to “cure” chairman Roy’s Brown Act violations.

Possibly to avoid a potential lawsuit filed against the city of Oceanside, Roy was advised to read a prepared statement at that special June 6 meeting that corrected his statement that Oceanside city manager Deanna Lorson was fired in March. His correction made it clear that Lorson in fact “resigned in good standing.”

Regarding the awkward conflicts between Hodges and Roy, Mullen wrote via email: “My office is working with Mr. Hodges on resolving any remaining personnel issues raised in that correspondence.”

So what was Victor Roy watching at the Mission Branch of the Oceanside Library that would make him a “safety concern” at city hall? And what exactly is “inappropriate material?” A spokesman for the library who did not want their name used said that the Mission branch manager is on vacation and unreachable until July 5.

But Oceanside Depity Mayor Ryan Keim would comment.“The reported behavior exhibited by Mr. Roy is inappropriate and extremely concerning. “City staff deserves to be treated with dignity and respect at all times and if these allegations are substantiated, Mr. Roy needs to resign from his position as City Treasurer.”

One state-mandated function of the city finance department is that it must present its annual investment policy to the city council so that it can be approved by June 30 each year. The report was presented to the council for its approval at its June 24 meeting, Roy was not there, telling city staff he needed to get a booster shot. Finance Director Moya filled in for him.

The California Debt and Investment Advisory Committee says in its “Local Agency Investment Guidelines” suggests that Roy should not be serving as the chairman of the Oceanside Investment Oversight Committee. It says that when city or county treasurers act as chairman of their own oversight committees, it could represent a conflict of interest.

The Oceanside City Treasurer position has been roiled with controversy. In 2016 community activist Nadine Scott lost to Gary Ernst by eight percentage points even though Ernst died 47 days before the election.

In 2018 Victor Roy was elected although he was reluctant to describe his education or qualifications to be city treasurer.

In 2020 Treasurer Roy ran for reelection. Even though he ran unopposed, he opted to take out a candidate’s statement in the voter’s guide sent out by the county registrar. He refused to pay the $798 cost of that statement until the city threatened to initiate collection proceedings to collect it.