Supervisors to vote on stripping Street of power

Orange County Supervisors are expected to vote today on whether or not to strip embattled County Treasurer Chriss Street of investment power.

Street faces questions over how he handled county contracts to redesign his building and a $750,000 remodeling job of his office. Street also faces a federal investigation into his involvement with a trucking company that went bankrupt before he took office.

The issues surrounding the treasurer were exacerbated at a supervisors board meeting earlier this month when Street announced during the public comments section that Moody’s Investment Service might downgrade $460 million in securities from the county’s investment portfolio. The public comments section is typically reserved for private citizens to voice their opinions. Moody’s warning resulted in a $12.4 million loss on paper for the county in November. The bad news caught supervisors off guard. Street has been criticized in the past for a lack of communication skills, and was trying to notify the board of the problem as quickly as possible, Supervisor John Moorlach said.

— Brianna Bailey