Treasurer highlights $1.4B scope, new payment pilots and asks for a treasury manager to sustain in-house services

Treasurer Sarah Benitar told the board her office has grown into a large, high-volume cash-management operation and is pursuing several technology and banking partnerships to improve speed, security and customer convenience.

"Safety, liquidity and yield," Benitar said as the guiding priorities for investing and managing public money, explaining the office invests hundreds of millions in pooled funds and also manages disbursements for more than a dozen school, fire and special-district debt-service schedules.

New services and savings: Benitar described three operational changes in FY26 that she says generated savings or improved service: switching to a lower-cost credit-card processor (reducing card fees to 1.95%), piloting a third-party automated-payments product for taxpayers (no cost to the county for the pilot), and moving to lockbox processing to speed payment posting. She said the officein-house investment management and cash-flow analysis would cost roughly $1 million a year if outsourced.

Budget and staffing requests: To institutionalize recent in-house capabilities and build resilience, Benitar asked the board to fund $50,000 in annual operational support for three years plus a three-year limited-term Treasury Manager to strengthen compliance, IT interfaces and operational continuity. She said the request reflects the growing regulatory complexity the office manages and the desire to embed processes so services continue regardless of elected-office turnover.

Board questions and next steps: Supervisors raised USPS and postmark concerns for mailed payments; Benitar said the office has used grace periods in past due-date cycles and would explore barcode tracking and other mitigations. The treasurers office will work with finance and IT on a longer-term technology strategy and return with additional detail as needed.