by Mark McDermott 

Finance Director Steve Charelian is retiring after a 35 year career with the City of Manhattan Beach. His final day is July 5. 

Charelian has served as the head of the Finance Department since 2018, taking over after his predecessor, Bruce Moe, was named City Manager. He had big shoes to fill. Moe was lauded locally and regionally for his stewardship of city finances and particularly in helping Manhattan Beach earn its much-vaunted AAA bond rating, the highest credit rating possible for a city. 

Charelian proved more than up to the task. During his tenure, the City faced one of the biggest financial challenges in its history, the COVID-19 pandemic. Charelian provided a steady, experienced hand, and the City emerged from the pandemic on strong footing. Charelian was instrumental in helping the City make some critical course corrections, such as seizing on historically low interest rates to issue $91 million in pension obligation bonds, saving an estimated $31.8 million over the next 25 years in retirement costs. Likewise, Charelian played a key role in addressing gaps in City funding, including an increase to its transient occupancy tax that generated $1.25 million annually and helped pay for 10 additional police officers; and the passage of a ballot measure last fall that provided $2.1 in annual revenue, replacing a subsidy of the City’s Storm Water Drain enterprise fund that had already bled the City’s General Fund of $6 million and threatened to take another $11.6 million over the next five years. 

Moe, at the June 4 council meeting at which Charelian introduced his final budget, took a moment to praise the finance director for the vital, time-consuming, and often thankless tasks he undertook. 

“Steve has just been a tremendous asset to the City,” Moe said, referencing Charelian’s accomplishments over the last six years. “The one thing I’ll say about Steve, is he’s kind of like that song, ‘Put me in coach, I am ready to play.’ It didn’t matter how much was on Steve’s plate, he would always come to me and say, ‘How can I help you?’ And that was true with the TOT, the pension obligation bonds, any of those projects. Steve was the first one to step up and say, ‘I know I’ve got a lot of shrimps on my barbie,’ as he would say, but he was always willing to take on additional. I want to publicly thank Steve for that.” 

Charelian said the he as not a “maestro with words” like Moe, but offered a few words to mark the occasion. He began his career with Manhattan Beach in July, 1989, he noted, which was only two months after Moe was hired by the city. 

“So we kind of had that career path together and grew together and learned and everything together,” he said. “My 35 year tenure has been filled with wonderful professional opportunities. I really want to express my gratitude to Bruce for entrusting me with the role of finance director. For nearly the last six years together, we achieved significant milestones of fortifying the city’s financial framework.” 

Charelian and Moe were both devotees of former City Controller Henry Mitzner, the no-nonsense municipal philosopher who worked for the City of Manhattan Beach for 48 years before retiring in 2020. Charelian learned early in his career, by observing Mitzner, that that traditional 9 to 5 workweek meant nothing —  weekends, early mornings and late nights, he’d see Mitzner come to City Hall when there was work that needed to be done. Through the years, Mitzner peppered him with words of wisdom from his own heroes —  the likes of football coach Vince Lombardi and basketball coach John Wooden. Charelian recalled one of those Wooden quotes at the time of Mitzner’s retirement: “Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” 

At this week’s meeting, Charelian’s last, the City Council held a brief ceremony recognizing his contributions. Moe recalled an instance in which Charelian did just what that Wooden quote advised, although in a uniquely Charelianesque way. In 2008, the City’s revenue service director was retiring, Moe said, and Charelian applied for the position. Moe was hesitant, because he just didn’t think Charelian was “quite ready.”  

“And Steve, being the social guy that he is, and the closer that he is, invites me to Il Fornaio for a happy hour,” Moe recalled. “So we sit there, and by the end of 45 minutes and a couple glasses of wine and a few margherita pizzas, Steve had me convinced, because he brought so many qualities… that gave me a nice runway. He was just always there, on the spot, to get things done. But it was that enthusiasm, that intangible thing that you can’t necessarily learn. It’s just part of Steve’s personality that really sold it, and I never looked back.” 

Mayor Pro Tem Amy Howorth went through the many notes of recognition sent by neighboring cities as well as MBUSD, State Senator Ben Allen, U.S. Congressman Ted Lieu, and even more unusually —  particularly for a finance director —  the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and State Treasurer Fiona Ma. 

“So you have touched not just all of us and the residents in our town, but obviously been a presence in the county and have been recognized by state leaders,” Howorth said. “It is so well deserved and well earned. You have done excellent work with your whole heart, and you’ve even convinced some of my colleagues that they were wrong, I’ve been told…. [which speaks to] how much we have trusted your judgment and how much that has meant to all of us in our community. Because there’s numbers on a page, but they tell a story, and you have helped us understand that story, and write the story for our community.” 

Councilperson Steve Napolitano, who was first elected to council in 1992, three years after Charelian began his career, said he was among those sometimes convinced to change his mind by Charelian’s arguments. 

“I want to say, Steve, as a friend, we’ve shared a lot of thoughts together and dedication to this city,” Napolitano said. “And you know that thing about being wrong and changing gears? We’ve had so many great discussions over the years where I think we’ve pushed each other to get outside the norm and our comfort zones. We’ve gotten —  you’ve gotten —  a number of things passed that have put this city on a financial foundation that is going to keep us in good stead, especially our recent vote on storm drains. You’ve helped get us 20 years of good budgets, and now we need to address our CIP [Capital Improvement Projects] and you’ve set us up for that.” 

“The good folks who work in any institution, especially here in the City, are the ones who leave the place better than how they found it,” Napolitano said. “And Steve, you’ve done an amazing job here. You’re leaving Manhattan Beach in a better place than you found it…As a dedicated employee who bleeds Manhattan Beach, you can’t look for a better employee than someone who just believes in what they’re doing.” 

Councilperson Richard Montgomery, who worked closely with Charelian as mayor during the Great Recession and then again as mayor at the onset of the pandemic, said that so much of what Charelian has done is work that is essential but unknown to the general public, such as successfully “clawing” for federal reimbursement for funds needed during the pandemic. 

“All these things you don’t see behind the scenes, this is the guy who made it happen,” Montgomery said. “Along with Bruce, and learning from Howard Fishman in Risk Management, and Henry Mitzner from the old Finance days. It’s a long succession of leaders here, and in finance you don’t see them all, and all the work goes unheralded. But we know what they do.” 

Mayor Joe Franklin presented a gift from the City, a green street sign that said, “Charelian Way.” 

“We are going to add that to Google Maps, right?” Franklin said. 

Charelian closed with some brief remarks, thanking his wife, RC, and his sons Knox and Chase, as well as the council and the City employees he worked alongside. Charelian, a Manhattan Beach resident whose unconventional professional journey began at El Camino College, vowed to remain steadfast in his dedication to the community. 

“I leave with a profound sense of gratitude for the privilege of serving a City of Manhattan Beach employee for the past 35 years,” he said. “The lessons learned and relationships forged will forever hold a special place in my heart. Thank you all for this incredible opportunity and for being part of my remarkable journey. This isn’t goodbye, but I’ll see you later.” ER

New York state’s new public-campaign-funding scheme couldn’t be more ripe for fraud and abuse.

In the lead-up to the June 25 primaries, the state’s Public Campaign Finance Board doled out more than $8.6 million in matching-fund payments to 69 state legislative candidates — with no real guardrails to prevent shady candidates from ripping off the taxpayers.

The board looks to be as feckless as the Cannabis Control Board, which not-so-coincidentally was also launched under Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

In a fit of responsible local journalism, The New York Times has chronicled, how Dao Yin, a Flushing Democrat who filed to run for state Assembly, apparently used straw donors to scam the system out of $162,800 in taxpayer-financed matching funds.

Naturally, New York funds the most generous statewide public-matching-funds system in the nation: A single $50 donation nets $600 in public funds while a maximum $250 contribution garners $1,800.

For contributions between $5 and $250 from legislative district residents, the public match is 12-to-1 for first $50, 9-to-1 for next $100 and 8-to-1 for the following $100.

And the board’s “oversight” doesn’t seem to go much beyond sending out the checks.

The Times’ review of Yin’s contribution cards found a host of red flags:

• At least 48 alleged donors who said they never heard of Yin denied making the alleged contributions and said their signatures were forged; some said they no longer resided at the addresses listed.

• Almost $28,000 in cash coming from small donors.

• Most of his his donations, 80%, came in cash — about 15 times the average cash share of contributions for Assembly candidates participating in the system.

• Multiple “donor” records missing key required contact information or with other errors.

• Dao Yin was the campaign treasurer, chief fundraiser and candidate.

The board liaison to the Yin campaign missed all of this — and took Yin’s word that he sent so-called “good-faith” letters to validate questionable donors.

To be fair, the city Campaign Finance Board may have been as lax: For his 2020 borough president and 2021 City Council campaigns, he got over $1 million in city matching funds.

(The city board also needs to complete its 2023 City Council campaign audits, too, as the 2025 election season is upon us.)

The state idiocy was baked in from the start:

An April 2018 Siena poll found that nearly two-thirds of New York voters opposed public funding of state elections when told it would cost an estimated $100 million every two years — at least.

But Cuomo and the Legislature went ahead anyway, creating a commission to devise the system in March 2019.

They stacked it with political operatives, such as election lawyer and former de Blasio fixer Henry Berger and state Democratic Party boss Jay Jacobs — for whom Cuomo suspended a state regulation that prevented political party bosses from serving in “policy making” posts in state government.  

Today, the PCFB chair and vice chair are former state lawmakers Barbara Lifton (D) and Brian Kolb (R): That is, bipartisan patronage posts.

But the geniuses also left basic guardrails missing, such as:

• Mandatory post-election audits of every campaign.

• Sufficient staff to review and monitor campaign filings.

• The board has no independent subpoena power to pursue rogue campaigns.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money for political appointees to dole out is a magnet for the corrupt.

The state program is a boon for incumbent lawmakers and their unscrupulous challengers — and another needless drain on taxpayers’ wallets.

ALBANY — New York State has issued an emergency order to better verify contributors to campaigns before the state matches cash contributions under the new public campaign financing program.

The order was made two days after the June primary and in the midst of the program’s biggest rollout leading to the November legislative elections. It followed a media report that claimed the system was abused by an Assembly candidate who secured nearly $163,000 in taxpayer funds under the program, some of it with cash donations without a way to verify or contact the contributor.

The emergency amendment approved by the New York State Public Campaign Finance Board on June 27 requires that “contribution cards” that were already required for cash donations must include a phone number or email address so contributors can be verified.

The State Legislature created the program to limit the influence of wealthy donors. This election year, the first major use of the program, has drawn 316 candidates vying for 213 state legislative races. They have qualified to receive part of $100 million in state-funded matches to encourage small donations, $5 to $250, from individuals.

The response to the program by challengers and incumbents has exceeded the predictions of even the program’s most ardent supporters, but hasn’t come without problems.

The amendment came after The New York Times reported on fundraising by Assembly candidate Dao Yin in the June 25 primary. The Times said the Queens Democrat used “fake donations and forged signatures” in a campaign that received almost $163,000 in taxpayer money under the new public finance system.

Yin denied he faked contributions. “Everything we say is distorted” in the news media, Yin told Newsday.

In a written statement, he said his campaign workers “adhered to all the necessary procedures to meet the matching funds requirements. In the event of any inadvertent errors, they are actively collaborating with the New York State Public Campaign Finance Board to rectify them.”

The amendment resolution approved by the campaign finance board said, “Mandating that the contributor’s phone number or email address be provided on a contribution card would greatly assist in the audit and process of contributions in order to pay matchable funds, but are not currently required to be provided.” 

“The matching claim would be denied until that information is supplied,” said William J. McCann, co-program manager of the public campaign finance unit, at the June 27 meeting.

The amendment also ends the use of “good-faith letters” that campaigns can attach to donations with too little information to verify the identity of the contributor. Campaigns could provide the letter to say they tried but failed to get the information. Before the amendment, that could have allowed a campaign to receive a matching fund from the state.

“The implementation of the policy of accepting good-faith letters was not a regulation, but rather adopted during program development by bipartisan staff,” said Kathleen McGrath, spokeswoman for the state Board of Elections. “The good-faith letters were to capture a phone number or email address of a cash contributor if not included on the associated contribution card. These data points were not required to be submitted by a committee under the statute for public funds matching, but were an effort by the [state Public Campaign Finance Board] to go above and beyond in auditing submissions. “

With the amendment, “The policy of accepting good-faith letters has been rendered moot,” McGrath said.

The state Board of Elections didn’t immediately release data on the number of letters of good faith that have been accepted. Newsday has requested the data under the Freedom of Information Law.

Two other complaints were handled this year as part of the public campaign financing program, according to Public Campaign Finance Board records.

In April, the board received a complaint that Democrat Gabi Madden’s campaign violated state election law by using a prohibited “game of chance” as a fundraiser in her unsuccessful race to represent parts of Dutchess and Ulster counties in the Assembly. In June, the board dismissed the case without further enforcement action after the campaign refunded the contributions.

In May, the board investigated a complaint that Madden’s campaign failed to report expenditures or in-kind contributions for use of the campaign office. In June, the board dismissed the case without further enforcement action after the campaign amended its required financial disclosures.

At the same June 27 meeting in which the state Public Campaign Finance Board approved the emergency amendment, the board also authorized a referral to law enforcement in another case without saying who or which campaign was the subject of the referral.

McGrath wouldn’t comment.

Board vice chairman Brian Kolb, a Republican who when he served in the Assembly opposed public financing of campaigns, defended the rollout.

“We have a very solid process in place,” Kolb told Newsday. “With any new program, you might find some things that we probably should do a little bit differently … but if there are any issues, we fix them and that’s the whole approach.”

Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group, which supported public financing of campaigns, said “it’s not surprising there are hiccups the first time through.”

He said the Legislature should review this first year’s performance to determine if any changes are needed to improve accountable and thwart “people who are looking to game the system.”