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Provided by Alan Ehrlich
Alan Ehrlich, a frequent critic of city spending practices and priorities has entered the race to become the next City Treasurer. “I’m excited to bring my twenty years of successful business and financial management experience to this role and the city. I love South Pasadena and I want to be the people’s watchdog.”
Ehrlich praises the job done by (current treasurer) Gary Pia, saying “he has left some big shoes to fill during his 3 terms holding the office. I’ve known Gary since the days we worked together on the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life here in the city.”
With the city still searching for a permanent Director of Finance and needing to hire a new accounting manager, Ehrlich believes he has a unique operational finance skill set that can benefit the department and city.
At city council meetings over the last several years, Ehrlich regularly questions payment of city attorney, Colotuono, Highsmith & Whatley’s invoices because of the thousands of dollars charged every month to Special Projects, what Ehrlich labels a black box catchall which council doesn’t want residents to know about. Ehrlich says, “In some months, ‘special projects’ may total twenty, thirty, even forty thousand dollars, as much as fifty percent of the entire legal services bill. That is outrageous and residents deserve to know what the council is spending those dollars on.”
Ehrlich has over twenty years of financial management, budgeting, forecasting and reporting with organizations including The Walt Disney Company and Universal Studios. Ehrlich received his Bachelors Degree in Economics from the University of Rochester, NY, and Masters in Business Administration from Loyola Marymount University. He has lived in South Pasadena since 2000 and raised his two children here. Ehrlich previously served on the Public Safety Commission and is a member of the South Pasadena Community Emergency Response Team, (CERT), since the program’s inception in 2013.
