Few Chula Vistans can spell Maria Kachadoorian's name. Even fewer – as in no one – stop her in the grocery store to say thank you.
Yet what Kachadoorian did just last year alone is saving some 11,856 Chula Vista households $63 to $324 annually. That's because she refinanced so-called Mello Roos bonds for eight residential tracts in eastern Chula Vista, lowering the homeowners' property tax bills each year going forward. Live in Otay Ranch Spa 1 (two phases), San Miguel A, Sunbow II (Villages 5-10) or Otay Ranch/McMillin Spa 1? Yes, she saved you.
Kachadoorian is finance director of Chula Vista. Her duties include supervising the city's financial reporting, making presentations to Wall Street investment types – and lowering Chula Vistans' tax bills if she can.
In financial reporting, Kachadoorian's department has won national awards six years in a row and commendations several years straight from a state society. Contrast that with the gargantuan neighbor to the north that still does not have its auditor's blessing on 2003 financial documents.
In relations with the investment community, Chula Vista has a good reputation and an A rating from Standard & Poor's. Its metropolitan neighbor is effectively shut out from tapping into conventional lending channels.
With new houses going for half a million, it is painful to write property tax checks twice a year. Few taxpayers examine closely all the items listed, few expect their bills to dip, even if only modestly.
That's where Kachadoorian and the 30 employees in her department come in.
Residents of new tracts in eastern Chula Vista pay a property tax of roughly 1 percent of the assessed value. That's $5,000 a year on a $500,000 home. Unlike homeowners on the west side, these residents also pay up to 1 percent more in Mello Roos district assessments. That can be up to another $5,000.
Under Mello Roos, the developer and the city arrange for a bond issue to pay for streets, sewers, parks, community centers and so forth. It is Chula Vista's policy that new development pay its own way.
At the start of the development, the project is just bare land. The bonds are not rated and carry a somewhat higher interest rate because investors cannot assume the project will be a sales success. While would-be buyers at times are camped out overnight in housing-short Southern California, investors still cannot assume.
Three or four years later, however, the tract is sold-out, land improvements are finished and a stable community is in place. These Mello Roos bonds can be rated, marketed and refinanced at a lower interest rate.
Typically, Kachadoorian and Chula Vista wait until a number of tract bonds can be refinanced at once, spreading out administrative costs.
Chula Vista's finance director grew up in Imperial Beach and received her bachelor and master's degrees from San Diego State University. She worked 10 years for the county and the last eight for the city. In City Manager Dave Rowlands' words, “she's smart, extremely sound on financial matters. She has the courage to tell the City Council and myself the facts on city finances.”
So, the next time you're in the grocery checkout line and your “club savings” come to $7.67, turn around. The woman next in line may have saved you some real money.
