Shari Freidenrich

1What can this job do?

The elected Treasurer-Tax Collector is the county's banker and bill collector. This office sends out and collects the property-tax bills, and it safeguards and invests the county's cash — billions of dollars held for the county, schools, and special districts — until that money is spent.

✗It does NOT set your tax rate or decide your property's value (Proposition 13 sets the rate; the Assessor sets the value), and it does not decide how the public money is spent.

2What has this person done with it?

We don't yet track a record of this official's actions here. The public record for county offices lives in the Board of Supervisors' agendas and recorded votes, the office's own reports, and campaign-finance filings with the county. Those are the primary sources — we'd rather point you to them than summarize selectively.

We only log matters of public record, in the same format for every official — never opinion or news coverage.

3How does this affect you?

Every taxpayer in Orange County shares this one Treasurer-Tax Collector. This office collects your property taxes and safeguards and invests the county's money until it is spent. There is one for the whole county, so the same official handles the tax bill on your home and on every other property in Orange County.

4How do you change it?

This is an elected seat with a four-year term, chosen countywide — every voter in Orange County votes for this one official, so your vote is one of well over a million. These races are on the regular June or November ballot. Registration, polling place, and mail ballots run through the Orange County Registrar of Voters (ocvote.gov). Countywide administrative offices like this draw little attention; a reminder near the election helps.

We haven't verified when this seat is next on the ballot — rather than guess, we say so.