Two candidates are competing to be San Diego County’s treasurer-tax collector, the person responsible for stewarding billions in public funds and maximizing investment returns.
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Incumbent Larry Cohen, 56, is facing challenger Shirley Nakawatase, 67. The winner will serve a four-year term and earn about $278,000 per year.
Cohen has only held the job for 11 months. He was appointed to serve the remainder of Dan McAllister’s term following the long-time treasurer’s retirement in August 2025. McAllister died just a few months later.
“What I’ve been able to demonstrate in a very short period of time, I think I deserve to be given a chance to have a full term,” Cohen said.
Nakawatase is a certified public accountant who has operated her own business for more than 35 years. Nakawatase runs as a self-described political outsider with aims to reduce what she believes is waste in the treasurer’s office and modernize its office. Nakawatase said she’s “socially liberal,” but fiscally conservative.
“The biggest waste? Not having a financial professional running the organization,” said Nakawatase.
The office’s responsibilities are mainly to administer the billing and collection of property taxes and provide treasury services to schools and special districts. It is also responsible for the investment of public funds, but under strict local and state guidelines.
Cohen, a former chief of staff to Rep. Juan Vargas, believes there is a third pillar of the office: to maintain the county’s AAA credit rating from Fitch Ratings. A strong bond rating lowers borrowing costs. Tax collection, investment and having good borrowing power are the most important aspects of the office, Cohen said.
“Everything else is peanuts and secondary to that… it doesn’t matter whether I’m here, or my opponent or somebody 20 years from now, those are the three most important things,” Cohen said.
While the office has a 99% tax collection rate, Nakawatase believes there are still ways the county can find ways to get even more.
“I would continue to look for areas of lost revenue, I know they exist,” said Nakawatase. “I keep lifting each stone and finding more money that hasn’t been collected. Earned, but not collected.”
One example of this, Nakawatase said, was tax revenue on short-term rentals and companies such as Airbnb. Nakawatase said it would not be difficult to get Airbnb, or other short-term rental platforms, to pay the tax.
“It’s so simple for the county to ask all the short-term rental platforms; I can just ask them. I can ask them to pay it directly to the county, and they will,” said Nakawatase.
One of the biggest complaints from residents is that the office isn’t modernized and that processing payments, particularly by mail, is often delayed. Many user reviews online shared this has resulted in unjust late fees.
Nakawatase said she hears the same complaints and that she has experienced this herself. Nakawatase said she wrote a check and physically dropped it off in a collection box only to receive a penalty for not paying two months later.
“I’ve had countless people tell me this — that the check didn’t clear,” said Nakawatase. “And it gives people a false sense of security that they have more money in the bank.”
Cohen said he’s aware of these issues and that his solution is to increase staffing and convert people who pay by cash or check to begin paying online. Between 75% and 80% of tax payments received are electronic, according to his office.
Getting that extra 20% to 25% to convert means payments are processed quicker and the office invests it quicker, Cohen said, which in turn generates more interest.
“I have old ladies coming in with $5,000 in cash in 20s to pay their bill,” Cohen said. “And I ask them like, ‘why are you doing that?’ And they’re like, ‘I just want to know that my bill is paid.’”
Nakawatase said the treasurer-tax collector’s website is “not easy to navigate” and “hasn’t been updated in years.” Nakawatase wants to hire a web developer to do “a complete overhaul of the website,” which includes giving taxpayers an online profile through the office.
Cohen said his office already has modern capabilities and that it is making updates to its website, including one that will launch in about a month, a portal showing taxpayers exactly where their money is going by entering their parcel number.
“I will be connecting your dollars to where it’s expended, creating immediate transparency that you can look up online,” Cohen said.
Both candidates said the office has been hampered by chronic understaffing. When McAllister took office in 2003, there were 123 employees and the office collected roughly $2 billion in property tax revenue. By 2026, the office still had just 123 employees, but it brought in five times the amount of revenue, Cohen said.
Cohen said four new positions have been added but not yet filled. He said the new employees will be divided up between tax collection, handling phone calls and a new program he hopes to roll out in October for older adults.
“Four people is not enough, we’ve been under-invested for 23 years,” Cohen said. “You cannot turn a ship around when it was heading in one direction for 23 years. But it’s a good start and I’m also conscious that we’re working in a tough budget environment.”
Nakawatase said there are ways to get things done while short-staffed. She said if elected, she would use paid interns to fill in the staffing gaps.
“The office is short-staffed, severely short-staffed, which is why (I’d have) the interns in there to do some of the leg work for the professionals and seasoned people,” said Nakawatase.
The San Diego County Treasury Oversight Committee reviews, audits and serves as a watchdog for how the office invests public funds. The nine-person committee is made up of representatives of several areas of government including the Board of Supervisors, county Auditor and Controller; and Cohen himself.
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Cohen is a resident of Carlsbad. Nakawatase resides in Imperial Beach.
