Foothills Sentry September 2024

Foothills Sentry Page 10 SEPTEMBER 2024 Foothills Sentry HALF PG 10˝ x 8˝| Newspaper Ad | Option 2 ORANGE Visit SunriseOrangeCA.com to view our floor plans and photo gallery. 1301 E Lincoln Ave, Orange, CA 92865 Assisted Living | Memory Care © 2023 Sunrise Senior Living WELCOME TO SUNRISE Senior Living Is More Vibrant in Orange Call 714-409-9363 to book a tour today. Experience an unparalleled lifestyle personally tailored to you at Sunrise of Orange. Discover maintenance-free senior living that focuses on enjoying every moment with friends and neighbors and engaging in activities you’re passionate about. Come tour our elegant interiors and curated selection of amenities, guided by our team of caring professionals. We’d love to get to know you and walk you through our personalized care approach. • Personalized assisted living and memory care services • Contemporary studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom suites • Sip, savor, and socialize in the bistro • Captivating social, educational and cultural activity calendar • Inspired menus with fresh seasonal ingredients crafted by our in-house culinary team 58720480-029-SSL_Orange_Evergreen_Half-Page-Ads_hz6.indd 4 9/26/23 4:13 PM Candidate Rocco has eyes on Orange Unified again By Tina Richards Perennial Orange County can- didate Steve Rocco, who won a seat on the Orange Unified School District Board of Trustees in 2004, is back again this year, vying for a seat in OUSD’s Trust- ee Area 7. Rocco has, in the past decade, run for Rancho Santiago Com- munity College District trustee, county clerk (twice), the OC Board of Education, Orange Uni- fied trustee (twice), mayor of Santa Ana and the county Board of Supervisors. Rocco does not campaign or make public appearances. He has no platform, makes no prom- ises. His only successful run was the 2004 school board election, which in hindsight, was likely de- livered to him by voters mislead by his listed occupation. An unlucky guess “People do not pay attention to school board elections,” Chap- man Professor Fred Smoller, who chronicles Rocco’s public activi- ties, says. “He was listed on the ballot as ‘teacher.’ He was run- ning against a park ranger. I think people voted for him because they thought a teacher would bet- ter serve the students.” Rocco apparently held a teach- ing credential at that time, but there are no records to be found of his employment at a school district. When a candidate files with the Registrar of Voters, no one veri- fies the occupation listed. It is up to voters, or the opposition, to challenge the claim. If the listed occupation proves to be incorrect or misleading, it will be changed. If no one objects, the candidate is taken at his or her word. When declared the winner of that election, Rocco remained re- clusive. He would not speak with the press or anyone else. Kathy Moffat was OUSD board presi- dent at that time. “No one heard from him,” she recalls. “We didn’t know if he’d even show up for the meeting.” He did. Off topic, off putting “His first comments at his first meeting were in Italian,” Moffat says. “He went on for 15 minutes and finally switched to English. He spent the whole time talking about the St. Joseph’s Hospital gulag.” His four years on the OUSD board continued in that vein. His presence was disruptive, counter- productive and time-consuming. He voted “no” or abstained on every vote. He refused to attend closed session meetings. When he had the floor, he spoke of county-sanctioned plots and at- tempts to silence him; conspiracy theories involving county offi- cials; the misuse of authority and his enemies list. He also demeaned other board members and refused to observe board protocols. He arrived early to meetings so he could place copies of his grievances on ev- ery seat in the audience, none of which had anything to do with the school district governance or its students. A recall was attempted, but petered out. Board members and constituents were concerned that if he ran again in 2008, his bal- lot designation would be “Incum- bent, OUSD Board of Trustees.” That title would, they believed, sway voters – again. Time to redraw boundaries OUSD’s need to reexamine the boundaries of its Trustee Ar- eas was long overdue. District boundaries are usually reconsid- ered every 10 years, in conjunc- tion with the census. OUSD’s Trustee Areas had not been re- organized in 40 years. “A lot had changed in 40 years,” Mof- fat explains. “There were new neighborhoods that shifted the balance of OUSD’s population. Each Trustee Area is supposed to have an equal number of people. We hired a demographics firm to figure it out.” The newly defined Trustee Ar- eas caused one board member to be “districted out” entirely and combined what were Trustee Rick Ledesma’s and Steve Roc- co’s areas into one. Rocco bowed out of the 2008 race. He did, however, challenge Ledesma in 2014 and 2018. “A lot of people think we up- dated our Trustee Areas to get rid of Rocco,” Moffat says. “But it’s something that we needed to do anyway.” Rocco listed himself as "retired teacher/writer" for the 2024 bal- lot. A citizen challenged that des- ignation, proving to the Registrar of Voters that he could not, by law, call himself a teacher. The Registrar agreed, and changed his ballot designation to “writer.” See "Rocco the Vote," by Fred Smoller on YouTube for more on the 2004 vote and his tenure. Steve Rocco was on the OUSD Board of Trustees from 2004-08. He brought his own style to the dais.