In a board meeting closed to the public more than two months ago, Rossmoor Community Services District general manager Joe Mendoza, told directors he was resigning.
Yet, the RCSD board did not announce that important news to the public until recent days. Even some board members remain in the dark about what is going on with Mendoza, while he searches for his own replacement without board approval.
It is another example of the lack of transparency and deliberate subterfuge that RCSD has exercised for years in setting a course often at odds with the 10,000 residents of unincorporated Rossmoor.
No doubt, Mendoza took direction to search for his replacement at the verbal direction of director Tony DeMarco, who is up for reelection, Jeff Barke, who is leaving the board, and Michael Maynard.
They are the three-member majority who have been systematically mismanaging RCSD for years, spending upwards of $100,000 of taxpayer funds in a failed attempt to get state legislation that would enhance their own power. Time and again, a large majority of Rossmoor residents have voted and expressed a desire for Rossmoor’s status quo as an unincorporated community within Orange County.
DeMarco, Barke and Maynard have been the prime movers of spending thousands of dollars on activities outside the jurisdiction of RCSD, while critical needs within their jurisdiction go unmet. And they have often treated the public, unless it involves one of their personal friends, with contempt.
Now is the opportunity to bust this cabal by getting rid of DeMarco on Nov. 5 and casting a vote for Mary Ann Remnet and Nathan Searles.
The current issue with Mendoza began at a closed board meeting on or about August 11, when he disclosed to the board his intention to resign for unknown reasons. No announcement of that decision came in August or September.
Nothing was disclosed to the public until two weeks ago when a job posting appeared on a recruiting site (General Manager – Rossmoor Community Services District – PublicCEO).
It noted that applications would be vetted by Mendoza himself, despite the fact that the full board had not been informed of the search process.
Board member Nathan Searles questioned what was going on in his own posting on Facebook, saying, “I am troubled when none of this has been shared with the board or the community…” He added that it should be the directors reviewing applications and making hiring decisions.
Then, on about Oct. 21 an announcement of Mendoza’s resignation appeared on RCSD’s website. Why the long-kept secrecy? It is partly muscle memory, reflecting how RCSD’s majority likes to operate in the dark. But it also could reflect a plan to manipulate who succeeds Mendoza before the Nov 5 election. If Mendoza is vetting applicants, then he could be eliminating candidates that another board might accept.
Why wasn’t the decision to replace Mendoza tasked to RCSD’s personnel and contract administration committee?
Why wasn’t there an effort to determine whether the qualifications for a new general manager have changed since Mendoza was selected six years ago? Why wasn’t there an open discussion about compensation?
A lack of transparency is toxic to democracy, a fact demonstrated over and over again by DeMarco, Maynard and Barke. The trio has gone overboard in protecting their total control of RCSD through selective disclosure of their activities and decisions.
In many cases, their decisions have skewed spending to south Rossmoor, providing extravagant public utilities to their own neighborhood, including radar speed signs on a nearby road, a picnic canopy at Rush Park and extensive work on parking issues along Montecito. You can see the fancy canopy on RCSD’s homepage Rossmoor Community Services District (rossmoor-csd.org)j.
Meanwhile, plans for a similar picnic canopy at Rossmoor Park have gone nowhere. A plan to replace the playground, which is past its expected lifetime, has gone nowhere. A plan to fix walkway flood at the park has gone nowhere. And parking around Rossmoor Park has grown out of control.
Rossmoor needs a board that operates openly, genuinely solicits public input and abides by its own established long-range planning, all of which the current board has failed miserably.
Ralph Vartabedian
