Burglaries appear to be going down in Rossmoor, according to an Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman.
As part of an on-going effort to improve response times in Rossmoor, starting in September, deputies who patrol the community will be stationed in Stanton rather than Santa Ana, the sheriff’s representative told the Rossmoor Community Services District board Tuesday, Aug. 14.
Lt. Robert Gunzel said deputies were required to fill their gas tanks before returning to their station at the end of their shifts.
Every quarter, an OCSD representative updates the Rossmoor board on crime trends in the area and the Sheriff’s Department’s response to those trends.
Gunzel said starting in September, units serving the western part of Orange County—including Midway City—would be stationed in Stanton rather than in Santa Ana.
According to Gunzel, these moves and others should reduce response times in Rossmoor. During the second quarter of this year, the time between the Sheriff’s Department receiving a priority one call and the arrival of a unit was 4 minutes 33 seconds.
“We will have a cover car now that we’ve lost Sunset Beach,” Gunzel said. This was a reference to the annexation of Sunset Beach by Huntington Beach. Rossmoor and the unincorporated community of Sunset Beach used to share a patrol unit. When Sunset Beach was annexed by Huntington Beach, the Huntington Beach Police Department took over responsibility for patrolling that area.
Gunzel also reviewed the residential burglaries that have been plaguing Rossmoor.
He said the trend appeared to be going down.
He said there were 21 burglaries or attempted burglaries during the second quarter. He said most of those burglaries occurred during the early part of the quarter.
Gunzel said there were only two burglaries in June.
As part of the Sheriff’s Department’s efforts to deal with the burglaries, Gunzel said some bicycle patrol officers who had been working at the Orange County Fair would be coming to Rossmoor. He did not say when.
Government transparency
That same night, the RCSD board approved a letter to a superior court judge that responded to an April Orange County Grand Jury report on government transparency by special districts. While not all special districts are unincorporated communities, such communities are considered special districts.
The vote was 4-0. Rossmoor Director Jeffrey Rips was on vacation and had an excused absence.
The letter, signed by General Manager Henry Taboada, took issue with some of the criticisms specifically directed at Rossmoor in the Grand Jury report.
“It should be noted that some of the criticisms set forth in the Report are unfairly associated with the District,” Taboada’s letter said. “For example, Finding No. 4 in the report states that pension costs are often not included on agency websites as part of the compensation cost disclosure. However, since the District does not offer an employer-funded pension plan to its employees, there is nothing to report in that regard. In any event, the District will modify its website to include salary and benefit data as prominently as possible.”
As the Sun reported last week, Rossmoor’s initial efforts to provide more information on the district website have backfired. At present, due to what Taboada has described as a software problem, the agenda package for Rossmoor board meetings is difficult to find online. (See “RCSD says it’s Brown Act compliant,” at www.sunnews.org.)
Taboada’s letter also objected to the Grand Jury giving Rossmoor an “F” for reporting executive pay and benefits.
“The District’s only executive level position for the last 6+ years has been the general manager,” Taboada’s letter said. “The general manager position has been filled by an independent contractor, thus is non-reportable to the state. In any event, the district will be employing a general manager during this fiscal year whose salary will be approximately $45,000 on a half- time basis. The independent contractor’s compensation has been set at $65 per hour and has never exceeded $81,000 per year. The compensation agreement with the current contract general manager includes no benefits whatsoever.”
Tree removal
Taboada said Orange County officials have taken the position that the county has full authority to remove trees that the county deems a threat to public safety.
However, a 1996 memo from the county’s counsel said the county would agree that tree removal was the Rossmoor district’s responsibility—provided that Rossmoor held the county harmless.
Board President Alfred Coletta said if the RCSD held the county harmless, people would hold the district financially responsible if someone were injured.
Finally, the board members voted 4-0 to have new signs posted at three of the entrances to Rossmoor with white script.
The board directed staff to have the contractor use Photoshop to create an image of the main entrance using the white lettering to see if it would work on the multi-colored brick at that location.
Second Vice President Bill Kahlert said the signs should have a common design.
First Vice President Michael Maynard said that for historical reasons he would not change the sign at the main entrance to Rossmoor.
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