Rossmoorgate: Yell if you don’t like what your elected officials are doing

Joyce Bloom

Eric Christiansen, (called mayor of Rossmoor by some) does not like my column “Rossmoorgate.” His manipulation of my intent to call attention to bad governance on the Rossmoor Community Services District by telling you that these people are “selflessly sacrificing their personal time to serve on the RCSD” is a laugh.

Folks, always criticize your elected officials whenever you think that they have gone astray. Always watch the various Boards in your district like hawks and don’t be afraid to criticize them! They are getting paid to do your bidding. Sometimes, they overpay themselves. (Think city of Bell and, closer to home, Henry Taboada’s $170,000 retirement pension from the city of Long Beach.)

I have lived in Rossmoor since 1967. I fought the school board when they had on their agenda the sale of Lee, Oak and the closing of Los Alamitos Elementary School. I started a recall against the board. Rossmoor now has four functioning elementary schools within its borders.

There still is an Oak Middle school and the children of Los Alamitos do not have to be bussed into Rossmoor.

I was the first proponent of the RCSD buying Rush school when the school district wanted to sell it to developers. We now have a beautiful park.

Not generally known is that the chool district can buy it back if it needs it.

Recently the school board had put forth a global warming course requiring teachers to present both sides. The District has now changed that policy due to public scrutiny. I wrote a column about that problem.

Parents don’t want politics in our schools. They prefer critical thinking.

In the Sept. 1 column of Rossmoorgate I stated that I would inform the Rossmoor Preservation Committee how to stop the annexation. I stated that “I have already explained it to a few people, and the RCSD and the RHA can read the Government Code as well as I can.”

Obviously, Mr. Christiansen’s remarks about my not researching the Government Code it seems was meant to discredit me and inflate his grandiose conception of himself. Supervisor Moorlach is not a buddy of mine despite Mr. Christiansen lumping him with me to create that impression.

The annexation of Rossmoor Village, if it occurs, will not affect Rossmoor remaining a great place to live. The appeal filed by Sunset Beach against the annexation by Huntington Beach will slow annexation down. Additionally, Orange County may need the money from Rossmoor Village because it is having financial burdens of its own.

Rossmoor Village would be important if Rossmoor would vote on cityhood again and give Eric the chance to be mayor. The Government Code actually envisions Community Service Districts as governances instead of cities.

The moral of this column is to yell like hell if you don’t like what your boards are doing.

Joyce Bloom is a longtime Rossmoor resident and former member of the Rossmoor Community Services District Board of Directors.