Grand Jury Releases Report Bashing Districts Like Rossmoor

After years of debating the effectiveness of special districts as a form of local government, opinions on both sides of the issue remain adamant and uncompromising.  

A report released by the OC Grand Jury entitled, “Let There Be Light: Dragging Special Districts From the Shadows,” has re-invigorated the controversy in the special district community of Rossmoor.   

Henry Taboada, General Manager for the Rossmoor Community Services District, understands the report to be little more than a blast on special districts.  

“I thought it was objective, predetermined, and not a very good work product,” said Taboada on his thoughts after reading the report.  “It painted every [special district] with the same broad brush,” Taboada said, “It was a witch-hunt.”

In the report, the OC grand jury goes point-by-point explaining why the 27 special districts of Orange County “should be removed from the county government tax system, absorbed by other agencies, consolidated, or privatized.”

The data used in the report was gathered after a request for information from the 2011-2012 Orange County Grand Jury. From this data, the jury concluded that the services provided by the special districts, fire protection, cemetery, community service, county water, state water, reclamation, resource conservation, sanitation, and parks and recreation, are not cost effective.

The report finds that, while special districts were created to provide services that “neither cities nor counties could adequately provide” during the time of their creation, cities and counties have now matured, and, thus, render the services of special districts either redundant or obsolete.

Taboada not only disagrees with the majority of these findings, but also the statistics the jury used to base them on.

 “What I object to about the process,” Taboada explains, “is that first they come and visit you, and they tell you that you can’t talk to anybody about the fact that they came to see you, under penalty of law. I got interviewed and so did my board president, and that was it. Then, they asked us for information. I sent them our audits, I sent them our budgets, I sent them everything they asked for. Then, they came up with a draft of this report. Myself and my accounting person were invited to go and review the draft. We could make notes in the margins, but we couldn’t take anything with us or share what we saw with the rest of the board or the public. We were prohibited from doing that. We made numerous comments and pointed out inaccuracies, and so on, and turned it back in to them. Then, when we see the file report, nothing’s changed. It’s still all in there.  I’ve spent the last three or four days drafting a response, as they require me to, whether we agree or disagree with their findings. Well, for the most part, we disagree.”

Orange County Supervisor, John Moorlach, has a different perspective on the jury’s findings.  While he had no part in writing the report, he does agree with the jury’s conclusion that the annexation of special districts is, according to Moorlach, “something that some people should think about.” 

“ It’s not the best form of government,” said Moorlach, “The best form of government is for an area to be inside the city.”

He believes that community resistance stems from a fear of change.

“Change is difficult,” said Moorlach, “They want latent powers because they want to be like a city. They want to be city-like, but that isn’t the correct solution.”  

For Moorlach, getting rid of Rossmoor as a special district and merging it with it’s neighboring cities Los Alamitos and Seal Beach all comes down to what he calls: efficiencies of scale.

“You would only have one city, one city hall, one police department, one police chief,” Moorlach explains, “It gives that area a more efficient, more cost effective government.”  

As for why the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs is backing the anti-annexation efforts of Rossmoor, Moorlach reasons that it is due to the potential that the annexing city will not use the sheriff’s department to provide public safety service.

However, Moorlach doesn’t believe that would necessarily be the case. “I would think that if Rossmoor had incorporated into a city, that they’d still be contracting with the sheriffs. It would have probably been a less expensive option. So why they opposed to annex,” Moorlach reasons, “Is because maybe they had an unbounded fear.  But the association of sheriffs has been involved in every annexation.  It’s just what they do,” Moorlach jokes. “It’s not the sheriffs, its not the deputy sheriff, it’s the union.  And so, for whatever reason, they think they are protecting jobs.  Which may or may not be true.  But whatever the case, they will expend the union budget to do so.”

Moorlach insists that he has only ever tried to get Rossmoor into a better form of government.  As for Taboada and his allegations, Moorlach believes it is nothing more than Taboada “seriously trying to keep his job.”

 “If you annex Rossmoor into Los Alamitos, you wouldn’t need Henry anymore,” Moorlach explains, “So don’t be manipulated by unions or by Henry who have serious self-interests. Just be careful.  That’s all I’m saying.”