Longtime Rossmoor General Manager Joe Mendoza has confirmed to ENE that he has indeed informed the community of Rossmoor that he is headed out of the door, at some time, but perhaps not anytime soon.
Many in the community were upset with the Board, and Mendoza, after learning that he resigned in a closed session two months ago and the board failed to disclose it.
Currently, Mendoza is the General Manager of the Rossmoor Community Services District, which has been awarded limited powers by the state to administrate the district. Since it is not either a village, town or city, RCSD must interface with the County of Orange and other agencies to receive municipal type services.
Rossmoor is a member of the California Special Districts Association, though it interfaces with state government along with state elected officials.
The General Manager of the district generally coordinates the RSCD’s board with those agencies. The GM also manages the district’s relatively small staff.
“Yes, I have decided that it’s time to start thinking about stepping away,” said Mendoza in an interview this past weekend. When asked why he did not announce it publicly, Mendoza claimed that the announcement was posted to the community’s website.
“There’s no real timeline,” said Mendoza, “and it’s my choice, so they’re going to start looking for a candidate.”
Some members of the community were upset when they saw public advertisements for a replacement to fill Mendoza’s post advertised recently in the Journal “Public CEO.” They suspected Mendoza told only the three-vote ruling majority.
When he arrived at RCSD, Joe Mendoza’s professional experience included working as Deputy Director with the South Los Angeles County Community Services Agency which included 50 parks and 16 pools within the Second and Fourth Supervisorial Districts and had an annual budget of $25 million in addition to the Department of Parks and Recreation’s overall budget of $125 million.
Joe Mendoza also worked for the City of Cerritos as Recreation Services Superintendent; He managed the budget and staff for the Recreation Services Division; supervised 14 full-time and 125 part-time staff, and 300 volunteers. and was responsible for 20 parks, 2 community gymnasiums, a skate park, Iron-Wood Nine Golf Course, Sports Complex, and the Cerritos Olympic Swim & Fitness Center. He administered joint use contracts with ABC Unified School District and Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Department.
Said outgoing General Manager Jim Ruth, “Joe Mendoza gets my highest recommendation. He will be a tremendous asset to the District and the Rossmoor community. We are lucky to have him.”