School Bond Foes Miss Deadline for Ballot Statement

Opponents of a school-improvement bond measure proposed by the Orange Unified School District have missed the deadline to include a rebuttal statement on the November ballot.

District trustees voted late last month to put the $196-million Measure A bond to a vote in an effort to raise funds for extensive campus renovations. The following week, a notice in local newspapers from the county Registrar of Voters set Aug. 9 as the deadline for all statements in favor or against the bond. Such statements are printed in a voter guide that accompanies each sample ballot.

Robert Fauteux, a Villa Park city councilman who is heading the campaign against the bond, missed the notice but says registrar staff did not inform him of the deadline when he inquired.

“We’ve been preempted out of the process,” Fauteux said. “These statements are critical [to voters].... There is no excuse for what has happened.”

Suzanne Slupsky, assistant registrar of voters, said that staff members who spoke with Fauteux insisted that he did not ask about the deadline.

Registrar of Voters Steve Rodermund and several members of his staff heard Fauteux plead his case at a special meeting Wednesday, but declined to include the opposition’s statement.

“We had no option but to follow the law,” said Brett Rowley, a registrar spokesman.

For months, Orange Unified officials have said that many of the 41 campuses are in need of major repairs and expansions. Nearly 300 portable classrooms are used to handle overcrowding, and more than half of the district’s schools are at least 40 years old.

Fauteux and other critics acknowledge the need for repairs but blame officials for mismanaging district funds and argue against the increase in property taxes that would fund the measure. Measure A would increase property taxes by $36.45 for every $100,000 in assessed property value.

In March, voters defeated a nearly identical proposal. As before, the current proposal requires 55% approval for passage.