Looking Hard for Rocco’s Message

The Steve Rocco Era -- which I predict will come to be remembered with sadness and regret -- began at 7:25 p.m. last Thursday in the Orange Unified School District boardroom. The mystery man who won a school board seat last month sat down and within a minute or two had taken his first action: He knelt down to adjust his chair that he thought rode too low. Unable to do so, he got a new one -- a gray swivel that contrasted with the maroon seating for the rest of the board.

And then the show really took off.

Serving as Rocco’s unwitting straight man was Wes Poutsma, the other new board member. When the two were asked if they wanted to say anything, Poutsma made brief remarks about looking forward to serving and saying he hoped his background in education would help.

Rocco followed with a spiel that I clocked at five minutes and that never broke stride or, to my ear, approached coherence. He talked about being the “anti-corruption” candidate but didn’t direct his comment at the school district. Rather, he vaguely alluded to a cabal he had told reporters about last week -- a group of county powerbrokers that have committed unspecified misdeeds and that he calls the “partnership.”

Rocco says he’s been misrepresented by the media. Believe me, if you hear him speak, you’ll concede that it’s not easy to discern his message.

Although no one appears to be aware of any campaigning he did, Rocco insisted that “people worked on this campaign as if their lives depended on it -- and it does.”

The sad truth is that he’s cut from a well-known cloth, that of the classic conspiracy theorist who sees real or imagined tyrannies. Those Orange voters who may have voted for him thinking he would be less likely than his opponent to favor the teachers union are sadly missing the point.

His targets are of a much grander scale than Orange trustees, teachers or administrators.

Referring to news stories about his reclusive behavior during and after the campaign, he said, “The question shouldn’t be ‘Who is Rocco?’ It’s ‘What are the issues? What is the partnership?’ ”

If you’re asking why he didn’t take the opportunity to answer his own questions, then you have your first inkling of how Mr. Rocco approaches things. He was content to leave it that we live in a time of secret organizations, corruption and dictatorships.

Some find this kind of thing amusing -- like viewing a rare species seldom available to the public -- but I doubt the fascination will last.

The trustees invite a student from each of the district’s high schools to attend board meetings. I asked one of them -- Orange High sophomore Jessica Gutierrez -- what she thought of Rocco’s opening statement.

“I didn’t really know the whole thing behind it,” she said, perhaps wanting to be diplomatic. “Most of the meetings before were more monotonous,” she said. “Now it looks like it’s going to be something new.”

Indeed.

To show you what a wild card Rocco is, he didn’t say another word the rest of the night. Although the board president kept counting him as a yes vote, he never mouthed aye or nay on any of several votes. Nor did he say the Pledge of Allegiance with the throng at the start of the meeting.

My guess is that Rocco will weary of the tedium and inside-baseball jargon that coats every school board meeting in America like thick paint.

As the mystery man himself wrote in his 1992 book about the vexations that dog us: “I have mostly believed in the relatively brief period of my existence that society and institutions will plague you all the days of your life.”

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.