The Successful Recall of TVUSD School Board Member Joe Komrosky
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TEMECULA (Monday, June 24, 2024) — One Temecula Valley PAC (1TVPAC) would like to thank the hundreds of volunteers and donors for their time, energy, expertise, and passion in helping to garner enough votes to recall TVUSD School Board President Joe Komrosky, as certified by the Riverside County Registrar of Voters.
The recall effort was initiated by a small group of Black mothers who expressed that they had seen enough and wanted to recall Trustee Jen Wiersma. Collaborating with that group—and ultimately taking the organizational lead on the recall process — we initially set our sights on recalling Komrosky, Wiersma, and Trustee Danny Gonzalez, who has since resigned his seat and left the state.
“Without that spark, we likely wouldn’t be where we are today,” said Jeff Pack, who co-founded 1TVPAC with David Matics. “From there, we saw members of the community of varying backgrounds and political beliefs rally around the idea of Good Governance and the need to remove all three from their TVUSD board seats.”
1TVPAC grew its ranks over the following months, including more than a dozen new day-to-day team leaders working in various capacities to ensure that at least one of the “bad governance” three would be put on a ballot for recall.
From research, to data analysis, to strategy, to marketing, to canvassing — Temecula residents volunteered their time day and night to the cause.
Once Gonzalez resigned his seat, we focused our attention at Komrosky’s trustee area, which had the most signatures for recall and the most energy pushing signature gathering along.
“We saw very early that the voting public noticed Komrosky’s attempts to force his personal politics and personal beliefs onto the entirety of TVUSD, and his willingness to follow a national political playbook in making policies that have nothing to do with Temecula schools,” Pack said. “And anyone who disagreed with him was dismissed, oftentimes cleared from the meetings. Even board members were silenced in their dissent. Basically, voters could see the chaos he brought to the district.
“Even voters who voted for him the first time told us, ‘This is not what we signed up for.’”
The issue, at its core, has nothing to do with Republicans or Democrats or conservatives or liberals—it is and was about the business of steering a top-ranked school district into even greater heights with better outcomes for the students in our community.
The recall was not personal, wasn’t political, it was just business: the business of educating our students and preparing them for life in whatever direction they choose.
“People who have lived in this area longer than five years know very well that the majority of our city councils and school boards have had Republican/conservative elected officials for the most part, almost exclusively,” Pack said. “Though these elected seats are nonpartisan — by law, and for good reason — we know that most of our elected officials have been ‘conservative.’
“So why haven’t there been other recalls in our district’s history? Because serving on a school board is not about your political or religious beliefs — it's about doing the business of running a school district. And historically, most of the elected board members at TVUSD checked their politics and personal beliefs at the door — in order to best serve the entirety of the district, students, staff, and schools.”
Komrosky had no intention of doing that.
Komrosky manufactured problems that didn’t exist, then made policy to “solve” them, while creating turmoil, infringing on the constitutional rights of students and staff, violating contracts, and creating gray areas that are ripe for legal challenges.
That's not good governance.That's self-serving governance without regard for the damage being done to the district. And we suspect that was the goal: damage the students, and ultimately dismantle and defund our Temecula public schools.
So we saw the legal bills piling up, the fines, the lawsuits, the abysmal leadership and disrespectful behavior coming from Komrosky's seat, and did what any American should do: utilize the democratic process and initiate a recall effort.
“We asked the voters of Trustee Area 4 — twice — if they agreed with us and Komrosky should be removed,” Pack said. “The first time with petition signatures to force a recall election, and they agreed. This time, it appears even more people agreed by voting Yes. Both outcomes had roughly 30% validation from Republicans and NPPs. That is bipartisan acceptance.”
We believe that tribalism politics is destroying this country and has seeped into nonpartisan local elections and seats where it does not belong.
Good governance is serving all your constituents, not just the people who voted for you, and doing so by leaving your personal politics and religious ideologies at the door.
We believe voters should be multifaceted and can have differing views regarding politics contingent on where the politics are occurring. A political ideology and approach in Washington DC may not fit for policy making on a school board—one might want an entirely different type of individual for that role.
And that's perfectly reasonable.
“We were able to make the case that partisan politics were tearing apart our award-winning school district and putting a stain on the community as a whole,” Pack said. “It is thanks to the hundreds of volunteers and community members who stood shoulder to shoulder to work to make our community better and stronger—and hold poor performing elected officials accountable. That is our responsibility as Temeculans and our right as Americans. We are very proud of what Temecula accomplished.”
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One Temecula Valley Political Action Committee was formed to support and foster a stable and common sense approach to governance for Southwest Riverside County. The group has expanded to five working teams actively monitoring local school boards and city councils throughout Southwest Riverside County encompassing the cities of Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, and Lake Elsinore. To learn more, volunteer, and donate, visit www.onetvpac.org.
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Paid for by the One Temecula Valley PAC (FPPC #1454922) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
