Where's Rocco? Answer May Come Dec. 9

Folks in the city of Orange -- known for its quaint bungalows, charming downtown and brutal school board politics -- are bedeviled this week by questions about a man named Steve Rocco.

Who is he? What does he stand for? Why has no one seen him?

And why did voters in this city, which cares deeply about education, elect him to the school board last week?

Rocco turned the Orange Unified School District upside down Nov. 2 when he defeated a heavily favored candidate for a seat on the district board without ever handing out a campaign flier or making a speech.

Since his victory, Rocco, 53, has holed up inside the home he shares with his mother, ignoring calls from district officials and a growing number of news organizations. A local education watchdog group -- itself shrouded in secrecy -- is so desperate for a glimpse of the man that it has announced a cash prize for the first person to snap a photo of him.

"I've been getting calls on this from all over the country," said an exasperated Paul Pruss, president of the local teachers union. "We don't know anything about this man."

Even neighbors are baffled, recalling him only as an eccentric figure who bicycles around town.

There are, however, a few hints in the public record.

Born in Italy, Rocco is a registered voter without party affiliation who lives in a part of Santa Ana that adjoins Orange and is within that city's school district. With elementary and secondary teaching credentials earned in 1989, he identified himself on the ballot as a teacher, though it is unclear if he has ever been employed as one. He's run unsuccessfully for public office before: in 2000 to be mayor of Santa Ana, and two years later for a seat on the Rancho Santiago Community College District board.

Rocco attended Santa Ana College off and on from 1969 to 1991, earning associate degrees in criminal justice, sociology, history, liberal arts, anthropology and speech communication.

While at the college he was befriended by the chairman of the criminal justice department. George Wright said his former student telephoned Thursday morning to say he plans to reveal himself at the Dec. 9 swearing-in ceremony.

"He's going to show up, and he's going to serve," Wright said, adding that Rocco told him he had been avoiding contact with the public because he has been busy making funeral arrangements for his father.