Moreno off and running again

Jim Moreno has gone places in his political career. He’s handled budgets for the supervisor of Los Angeles. He’s sat on citizens’ advisory boards for the city of Huntington Beach and the California Highway Patrol. Twice, he’s run for elected office.

Now, this fall, Moreno is returning to his roots.

Moreno, 61, is in the running for the Coast Community College District’s board of trustees, seeking the post that incumbent George Brown plans to vacate in November. As a product of the community college system, the Huntington Beach resident said he wants to help give back what he’s received.

“Families really have to protect this resource if we’re going to keep the middle class, the working middle class,” Moreno said. “I’m not taking this job lightly. A lot of people are in the same boat I was in, and I understand that.”

Moreno has never served on a board of trustees before, but he’s already known around Orange County as a campaigner — a passionate, opinionated one.

In 2002 and 2004, he ran for the Huntington Beach City Council with a platform of repairing city infrastructure and battling the West Nile virus.

He also exhibited a feisty streak: In 2004, when candidates’ campaign signs began mysteriously disappearing, Moreno offered a $500 reward for information on the culprits.

A graduate of Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Northridge, Moreno got his start in the mid-1960s at East Los Angeles Community College. His four daughters attended campuses in the Coast district, with two of them going on to earn teaching credentials.

Now, as many Americans fret about manufacturing and technology jobs moving overseas, Moreno sees the community college system as an essential tool to keep the workforce strong.

“Things are going toward environmental technology, energy technology, computer and medical technology, and we need people who can compete in that field,” he said. “We can’t have it all exported. We’ve got to have it here.”

As a trustee, Moreno would push for more technology courses for Coast students, develop vocational training programs and increase classroom funding.

In the race for Brown’s spot, he’s up against law librarian Lu Tuan Nguyen and educators Tom Hermstad and Carl Hendon. Brown, the former mayor of Seal Beach, has served the trustee area covering his hometown, Huntington Beach and Westminster since 1998.

“With so much going on in the world, talking about democracy, I salute not only the candidates in this race, but in every race,” Moreno said. “They’re stepping up.”