ORANGE COVE – This November, contests for city council races, school board elections and local bond measures will be listed lower on the ballot, but they are not any lower in importance.
Local elections are often decided by just a handful of votes, highlighting the impact of each individual’s voice in the community. In Orange Cove, residents who want to see change in their cities, be that improved roads, increased public safety or more commercial and residential development, will have the chance to vote on city council candidates promising to bring something new to the area.
The Orange Cove City Council is made up of four residents who are elected at-large to serve the entire city and a mayor who is also elected at-large. Council members and the mayor are elected to four-year staggered terms, with no limits to how long they can be on the council. This year, five candidates — Josie Cervantes, Jacob Del Bosque, Isaiah Lopez, Cassy Ortiz and Maria Vacio — are running to fill two seats that are up for election.
Cervantes and Vacio both currently sit on the Orange Cove City Council; Cervantes was appointed in-lieu of an election in 2020, meaning she ran unopposed. Vacio was appointed to a vacancy in the council in January 2023. The Mid Valley Times was unable to reach Cervantes and Vacio by press time; updated Q&As will be posted online.
California voters can use the Secretary of State’s online voter registration tool at registertovote.ca.gov to register to vote or check their status. Voters in Fresno County can use an online district lookup tool through their respective county elections office to enter their address and find what Congressional, state, county and city districts they live in.
Del Bosque spoke with Mineral King Publishing about his background and his goals for the next four years if he is elected Nov. 5. Interview responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: What is your background?
DEL BOSQUE: I was born in ‘79, grew up in Orange Cove, moved to Kingsburg in ’97, graduated from Kingsburg High. Bounced around, had a child at a pretty young age. I think I was 19 when she was born, raised her by myself. Bounced around from Kingsburg to Selma to Fowler for about two or three years. Moved back to Orange Cove and been there ever since.
I’m a truck driver. Drove truck from 2000 to 2019. I was driving at Coca-Cola for 19 years. Then from there, I came to where I’m at now. I’m an instructor at a vocational school, so I teach truck driving no. Been doing that since 2019. Raised my daughter, got into coaching.
(In) 2008 we started a program called the OC Knights out of Orange Cove, (a) softball fast pitch program. Started coaching there, and just kind of fell in love with the game and just what it brought to me, to my family, to our community. I’ve been doing that since then, and I started coaching high school ball, I believe (in) 2011 or ‘12. I started at Orange Cove High School. Never remarried, but pretty much sums it all up.
Q: What do you hope to change or accomplish in the next term, if elected?
DEL BOSQUE: I think the mindset of our community, there’s kind of a negative mindset. There’s almost like a black sheep kind of look towards us. I know the surrounding areas kind of look down upon us. I remember in high school, people would make fun of us because we went to Reedley High and they’d be like, “Oh, you’re from Orange Cove, you’re ghetto.”
Just the perception of our community is kind of frowned upon still, even though statistically speaking, we’re one of the safer neighborhoods in the Valley. I talked to Chief Peña and he talked to me about the crime rates per capita and how safe it is. People don’t really see that, and I just want to remind our community we are a good place, and we just need to change the mindset I think of our community.
We really need to focus on growth. Need to focus on bringing revenue and businesses, homes. Need to fix our relationship with our school district and our city. I work for the school district, and I have friends that work for the city, and I think the relationship is not where it needs to be.
We need to do more for our youth. For me, that’s kind of the biggest thing is our youth is kind of being overlooked, and there’s really nothing for them to do. A lot of my friends, they take their kids to play sports in Dinuba, Reedley, Visalia, Fresno; there’s nothing here. There’s nothing in Orange Cove, nothing’s offered. There’s nothing there for them, so they leave. The only program we have is softball and that’s my program. I would just love to grow that.
I’ve been talking to the city manager and his assistant and other people from the city, and I know it’s a water issue. We need to find more water so we can build more homes. Build more homes, you have more people, more revenue, you bring more businesses in. But you need to have the roofs. If you don’t have the roofs, you can’t bring in revenue. So we got to really, definitely look for water. That’s something big too.
The whole police department and fire district, we need to figure out how to relook at Measure O or change it or bring another measure to make sure we have money to keep our community safe, to keep our people out of harm’s way. So that’s something big for us, too.
Also, I don’t think we do enough for our seniors. The way I was raised is (that) we take care of our kids, take care of our seniors and everyone else can pull (their) own weight. That’s kind of how I was raised, and I just want to make sure we take care of our kids and our seniors and our community as a whole. So that’s my outlook on it.
Q: Who is supporting/endorsing your campaign, and who are the major funders of your campaign?
DEL BOSQUE: We filled the paperwork. I know I have a lot of support from OCPD, OC Fire (Protection) District, and just family members. They want to donate and give money, so it’s just us, and the person I’m running with is Cassy Ortiz. She’s a teacher at Orange Cove High School.
Q: What do you see as the top three issues facing your local community right now? What would you do to address those issues?
DEL BOSQUE: Like I said, our biggest issue for me personally is our children. We need to keep them busy, we need to set up programs for them, and they don’t have to be athletics, it could be other stuff, like art and music and crafting, or anything like that. We just gotta keep them busy, give them goals, teach a whole different mindset. That’s kind of the biggest thing for me.
I know we need water. I know we don’t have enough water in our community to build homes and to bring businesses, so revenue, definitely revenue, safety and things for our children to do. That’s kind of the biggest thing.
We got to look for grants. (I’ve) actually been working with Dario (Dominguez) — he’s assistant (city manager) to (City Manager) Dan Parra — about getting a grant to fix our baseball fields in the community. I’ve been working hand in hand with him already. We’re trying to get a grant through MLBPA (Major League Baseball Players Association) to upgrade our fields, because they’re all messed up right now, so we’re trying to do that.
Those are the three things for me, is definitely the children, definitely we need water to bring in the revenue and better housing. I don’t think we have adequate housing. Most people find a career, you go to school, you get educated, you have a better income and you want a better home. And we don’t have that for anybody, so they leave. Our own people can’t stay home because there’s no housing for us. A lot of people leave because they want bigger and better houses and yards and stuff like that, so I think housing is big too.
Q: What does the role of a city councilperson look like to you? How would you engage with the community and respond to residents’ needs?
DEL BOSQUE: From my understanding — obviously I have no experience with it, but just from being around it — you’re a representative of the community, right? If they vote you in, you represent the community. So for me, I feel like we need to work hand in hand with our city manager to figure out what’s the best needs for our city with the budget that we have and put what we need to put in priority and work on that.
And then work on your list on the way down, and just being transparent and being open to questions, open to the community, just be(ing) able to have an answer for people that have questions, and then not being so negative. Just being positive and having an answer, a solution — or at least an idea of a solution — and work on that and let the city and let the residents know … what we’re working on, and just communicate better.
I think the key to all relationships is communication, whether it’s a personal relationship, business relationship or something with the city council, you represent your people. You need to be able to communicate with them the right way. Right now, I don’t think our city council communicates. I don’t think our city in general communicates with our citizens well enough.
There’s a lot of hidden stuff that I feel like is kept from the public which shouldn’t be kept from the public. So I just think an open line of communication is really important, as being part of a council member, or even being a city. Our city manager and our council should work together and have that open line of communication with our citizens.
Q: Anything else to add?
DEL BOSQUE: I just feel like it’s just time for a change. I feel like we just really need to move forward as a community. We need to grow. We need to really change our mindset. People always talk like, “Oh, we’re the poorest community around.” We need to change that. We need to figure out how to change it. We need to get our minds together and come up with solutions instead of just complaints.
I guess we just need to have a plan, we need to put a plan together and work on it, and work together. I feel like it’s OK to agree to disagree, it’s OK to have different ideas, it’s OK to fail, as long as you fail forward and you learn from your mistakes. Something I teach my girls — like I coach softball, I’m a girl dad — I always taught them if we’re gonna fail it’s OK, we fail forward. Just keep moving forward, keep getting better.
We all make mistakes in life, and we just got to learn how to get better from those mistakes. Scar tissue is a good thing sometimes, as long as you learn from it. That’s my mindset, what I teach. I don’t think there should be sides. I know right now it feels like the city is divided (and) the council is divided, and I don’t feel that’s right.
I feel like we need to have different opinions, and we need to be OK to agree to disagree and keep moving forward and staying positive together as a whole. … It’s like us versus them right now, like they’re separate (from) each other. It’s two sides, and I don’t think there should be any sides.
I talked to my opponents. They call them their opponents. I talked to the people, the incumbents. I’ve talked to them, and I told them, I’m not running against you. I’m running for my community, because I think I could do a great job for my community. They’re friends of mine. I know them all, so I let them know, it’s not personal, like I’m not running against you, I’m just running for my community.
The best person is going to win, who gets the most votes, and if you guys stay in office, I’m going to support you as best as I can. And if you need anything for me, I’m here for you. And I’ve always been there like I’ve always been there for my community. I’m from Orange Cove, I’ve been there most my life, and I ain’t going nowhere. … I’ll be there at the end, also for the rest of my life. So that’s where I’m at, I just want better for all of us, not just particular parts of the community or certain people or certain families. I want better for everybody.
