Winning school board candidate's eligibility in question

One Menifee Union School District board election could be affected by an investigation into William's Hoag's status.

By Doug Spoon, Editor

A formal complaint and request for investigation has been filed with the District Attorney’s Office regarding the alleged ineligibility of a winning candidate in the Menifee school board race.

Information and documents obtained by Menifee 24/7 suggest that William Hoag, a landslide winner in the Trustee Area 5 race for Menifee Union School District Board, does not live within the MUSD boundaries, as required. Hoag is listed as living at three different residences in Orange County in recent years, most recently in La Habra.

In response to an inquiry into the issue, the Riverside County Registrar’s Office referred Menifee 24/7 to the DA’s office. All information was turned over to the DA on Nov. 9. According to John Hall, spokesman for the DA’s Office, the office could not confirm or deny on Wednesday whether an investigation is underway.

With some mail-in and provisional votes still being counted, Hoag (left) led the Area 5 race by a wide margin as of Wednesday with 1,210 votes – more than 33 percent of the votes cast. Debbi Manion ranked second with 746 votes, with Kenyon Jenkins right behind with 745. New MUSD board members are not scheduled to be sworn in until the board meeting of Dec. 11.

If Hoag is declared ineligible, it would be up to MUSD officials to determine whether to hold a new election – at the district’s cost – or appoint a replacement. Betti Cadmus, public information officer for MUSD, said last week that district officials had no previous knowledge of the allegations.

According to voter registration documents, Hoag applied for candidacy based on a local address at which he is registered to vote. That address is in the Canyon Hills community in Lake Elsinore and part of MUSD, where his daughter attends school. The girl’s mother lives at that address with her husband and the 5-year-old girl, but Hoag has never lived there, the husband told Menifee 24/7.

Osvaldo Olmos, the stepfather of the girl, provided Menifee 24/7 with a rental lease that does not have Hoag’s name on it. Menifee 24/7 also has copies of text messages between Hoag and the girl’s mother, in which Hoag asks for the woman’s address and gives her an address in La Habra as his residence.

According to Olmos, he dropped off the daughter and picked her up at Hoag’s Anaheim residence for visits so Hoag wouldn’t know where the couple lived. He said there haven’t been custodial visits since Hoag moved to La Habra. In addition, court documents show that the girl’s mother took out a temporary restraining order against Hoag in an Orange County court in July 2017.

In that document, Hoag was listed as living in Anaheim.

When contacted by Menifee 24/7 about the allegations Nov. 9, Hoag insisted he lives at the local address. When asked if a reporter could come there to interview him, Hoag said he wouldn’t be home that night and would call back. There has been no contact with him since.

Hoag was an unknown entering the race, which included five candidates. None of the others had ever heard of him, nor had anyone else contacted by Menifee 24/7. Appearing at a candidates forum sponsored by Menifee 24/7 in late September, Hoag seemed unfamiliar with the issues and spoke only about the need for better security at his daughter’s school.

Hoag did virtually no campaigning, purchasing no campaign signs or advertising. Asked how he believed he could’ve won by such a wide margin, Hoag said his campaign was based on “word of mouth and social media.”

Hoag’s campaign Facebook page still carries a post, filed the day after the election, saying, “It has been a wonderful campaign and an amazing experience, and William looks forward to proudly serving Menifee!” On his personal Facebook page, he is listed as being from La Habra.