District 19 Representative Comes to Forest Falls
State Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh holds a Town Hall at the Gill Cox Community Center
SEP 2026EVENTSCOMMUNITY HEALTHCOMMUNITY CENTERCOMMUNITY STORIES
By Newman
9/25/20267 min read
District 19 Representative Comes to Forest Falls
State Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh holds a Town Hall at the Gill Cox Community Center
The Gill Cox Community Center in Forest Falls hosted State Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh for a Town Hall meeting Wednesday evening, bringing residents together for a legislative update, questions about local concerns, and a closer look at how state government works.
For those of us who don't spend our days following the California Legislature, parts of the evening amounted to a useful lesson in California government. And there is a lot to understand.
Who Is Our District 19 Representative?
State Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh was first elected to the California State Senate in 2020, becoming the first Republican Latina elected to the Senate. She initially represented the 23rd Senate District. Following redistricting, she was reelected in 2024 to represent the newly drawn 19th Senate District, which includes more than 35 cities and communities across portions of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
Ochoa Bogh spoke Wednesday about the adjustment that comes with redistricting, including leaving behind communities and constituents she had come to know while taking on responsibility for communities newly added to her district.
Her background is rooted in the Inland Empire. A graduate of San Bernardino High School and UC Santa Barbara, she earned her teaching credential from Cal State San Bernardino and taught English-language learners at the elementary level. She later worked in real estate for more than 20 years and served on the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District Board.
Her current Senate assignments cover a broad range of state government, including Budget and Fiscal Review, Education, Energy, Utilities and Communications, Governmental Organization, Housing, Human Services, Privacy, Digital Technologies and Consumer Protection, and Rules. She serves as vice chair of Education, Energy, Utilities and Communications, and Human Services.
Sacramento 101
One of the most interesting portions of the evening was Ochoa Bogh's explanation of the legislative process itself. California has 120 state legislators: 40 senators and 80 members of the Assembly. And introducing a bill is only the beginning.
An idea must be drafted into legislative language and assigned to committees. Depending on the proposal, it may undergo policy and fiscal review, hearings and amendments before ever reaching the floor for a vote. If approved by the house where it originated, it moves to the other house and goes through another legislative process before it can ultimately reach the governor.
Hearing the process explained that way makes its sheer scale easier to appreciate. It also provides some perspective on why government can seem complicated, slow and frustrating. That frustration became part of the conversation Wednesday evening as residents raised concerns about taxes, bureaucracy and whether public resources are always being used as effectively as they could be. Ochoa Bogh repeatedly brought the conversation back to something constituents themselves can do: participate.
Part of that begins with understanding which level of government is responsible for what. State government and federal government are not interchangeable, and neither are the people elected to represent us in each. Frustration with Washington and frustration with Sacramento can easily become blended together, even when the particular issue we're trying to address belongs to one rather than the other.
The discussion also offered some perspective on the way legislation is presented to the public. Bills can begin with an idea that sounds straightforward and become considerably more complicated through amendments and negotiations. Fiscal consequences matter, and details matter. A headline telling us that someone voted “for” or “against” a bill doesn't necessarily tell us everything that was contained in the legislation when that vote was taken.
That is worth remembering in a political climate where complicated issues are increasingly reduced to a sentence, a campaign message or a social-media post. Perhaps the harder part belongs to us. Too often our participation begins only after frustration has already set in. If representation is going to mean something, constituents have to ask questions, communicate with the people representing them and make their concerns known.
Bringing the Conversation Home
Forest Falls residents did exactly that, raising questions and concerns about flooding and debris issues that mountain residents know all too well, along with discussion about the potential requirement for water meters and other matters affecting everyday life and safety in the community. These weren't abstract discussions about Sacramento. They were questions about living here.
During the evening, Ochoa Bogh said something that particularly stayed with me: she reads what constituents send to her office. We took her at her word.
A Letter: The Fallsvale Old Stone Schoolhouse
Before Wednesday's Town Hall, Shannon Wray, President of the Board of Fallsvale Historic Schoolhouse, Inc., had a meeting scheduled with Senator Ochoa Bogh regarding the effort to preserve and eventually restore the Fallsvale Old Stone Schoolhouse.
A delay in the senator's schedule prevented that meeting from taking place as originally planned, but Wray was able to connect with members of the senator's staff as preparations were underway at the Gill Cox Community Center. After hearing the senator encourage residents to communicate with her office, a letter outlining the Fallsvale Old Stone Schoolhouse project was drafted that evening and subsequently sent by certified mail to Senator Ochoa Bogh's office. A copy of the letter will also be made available to the public.
What comes from it remains to be seen. It may result in assistance, direction, another contact or simply a better understanding of what avenues may be available to the project, but it was one concrete response to something we heard that evening.
When Government Becomes Personal
Perhaps the most moving moment of the Town Hall came from Bob Blanck, who stood and spoke about an event that happened more than two decades ago.
On July 17, 2004, five volunteer members of the San Gorgonio Search and Rescue Team were traveling to Joshua Tree National Park to assist in the search for a missing hiker when their vehicle was struck head-on by an oncoming pickup truck in Morongo Valley. Team member Scott Johnston of Redlands died at the scene, while fellow rescuer Phil Calvert of Mentone suffered critical injuries and died three days later. Blanck was critically injured in the crash, and two other team members survived with injuries. The volunteers had been on their way to help search for missing hiker Eric Sears.
Joseph Allen Tidwell was subsequently convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and received a sentence totaling 45 years to life. On June 30 of this year, the California Board of Parole Hearings granted Tidwell parole. Governor Gavin Newsom subsequently reversed that decision.
As Blanck spoke Wednesday evening about the governor's decision, his emotion was evident. For a few moments, a discussion about government wasn't about committees, legislation, budgets or bureaucracy. It was about people.
Whatever one's political affiliation or opinion about California's parole system, the moment illustrated something easily forgotten when government is discussed only in the abstract: decisions made in Sacramento eventually arrive in someone's life, sometimes very personally.
Recognition of a Community
There was warmth in the evening as well. The Gill Cox Community Center provided charcuterie for those attending, and Senator Ochoa Bogh presented a recognition to Michelle Macri, Chair of the VCCCI Board, acknowledging the Community Center and its contribution to the community.
It was a small ceremonial moment during an evening devoted to much larger subjects, but an appropriate one. Places such as the Gill Cox Community Center give residents a place where community and government can actually meet face to face.
Showing Up
If there was one message I carried away from Wednesday evening, it was that representation isn't passive. We expect elected officials to listen, but that relationship also asks something of us.
Political campaigns have become extraordinarily good at teaching us whom to dislike. They have been less successful at teaching us how to participate, and maybe some responsibility for that belongs to us. Participation doesn't require agreeing with your representative or belonging to the same political party. It requires paying attention, asking questions and making your concerns known.
And sometimes it's about writing a letter and putting it in the mail.
Wednesday evening, the senator came to Forest Falls. Forest Falls showed up. What happens next is partly up to us.
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