Ted Hoffman, councilmember and retired sheriff’s sergeant, dies

Norco Councilmember Ted Hoffman, an Army veteran and a retired Riverside County Sheriff’s deputy and sergeant, has died at his Norco home. He was 70.

Hoffman, elected to the council in 2015, was currently its mayor pro tem. He died Wednesday.

Norco was “heartbroken” to announce the death, a statement issued by city spokesperson Kelli Newton said.

“Ted was many things — an Army veteran, a retired Riverside County Sheriff’s Department sergeant and a rodeo enthusiast,” the statement read. “Most importantly, he was a husband, father and grandfather. As a lifelong Norconian and dedicated volunteer, Ted’s contributions will have a lasting impact on life in Norco, and the entire community will feel a profound sense of loss with his passing.”

One of 12 siblings, Hoffman grew up on a family dairy in Eastvale. He graduated from Norco High School in 1970 and moved to Norco in 2008.

Hoffman served in the Army

Hoffman during the Vietnam War. He worked for 26 years as a deputy and three years as a reserve deputy with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, he said in a 2020 interview.

Hoffman also served on a task force that investigated a string of murders of women by serial killer William Suff, who was convicted of a dozen killings in western Riverside County from 1989 through 1991.

Councilmember Kevin Bash said he’ll remember Hoffman as a wonderful man who loved his community of Norco.

“He was just involved in everything,” Bash said. “He sat on some very high-level committees and commissions throughout the county.”

In a nod to Hoffman’s cowboy hat, which he usually wore everywhere, Bash plans to wear a black cowboy hat on Wednesday to the next City Council meeting in his late colleague’s honor.

Why did Hoffman always wear a cowboy hat? Simple, Bash said: He was a cowboy.

“I mean, he grew up a dairy farmer, he grew up in a huge family,” Bash said. “He was just a cowboy. He had horses and he put on dozens of rodeos.”

Hoffman was reelected to the City Council in November 2020 and was first elected to the council in 2015.

In 2020, shortly after the death of George Floyd while in custody of Minneapolis police, some activists protested after Hoffman declined to publicly endorse the Black Lives Matter movement. Norco council members were asked to do so, but Hoffman replied in an email that he supported equal treatment for people of different races and that “all lives matter.” He said in an interview at the time that “everyone is important to me.”

Before Hoffman’s election, he sat on the Norco Planning Com