The man behind the mayor’s desk in Goleta these days is Roger Aceves, a lifetime South Coast resident. The second oldest in his family of four girls and two boys, Aceves grew up across the street from Santa Barbara Junior High on Cota Street and attended local schools through City College. While a student at Santa Barbara High School Aceves ran for the office of student body president, he said, but was defeated.

“I guess I wanted to be a politician from way back,” he says, laughing.

Roger and his wife, Debby, going on 27 years as residents of Goleta, live there with their three dogs and one fish. Their son Tim, now 25, was born soon after Debby and Roger moved to the Goleta Valley. After four years away at college, Tim returned to Goleta and is now employed by Goleta’s Deckers Corporation. Even Aceves’ mother, Esperanza, 83, is a Goleta resident.

Aceves ran track as a student at Santa Barbara High School, and he also met his wife there when they were both juniors in a history class taught by Mike Couch, who was later principal at Dos Pueblos High School when Tim was a student there.

As a teenager, Aceves developed an interest in law enforcement and joined an Explorer Boy Scout troop affiliated with the Santa Barbara Police Department.

 

He worked as a dispatcher for the agency while a student at City College, and following completion of police academy training in Ventura, he had a long, successful career with the department as a patrol officer and detective until retiring in 2007.

Aceves was trained as a hostage negotiator at the FBI’s National Academy, and believes that skills in that role apply to some degree to his work now in terms of bringing people together, reaching consensus when appropriate and building alliances.

His favorite parts of both police work and being a city councilman are his interactions with people — whether victim and suspect or constituent.

Deeply involved in the business of the city since his election to a seat on the city council in 2006, Aceves ran on a platform of protecting the environment, managed growth and strong public safety. After running a campaign for a city council seat that appeared to leave him just out of the winner’s circle, Aceves learned three weeks after the Nov. 2006 election that he had won a spot on the governing body by a slim margin of 55 votes.

His retirement from the police force was timely, he said.

“Being a city council member cannot be a part-time job,” he says about his position on the council.

Members of the Goleta City Council rotate through the job of mayor after being elected to the city council.

Constituent service is at the top of Aceves’ list of what he believes is important in his role as either mayor or city council member.

When a member of the public calls him, Aceves answers his own office phone, and he responds to emails from the public as soon as he can, frequently from his BlackBerry. He willingly gives his cell phone number to the public, and often fields calls from Goleta residents on it.

 

“The sooner you can respond to someone and get started resolving their problem or question, the better,” he says.

Aceves is a veteran in the South Coast’s nonprofit world, too. He has served on the boards of many charitable organizations in the region, including Backyard Bounty and the Santa Barbara Scholarship Foundation. He is also active with Old Spanish Days, of which he was El Presidente a few years ago.

“Our nonprofits are invaluable in making sure that we fill the needs of the population; our local governments can’t always be there,” he says.  He also represents Goleta on the Metropolitan Transit District’s board.

You could never say Aceves or other council members sought the office for the money. Because Goleta is a city incorporated in the state of California (as opposed to a charter city), his monthly salary is set by the state. Currently, the mayor’s pay is $400 a month. 

The city has 45 employees, and contracts for a number of services including police and fire protection.

Aceves cites the “extremely motivated city staff, with a ‘can do’ attitude,” as Goleta’s greatest asset. The creation of a planning commission, an ordinance committee, a municipal code and finishing up Goleta’s General Plan are some of the city’s big accomplishments in the last few years, as well as finishing the last fiscal year $1.2 million in the black. The mayor sits on the city’s Ordinance Commission and is a member of its Finance Committee.

As for future plans, Aceves said he definitely plans to run for city council again when his term is up in 2010.

“I think I’ve earned the respect of the public,” he says. “And I’m going to ask them to hire me again.”