Santa Barbara County Supervisor, 4th District

Four-year term

Name: John Sterling

Age: 57

Political party: Republican

Years in 4th District: 25

Elected office: none

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Work: Santa Maria police chief, Ridgecrest police chief, Ridgecrest interim city manager, Oakland and East Palo Alto police departments, welfare fraud

investigator for Santa Barbara County District

Attorney’s office, partner or owner of several private business ventures

Family: married, two children

By Sam Womack/Staff Writer

John Sterling is the first to admit he’s not a very polished politician.

He gets frustrated by forums with timed answers, and dislikes staying to rehearsed statements.

But when given time to explain, he shares definite plans for what he would do if he is elected 4th District Santa Barbara County supervisor. He also professes a heartfelt desire to make a difference.

“I’m a novice candidate,” he admitted. “But I’ll make a great supervisor.”

Sterling, 57, is up against incumbent Joni Gray, who has represented the 4th District, which includes Guadalupe, Orcutt, Lompoc and Casmalia, for 10 years.

One of the county’s biggest challenges going forward is a predicted budget deficit for 2008-09 and continuing into 2014.

The Board of Supervisors is planning cuts in all departments, but specific details will not be known until the budget hearings in July.

Sterling, who is a registered Republican, was adamant that he would not make across-the-board departmental cuts, and more specifically would not cut the county adult mental health budget.

“I would take a holistic approach,” he said, explaining that before making cuts to the front-line service members, he would first take a magnifying glass to the top-paid county administrators.

“I’m definitely not in support of 10 percent cuts across the board,” Sterling said.

One of Sterling’s revenue ideas is to re-evaluate county-owned properties, and either sell them or update their uses.

As evidenced in a public question at last month’s forum in Lompoc, some doubt Sterling’s ability to help balance the county’s budget due to rumors of an overrun budget when he was Santa Maria police chief.

“I did spend more than the general fund money, but it wasn’t money from the general fund that I was spending,” John said.

Although the explanation gets complicated with city budget regulations, Sterling said the reason he retired from the department was due to differences in management styles between himself and Santa Maria City Manager Tim Ness, and not for budget discrepancies.

“Before I came to Santa Maria, I had an extensive community service background ... my background and experience and successes had given me very specific management style and understanding of role of law enforcement,” Sterling said

“That was different from the role and management framework that was set up in the city of Santa Maria. This caused conflict between the city manager and I. I was an at-will employee, and the city manager has every right to choose his management team to fit his style where he works. I understand that.”

On his retirement as the police chief in May 2003, Sterling was paid $123,500 by the city for leaving without cause, he said.

“Because I was so involved in the community, that caused a lot of speculation and rumors, but there was absolutely nothing else going on,” he added.

While working in law enforcement for more than 20 years, Sterling was also campaign chair for the county United Way and Santa Maria Boys and Girls Club; co-founder of Families for the First Decade in Santa Maria; and on the Kern County children’s advisory team, which are a few among many other community involvement’s.

Sterling, who tried his hand at agriculture on a small scale, said his range of experience makes him sensitive to the needs of the agriculture and business communities, law enforcement, families, and the underrepresented.

“I know the power of bringing a community together,” he said when describing his part in lowering the homicide rate in East Palo Alto from 24 a year to six in 1992.

His views on growth and development in the county, and more specifically in Orcutt, are somewhat unusual.

“Instead of accepting proposals from builders we’re not happy with, we should decide as a community what we want and then actively search out, recruit and encourage builders,” Sterling said.

It was for Orcutt and other unincorporated areas the began his campaign, Sterling said.

“They want local input over the destiny of their community ... I will work full-time to represent them as the political entity representing those people and what they want,” Sterling said.

As to why he thinks people should support him over Gray: “I offer to represent the people in the 4th District in the county Board of Supervisors.”

Sterling lived in Lompoc from the third to the 11th grade, and returned with his own family in 1987. He and his wife, Carol, have been married for 26 years, and still reside in the home they purchased on their return to Lompoc.

His daughter Emily is a medic and shift supervisor in an emergency room in Baghdad, Iraq, where she is serving a 15-month tour in the United States Army. His son John is an Airborne Ranger with the 75th Ranger Regiment, and has been stationed in the Middle East twice.