City manager notches his twentieth year

After two decades of leading Costa Mesa, Allan Roeder sees better public facilities, infrastructure and local government.COSTA MESA -- Thirty years ago, Allan Roeder was just an intern with the city.

Today he’s celebrating 20 years as its city manager.

During those two decades -- 30 years total on the city staff, going back to that college internship -- Roeder has managed to stay on everyone’s right side, no matter the turmoil.

It may be why the 54-year-old is still in his top-floor corner office.

“When I think about being in his position and the different personalities ... how he manages to not just totally lose it once in a while, and he doesn’t,” former Councilwoman Sandra Genis said.

After growing up in different parts of Orange County, Roeder was studying political science and history at Cal State Fullerton in 1974 when he heard about an internship with the city of Costa Mesa.

He thought he was bombing his interview until he was asked what he knew about Costa Mesa. He’d been coached on the city’s history by a girl he was dating who’d grown up here, and her coaching worked.

After the internship, Roeder moved into a position with the public works department and later became assistant city manager. In the meantime, he earned a graduate degree in public administration, and he took when his boss changed jobs.

No slave to rules

As he rose through the ranks, Roeder wouldn’t just collect data from other cities when asked -- he’d add his own suggestions for how Costa Mesa could do things better. Today, he tells his employees not to be a slave to rules and regulations, he said.

It takes outside-the-box thinking to deal with the constant changes in Roeder’s job. He spends much of his time meeting with developers, City Council members and representatives from public entities such as the school district, but he always makes time for staff retirement parties, said Kelly Shelton, his secretary.

Each day “changes from the way that it was scheduled in the morning to the afternoon,” she said. “No day, I don’t think, since I’ve been here, has ever been as scheduled.”

And like the heads of many organizations, Roeder works long hours. Resident Judi Berry, a frequent speaker at City Council meetings, said she’s sometimes gotten e-mails from Roeder after 10 p.m.

Communication seems to have been one of the most important parts of his job. Berry said Roeder functions as a mediator of sorts, and Shelton said he treats everyone equally, whether they’re developers, residents or staff members.

One of his least favorite parts of the job is dealing with hostile people, but he handles it well.

“I like to think that in the 20 years, that we as a city are doing a much better job of open government and being responsive to the residents,” Roeder said.

He’s also proud of how much he and the various City Councils -- he’s worked with at least 32 council members -- have done to improve infrastructure and public facilities. Major street maintenance, two new fire stations, a senior center and a seismic retrofit of the City Hall have all been completed, and the city hasn’t busted its budget.

A financially sound mind

Genis and planning commissioner Donn Hall, who served on the council that hired Roeder as city manager, both attributed the city’s financial health to Roeder’s careful planning.

“He’s a fiscal conservative and understands better than most the role of government and the use of their money,” Hall said.

But there’s still more Roeder wants to do. He hasn’t even thought about retiring yet, and though he doesn’t rule out that a job elsewhere might entice him away, he’s quite attached to Costa Mesa.

With mom and pop shops and big corporations, affluent neighborhoods and areas that are struggling, the city is a good cross-section of Orange County as a whole, Roeder said.

“You just have a little bit of everything in Costa mesa,” he said.

“While all of those differences make it a challenge, it also is a lot of what gives the community its energy.”

20051027iozrpgknKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Allan Roeder has served Costa Mesa 20 years.