Roper Named as County’s New Fire Chief

Saying they have finally found a fire chief who sees the job as a career and not a step up the ladder to another place, supervisors Tuesday selected Bob Roper to head the Ventura County Fire Department.

The 41-year-old Ojai-area resident, who has served as interim chief for more than a month since the departure of James Sewell, is a product of Ventura public schools and is a 17-year department veteran.

Roper will be paid $94,380 annually to head the 453-member department and manage its $49-million budget.

“He’s a solid guy,” said Supervisor Frank Schillo after the board’s closed-door hiring decision was announced. “He’s right here and he wants to stay here. I think he’s come to a point where this is the ultimate for him, to become the fire chief in the department where he’s worked all these years.”

Roper said he has no intention of leaving the county.

Roper, who has lived in Ventura County since he was 7, is a graduate of Buena High School in Ventura. He joined the department as a volunteer after he watched firefighters pump dry his inundated Ojai home following a 1977 water main break.

Married with two teenage daughters, Roper lives with his family in the Upper Ojai area.

“This county, it doesn’t get any better--from the quality of life to the air quality to recreation,” Roper said. “Why would anybody want to leave it?”

County supervisors have been asking themselves the same thing.

When Sewell departed last month to take over as Seattle’s top fire official, he had been on the job for just three years. For the fourth time in 12 years, the Board of Supervisors found itself searching for a new chief.

Although the board considered recruiting from across the state and nation, in the end, it looked no further than Roper, who as deputy chief was the only person interviewed for the job, county officials said.

“When Sewell said he was leaving, the first person I thought of, automatically, I didn’t even question it, was Mr. Roper,” Supervisor John K. Flynn said. “I’ve seen him in action for a long time.”

Fire Capt. Ken Maffei, president of the 375-member county firefighters union, said the rank-and-file is glad to see the new chief hired from within the department, especially someone who rose up the ranks.

They also are glad to see a new chief who intends to stick around, Maffei said.

“Nothing ever gets finished in this department, at least not in a long time,” he said. “A lot of good things have been started, but not ever completed. I think he sees the same thing.”

Roper said he does, noting that one of his biggest challenges outside of managing the budget will be to give the department a clear and stable vision.

“Over the past 12 years, we’ve done nothing but change our administrative policies and our procedures and so forth,” Roper said. “Now, it’s time to clean up house and provide the stability and get all our operations operating at 110%.”