Robert Ilko and Janet Ilko

[00:06] JANET ILKO: Hi, my name is Janet Ilko. I am 59 years young. It is May 14, 2024. We're at the San Diego Central Library, and I'm here to interview Bob Ilko, who I know is Rob Ilko and he's my husband and my very best friend.

[00:23] ROBERT ILKO: This is Bob Ilko. I'm 60 years old. May 14, 2024. We're at the San Diego Finest City Central Library. My wife is my interview partner, Janet. Glad to be here.

[00:42] JANET ILKO: So we're going to talk a little bit. What was it like growing up in San Diego?

[00:46] ROBERT ILKO: It was pretty privileged. It was a great place to be. You could go anywhere, you can do anything you want. People seemed to get along. Each community had its own culture and identity, but everybody respected each other's perspective. And we sort of saw ourselves as a small city that wanted to remain close knit, but we wanted to grow at the same time.

[01:23] JANET ILKO: So tell me a little bit about growing up in Mission Hills. What was that like?

[01:30] ROBERT ILKO: That was a challenge. Well, very fortunate to live there and no better place to have grown up. But we were certainly isolated, insulated from the rest of the world, so to speak, because of our being affluent. But we had to make an effort to make different friends throughout the city and to be a part of the greater city as a whole. It was a place for us to be able to be what we wanted to be, and there was a high expectation of achieving our goals, so there's a lot of pressure to live there.

[02:33] JANET ILKO: And so you ended up being a San Diego state Aztec. So tell me about being. Tell about your college life at SDSU.

[02:41] ROBERT ILKO: I went to University of Colorado, and there were more people in a classroom than my entire high school. It was away from home and from Colorado. Of 24,000, I transferred to San Diego State to 36,000. 36,000 seemed to be small because I sort of had to mature quite rapidly in my freshman year at college. And when I transferred to San Diego State, it seemed much more at home. And I learned a lot about who I was and what I wanted to do and had a great circle of friends and fraternity brothers. And being greek man of the year was a surprise and something that nobody in high school or early in college would ever thought would become. Would I be voted for? It was quite a surprise.

[03:56] JANET ILKO: And so being greek man of the year, you meet me. Sigma PI. Right. And I was a GDI, so I wasn't even in a sorority. Yes, right. So you were in Aztec your whole life, though?

[04:09] ROBERT ILKO: Yes. We went to football games in the early seventies, in eighties and then when I transferred to San Diego State in 85, we've been going to football games and basketball games since then.

[04:23] JANET ILKO: Right. So you've been an Aztec for your whole life. Our kids have been Aztecs. Had seats. You had to be the first one in the stadium. Right? I mean, you love it. You're part of an Aztec, so I see that. And you met me, which, of course, is the very best part of being an Aztec. Correct?

[04:40] ROBERT ILKO: Correct. Okay.

[04:41] JANET ILKO: Just checking. Just checking. So, reflecting back, tell me about what you're most proud of. Proudest of your work as being an Aztec. Let's just talk about college for a little bit of. You were part of the Sigma pie and you guys did a lot of things that I think impacted your life later.

[05:01] ROBERT ILKO: Well, I do a lot of community work in volunteer organizations and even in professional organizations. What we learned in the fraternity, being a board member in a fraternity house, we had a chapter director that basically showed us how to work with social groups and social organizations and leadership and how to approach and solve a problem for the greater good and how to get people to buy in on an idea. And then that idea becomes a path of accomplishment for what we want to achieve. What I learned in the fraternity house, leadership and leadership on campus with the fraternities I do every day in my community work.

[06:01] JANET ILKO: And did you meet me?

[06:02] ROBERT ILKO: Yes.

[06:03] JANET ILKO: How?

[06:04] ROBERT ILKO: At a volunteer dance or something. I was early, like usual, and I was late like usual, and you sat down behind me and offered my seat and you said no, because you're an independent person and you can kiss my ass and you're not going to help me.

[06:24] JANET ILKO: I can't say that. Rude. You're so funny. The reason I'm bringing that up is that I feel like your experience on being an Aztec your whole life, I mean, from the time you left the fraternity to when we met at the fraternity dance and came home and then got engaged and all that with them. But I think what's important is you still are an Aztec. You give back to that community quite often, and I think it's something that ties you to San Diego. Which leads me to my next question is, do you think, you know, what do you think it means to be from San Diego? Like, it's one of your biggest things that when we met and I said, I'm a San Diegan, and when you found out I came here when I was three, you corrected me because you were born here. So how do you define what does it mean to be a San Diegan?

[07:10] ROBERT ILKO: I never really thought of it. It just sort of San Diego becomes you and it's. We didn't have to deal with a lot of the, I don't know, the identity politics and a lot of that. The identity politic was you were from San Diego and it wasn't this combative. I'm this and you're not that, but it was sort of something larger than yourself. But today, as the anointed mayor of Scripps Ranch, I've taken that to who we are and what we do is all about our community, which is Scripps ranch.

[08:03] JANET ILKO: So one more San Diego question. What do you think makes San Diego different from other cities? We were talking about that earlier.

[08:13] ROBERT ILKO: Thank goodness we're not LA and thank goodness we're not San Francisco. We have a little bit of ocean. Orange County, San Diego. Orange county in us. Orange county is not as big and as diverse, but San Diego has been able to still remain a small, tight knit group. If you are a member of a part of any part of San Diego, you have hopefully the same respect and ability to get things done in the city of San Diego. In LA, if there's a some issue, there's 1000 people in LA, but in San Diego there might be 20. So you can work with people and get things accomplished. But compared to LA where you're fighting larger groups of people and there are large groups on both sides of an issue, so it's really hard to move the ball. But in San Diego, a small group of people can get things accomplished, which is what I think San Diego has been known for.

[09:31] JANET ILKO: So I think that we've been privileged, right? So we lived, I grew up in San Diego, in Claremont. Then I met you and we got married and we started our life moving from near San Diego state, our little place over there, my great apartment over to Scripps Ranch. And Scripps Ranch has been part of our lives for 30, 34 years. And I think that we've definitely grown up there and I think that you're here today because of your community leadership there. So I kind of want to go through a history of that describing, you know, what is Scripps ranch to you? How do you think that that's a special part of San Diego?

[10:10] ROBERT ILKO: It's not mayberry, but it is the idea that Scripps ranch is unique in its physical attributes. We have the eclipse trees, we have open space, we have schools. Our schools are what makes a community. I've already said that a community is the structures and the houses, but it's the people that live in those houses, in those buildings that make the community. Our community is known for high performing schools. It's known for community engagement. The number of volunteers that we have doing special projects or ongoing events is unparalleled in the city of San Diego. In the county, I oversee 350 volunteers that deliver a 64 page newsletter to 12,000 homes every month. That's just one thing we do. We have the 4 July parade. We recovered from this 2003 cedar fire organized that recovery and ended up organizing the ranch Bernardo 2007 Witch Creek Fire. We do special advocacy. We work with developers who are coming into our community to try to develop the community. And we work with the developers in the city to make sure that that development fits our community. And it always looks like it was always a part of us. We built fire stations, schools, churches, rec centers. We saved a community center that was a sales office from being torn down and we had it shipped. And now it's a community center, which we operate. It's just the level of community engagement. The city has its get it done app where you could take a picture and magically somebody from the city eventually will come fix whatever it is or not fix it. But we have what we call get it done ourselves, that we don't wait for others to fix our problems. We do it ourselves.

[12:41] JANET ILKO: So I think that leads into, let's talk about a little bit in depth more of those things. Let's talk about the history of the 4 July parade with you. So talk about, I mean, because I remember you standing there with our, with our daughter. I have a picture of the scrapbook and she's a baby. She's literally seven weeks old. And my first introduction to Scripps was. It was hot. I was lost. Our neighbors took me to my car because I wandered around so much and shows the community spirit there. Right, but you were right in the midst of that parade. And that was the beginning to me of watching you grow in that community. And over the decades, that parade has a special place. So tell a little bit about personally about that parade. What do you think?

[13:20] ROBERT ILKO: The scripture inch parade has BEEN around 54 years, and this will be my 34th parade. I have never missed a parade. I went to work that morning doing construction and Came back and was in the parade in my blue jeans and work boots and pushed my daughter in a stroller. And we did, our community, our neighborhood did a 4 july float, which we ended up buying a jeep and continuing that tradition for another 1520 years. It really brings us together as a neighborhood. That neighborhood does not only the 4 July, but tennis tournaments, pickleball tournaments, Easter, Halloween, the community really comes together to celebrate, you know, what it's like to live in Scripps ranch.

[14:20] JANET ILKO: So talking about our neighbors, talking about what makes the people special in your community.

[14:30] ROBERT ILKO: That we look out for each other, that we solve problems. Communities have their own culture and identity, and one of the things that we have strived to do is problem solve. That means do the due diligence, the homework. You figure out what works, what doesn't work, and you come up with what my mentor, Colonel Bob Dingman, always said, come up with a doable solution. And if you come up with a doable solution, people give here, take there, and at the end of the. The day, that it's something that people can live with and work with and become sustainable. We were able to start a bus program, a parent paid bus program for our middle school, which, after 30 years, the school district agreed unanimously, which is rare, for the school district to agree with our community. And that bus program is still around. It serves the residents, it's the students and the parents equally. There are other things that we do. We're currently dealing with homeowners insurance issues, and we are taking up proactively how to not only keep your insurance, but how to get insurance and work with homeowners and be proactive. One of the things that we try to do is make a decision that's well informed of. And in order to do that, you've got to do the homework. You got to do the head banging on the wall to find an answer to a problem, which is part of what made Project Phoenix in the 2003 Cedar fire recovery so successful. We were able to rebuild in two years that Oakland Hills and Laguna Hills took ten years to do, because we approached the problem pragmatically and did our homework. And when we had to make a change, that the change was something that was doable and everybody bought in on it, and the changes were made, and those are the things that we should be proud of as a community.

[16:57] JANET ILKO: Well, I think let's talk about the cedar fire. Let's talk about the impact that that had across the city. Right? I remember being in the mountains with the kids, with the boys, with cub scout groups and the girls, and picking up, you know, getting us up out of the mountains, driving down, driving into scripps. I remember leaving the mountains to drive down, calling you, saying the fire is coming, and no one really believing us, and then getting there and packing up the dogs and the kids and my dad and driving out his scripps and not sure if it was all going to burn down. I remember you standing there in the heat and saying, the last words to me on the phone were, it's hot, I've got to go. And I didn't hear from you for like 3 hours. But thinking about that, the fire itself was tragic. And within 48 hours, you had people in the community. So talk a little bit about how Project Phoenix started. And then second part of that question is what? How did that impact not only the city of San Diego, but the state of California?

[17:59] ROBERT ILKO: Literally, as I was driving out and being evacuated, I was making phone calls to community members on the planning group and on the town council to have a meeting as to how we're going to respond to the event. As we were evacuating, my first phone call was to my vice president, who lost his house. That meeting, that was a Sunday. The Monday, Tuesday, the meeting kept getting bigger and larger, and we had to keep moving it to venue to venue. And by Wednesday, we had an over crowd, over standing room only event with the community of probably good 700 people in the largest church in Scripps Ranch. I. We were there to bond. We were there to grieve those who had lost their lives elsewhere in the county, but we were also there for each other and figure out how we're going to recover. The city leadership and the state leadership were instrumental to get us there. But that Wednesday night meeting was about us and what we are going to do. I had government officials come into meetings, and I would start off with, I'm not from the government, and I'm here to help. And we were able to organize certain ways of the recovery. Our city council member, Brian Maingenes office, and our town council worked together to create what we call the one stop shop where fire survivors, we don't call them victims, but survivors come to one location and they get all the services and support. We manned that one stop shop with our volunteers. So when somebody walked in, they find somebody that they knew, somebody we knew, somebody that we're going to be living with for the next 2030 years, our neighbors, and helping them person to person. That one stop shop became the federal government's FEMA model. And if you go to any disaster in the United States, they set up a one stop shop. And that's exactly what we did in the 2003 cedar fire.

[20:33] JANET ILKO: And beyond that, there were times in that community where you were gone for days. Let's just be real. And you said, oh, by the way, a truck's coming, and I'm there with my two kids and 18 wheeler pulls up with palettes of things. But beyond that, I think there were times that I think that are so special about Scripps and about our community in San Diego in general, is that is the times where we would, when we were doing the rebuild, right? And so many and many other communities broke apart, and there were some people who left, but the majority, I remember having slab parties with our neighbors, right. And they would pour the slab down and we would come sign on that slab. So there's people's names as the houses were rebuilt, of the people that were there. And I think that one of the things that I want you to also reflect on is when the insurance. So there was a state level, right. So one of the things that we learned as a community is rather than each person taking care of themselves, we aligned together. And you did a lot of work with that. So talk about the insurance issue.

[21:38] ROBERT ILKO: The state insurance commissioner had six legislative reforms that he wanted to pass, and it was called the California Homeowners Bill of Rights. I was asked to organize twelve fire survivors to go to Sacramento and campaign for the passage of the six bills. We were able to pass four out of the six and those. That legislative change allows homeowners in complete disasters to streamline their claim process, additional living expenses, and that sort of thing. The fire Marshals association had six bills and two out of their six passed. So being leading a group of eleven fire survivors and going through that process, we were able to work with the contractors license board and do contractor stings and arrest several people who were operating without a contractor's license. We organized the demolition contractors and literally had them watch, invited them to watch a house being demolished. And they learned from it. And the cost of demolition typically was 30,000 per house at the end of the project, rebuild the recovery. The cost got down to like 12,000 because of competition. We embraced competition. We educated our homeowners. Rather than dealing with the insurance companies individually. We had everybody with a certain insurance company would meet on a Tuesday, another insurance company would meet on a Wednesday. And those meetings, they, they would talk about the claims process with each other and comparing notes. And my adjuster didn't ask me that. My adjuster asked me this. And we brought in experts to help the homeowners through that claims process. And we were very fortunate not to have probably less than five lawsuits out of 312 homes that burned down, because we organize our or fire survivors. And when people organizations came to Scripps, well, we're going to do this for you. No, we want you to teach us how to do it, we'll do it. And then in two weeks, when you leave, we are going to educate ourselves. And because these are the people I have to live with, I have to see at the grocery store, and they're going to trust us. And I want to make sure that they're making well informed decisions as to rebuilding. When you lose your home in a wildfire, somebody once said it was like juggling bowling pins and knives and everything at the same time on top of a moving ball. We told people that they were simply displaced residents, that they were living elsewhere, but they're coming back. And that tie that they're coming. Expectation they're coming back, really brought people together for the slab parties and framing parties and assistants, and we had discount cards, and we did things on the. For, you know, for. For the recovery. We had a unity party. Community unity party. We tried to really reach out to the 312 homeowners and make them feel like they're still part of us. Their kids still went to our schools. They still did Boy scouts and Girl scouts. They were simply displaced and they were coming back. And that really brought us together. That unfortunately didn't happen in Rancho Bernardo. I think we were very fortunate. We've got a unique community in Scripps ranch.

[25:55] JANET ILKO: But I think part of that, another piece that I want to talk about is that you created something that has really gone beyond San Diego and all over California and other places in the country. Is the box, the paperwork box, right. The dreaded file box out of the ashes box that filled my house, garage, and everywhere else.

[26:16] ROBERT ILKO: Some of our fire survivors were paying it forward. And one of the things that they, you go to the one stop shop and you get a trash bag, or you're just stuffing information. You're getting into a briefcase or you're holding onto it, and then it gets lost the minute you get to your car. Fire survivors in script manage, realize that you need a file folder box that is portable. And then what we did is we pre labeled file folders for each part of the rebuild process. And so when you meet with the contractor, you pull out that file, you deal with it, you put it back in. I always said to husbands and wives, is it was a divorce free box? Because if your wife says, did you get that document? You go, yes, it's in the box. You didn't have to worry about losing it or trying to find it. It was always with you. We were educating people as to how to do journals and keep track of conversations with the adjusters and the insurance and the builders and all the city officials keep it all in one location. Those out of the ash box recovery, we did 2000 of them for the tubs fire in Sonoma and Napa. And we actually drove a truck up there and deliver them. And at first, the one stop shop people were like, no, you can't do this. We're not going to let you. But then we were handing them out. And because they were so effective that people, the one stop shop was asking us, can we come inside the building and distribute them? Because it led people to be more organized. They brought the anxiety down. And then you walk up to the city of Santa Rosa and it's a water department, and you stick your box on the table and you pull out your file and put it back in. It was just the best thing ever that one of the things that we ever did was the out of the Ash box tote recovery filing system.

[28:45] JANET ILKO: So in thinking about, there's probably a couple more questions I want to talk a little bit about COVID And Covid in our community was, was a lot. And I think it divided people in this country. I think we've had a lot of issues since then politically. But in our neighborhood, it brought people together and we did something really cool. So can you talk about that?

[29:04] ROBERT ILKO: Yes. When Covid was first coming out and our town council, again, we got to be well informed. So I put together a group of experts, doctors, nurses, infectious disease people that, as people are asking the town council for advice and help, is that I went to my expert panel, got the consensus, and we use that to educate people.

[29:34] JANET ILKO: Now, on a personal note, our son was an ER resident in the midst of all of this. And so there was a personal tie to the truck.

[29:43] ROBERT ILKO: He was on my expert panel.

[29:45] JANET ILKO: Yeah. But he was to keep him safe. And so he was the face of that.

[29:49] ROBERT ILKO: And one of the things that, because of our community, somebody knocked on my door and he had this piece of plastic, orange plastic headband. And I looked at it and said, what is it? And he says, you know, you put a plastic sheet on it and it becomes a face shield for, you know, for Covid, for the medical doctors and nurses and first responders. And I was looking at, okay, that's fine. He says, no, I made it at home. And so 3d printers became very expedient for us. We started making face shield, the headbands and buying the plastic sheets, projection sheets for classrooms and buying them by the thousands. At one point, we had 75 different 3d printers working from San Diego to La. People were shipping us their 3d headbands, and we were distributing them. We ended up distributing 16,000 face shields throughout the. The state of California. We shipped to seven or eight different states. We set up a 3d printing shop in two on the east coast, one in United Kingdom. We shipped to Mexico and Costa Rica. These face shields were a lifesaver. A resident of Scripps Ranch who is the president of Scripps Mercy, and he got a phone call from two hospitals in El Centro, and they were having problems with getting PPE, PPE face, getting face shields and protective gear. He called me and my dad and I drove to El Centro, a two hour drive, and distributed 2000 face shields to two hospitals within 24 hours. The city of San Diego did, and the county library got involved. They did their own program. They ended up making a couple thousand face shields. We distributed to Tijuana and ensenada double what the city of San Diego did. They had press conferences with the mayors and all of that. We just simply did the work and with volunteers. We had a. A housing developer, an apartment owner, Stuart Posnock from Garden Communities. When I needed to buy the plastic face shields, the plastic sheeting, he gave me his personal credit card and said, buy what you need. That's the power of one person enabling us to do what we do. But that's based on building relationships. It's based on trust of the community, leadership, you know, problem solving pragmatically and doing it with a degree of integrity and also from past experience.

[33:15] JANET ILKO: So in thinking about our community and thinking about everything that you've talked about, which is a lot of giving back and being part of the San Diego scene and working closely with the mayor's office and having relationships with people. What do you think the future holds for our community? What are your hopes?

[33:32] ROBERT ILKO: I'm hoping that we don't lose what we had 2030 years ago. The community has changed. People changed. The pressure, the economic pressures on people have changed. Don't lose sight of your neighbors being your support. Neighborhood watch is something that we started 14 years ago. It started with a family home with eight people, and now I have 4100. We're starting airbag watches in Karma Mountain Ranch springs, Skyline Hills, Mira Mesa. It's the connection that you have, sharing a common issue and bond, but also by knowing people. I hope we don't lose that. I hope we. The social media allows you to reach more people, but it's more superficial. You've got to have that conversation in the grocery store and not adversarial, but little leagues and Boy scouts and Girl scouts and the scripture Echel pros and during the 4 July and those sort of thing. Description pros are a unique 450 men that meet every month, and we talk sports and drink beer. It's just having that bond, and that's the community of people and not a community of houses, which I go back to.

[35:02] JANET ILKO: Okay, last question. You ready? What are you most proud of?

[35:08] ROBERT ILKO: My two children. Obviously, they're incredible people, and I hope that I gave them the tools to succeed, even though, despite my best efforts, they're doing what they think is best. It's not how I think it should turned out, but.

[35:28] JANET ILKO: Oh, their political side's a little different than yours, huh?

[35:31] ROBERT ILKO: How? But, you know, it is like their mama. Yes, but it's. I'm most proud of that. I just. I hope that we create systems and community that will continue along after we're gone. You know, it's. I've seen it come and go. I just hope that people pick up the torch and look to see what we've done and try to make it better than what we had, which is what we try to do every day.

[36:07] JANET ILKO: Not proud of your wife or anything? Just your kids?

[36:09] ROBERT ILKO: Yes, just my kids.

[36:12] JANET ILKO: So, one more. Okay, now I'm lying. One more question.

[36:16] ROBERT ILKO: There's always one more thing.

[36:17] JANET ILKO: There's always one more thing with me. Right. In thinking about your wishes for Scripps ranch and being part of the bigger San Diego community, like, what do you think? What do you think does make us so special? And what is your hope for the future in the next 1015 years for Scripps?

[36:34] ROBERT ILKO: Well, I've always. When I first got started, it was the sense of volunteerism, and that's what Colonel Dingman and Mark Sorensen and Wes Danskins and Gordon Borners of scripture that came before me, that gave me the ability to expand and move and improve what they've done, but not forget what they've done. But it's just the approach of solving problems. It's the approach of building a community, which is what I'm hoping that others will learn from. Like the get it done ourselves hash Gido. People see it, and they're the. They want to contribute that way. I just hope that we keep that sense of volunteerism, and the more that you can do as a volunteer, the more the community can be unique and special, like scripture. Edge.

[37:39] JANET ILKO: Awesome.

[37:40] ROBERT ILKO: Thank you, guys. I just take 10 seconds.