Shot taken at the Lysakov Gallery in Pacific Grove - 65° Magazine

John Phillips hoists a workboot-clad leg onto his desk and faces you with the frank, open stare of a man
always looking for the truth. He can’t help it: that stare served him well during his career as a Superior
Court judge. Newcomers to the ranch take one look at him and know there’s no “wiggle room” with this
man. It’s total honesty or nothing.
It’s also the look of a visionary. John saw the potential in this land long ago. Over the past eight years,
his dream has become reality.
CD What drove you to build this place?
JP I got tired of sending young people to
prison for thirty, forty, fifty years. I mean, you’re
basically discarding a life. I saw an obvious need
for early intervention with things like job training
and education.
CD How did you find the land?
JP I knew this property existed. It was the old
Boys’ Ranch. I used to come here and play basketball
with the kids when I was a district attorney
back in the 1970’s. After that, the property was
pretty much abandoned and lay here dormant for
about twenty years, except for some use by the
county for dumping and Animal Control. I always
thought it had all kinds of potential as a place of
hope for young people.
CD How did things look when you started building
Rancho Cielo?
JP We took over the property in 2000. We
couldn’t raise sufficient funding then to get
anything going here. So we started the Silver Star
program with the County Education and Probation
departments down at the old Natividad Hospital.
We couldn’t do anything with this property until
the construction industry got behind me. John
Anderson of Woodman Development and Don
Chapin were major contributors who brought in
their connections.
We really started working on things in 2003. We
hauled off over 750 end-dumps of trash and tore
down old dilapidated houses, carports and fences.
When we moved into the facility in 2004, the
administration and educational buildings had been
completed but the gym was still in disrepair.
CD Now the gym is finished and it looks great.
What’s next?
JP We’ve cleaned up the kitchen and it’s ready
to be revamped into a culinary school. I need to
raise more money for that project. We’ll have to
make handicap-access bathrooms and bring in
all new kitchen equipment. The plans have been
completed and they’re at the county now. The
architect who designed it donated all his time.
A mechanical engineer also donated his time.
Bert Cutino from the Sardine Factory is heading a
committee to decide what kind of programs we’ll
run in the culinary school.
CD So far, what was the hardest thing to get done
and why?
JP The hardest part was getting the initial
buildings done. People were very reluctant to get
involved in this project because my own feasibility
study—which I paid for—concluded we could
never do it. So Don Chapin and I came up with a
strategy to do what we had to do in order to get
the buildings finished enough that we could bring
the kids in.
Now the county administration is totally supportive
of what we’re doing. Also the Harden Foundation.
The Monterey Peninsula Foundation has given us
more money to keep going. For every buck we
FEATURE 37