The outgoing two-term president of the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association cut his political teeth at age 12 when he became school president of Willow Glen Elementary School. Later he earned a bachelor's degree in political science at San José State University. He found law school uninspiring, so he returned to SJSU to earn a master's degree in public administration.

For the past 15 years he's worked for county supervisors.

"I love my job," said Gibbs, 41. "I never know what's going to happen."

On any day, work could change with a single phone call, maybe from a citizen calling the county supervisor's office or a supervisor changing their plans.

"It's never boring," he said.

In addition to his county job, Gibbs has spent the past few years as an active member of the neighborhood association.

"Some people get their dose of local government for two hours one night of the month," said Gibbs about the association's monthly meeting. "I get it all day."

But with his term ending this month, he said he's going to take a break from neighborhood politics and dedicate his energy to a new challenge: marriage and parenthood.

With years of studying politics and working for politicians, he's learned that nothing can completely prepare an individual for the expectations of an elected office.

"The amount of work involved is more than I ever expected," he said about his duties as the neighborhood association's elected president. "There are huge expectations—you have to go to all the community meetings, and there's pressure to weigh in on every issue," such as traffic calming and development projects.

During his tenure Gibbs has learned it's better to delegate duties to other board members than try to handle all the association's obligations.

"I found it was much more efficient to find board members with similar interests or concerns" to help citizens with issues rather than take on issues alone, he said.

Issues could range from development projects to helping a citizen navigate their way through city hall.

During Gibbs' 15 years with the county, he might have run for city council when Frank Fiscalini's term ended, but the timing was bad, Gibbs said. He adds that other council members for San Jose's sixth district—in which Willow Glen is partially located—have served the community just as well as he might have.

"[San Jose District 6 City Council member Ken] Yeager has done an excellent job of representing Willow Glen," Gibbs said. "Lincoln Avenue is cleaner; the parks are better."

But Gibbs also believes his diplomatic leadership helped build the neighborhood associaton's positive relationships with city hall and the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association, which is mainly composed of Lincoln Avenue merchants.

One major challenge for his presidency was to lead the association in solving problems, "not moving them around," as he describes it.

For example, "the solution to one street's problems"—usually traffic—"shouldn't become another street's problem," he said.

"I'm proud to say that we have a healthy working relationship with both" the business association and the city, he said.

He is most proud of the association's rescuing the Founders' Day event at a time when the business association's internal problems threatened to cancel it.

In 2001, the business association made a late announcement that it couldn't sponsor the 74th Founders' Day celebration. The neighborhood association, in cooperation with Yeager's office, raced to organize a scaled-down version of the event.

"We had only a couple of weeks to figure out what to do," Gibbs said.

"Of course, a lot of the credit for Founders' Day goes to Helen," said Gibbs, referring to Helen Solinski, a longtime member of the neighborhood association and its first vice president, who may become Gibbs' successor.

Though Gibbs acknowledged he's been under some pressure to stay on the board, he said it's time to let someone else take the helm.

Now he's looking forward to marrying his fiancée, Allison, and becoming a stepfather. This will be his first marriage.

"I'm pretty excited about it," he said modestly. "I mean, you wait for 41 years, you want to get it right."