Editor's note: This is another in a series of profiles of the nine candidates running for three Ventura City Council seats in the Nov. 6 election.

After eight years of elected service, Ventura Mayor Carl Morehouse planned to walk away.

The retired county planner had helped erase a $9 million budget deficit, gotten an often-divided community behind a 20-year growth plan and secured money for the first new police and fire positions in nearly two decades.

But then he was struck by what he calls two "pivotal" moments. First, a majority of his council urged him to run again. "They said, Please, we need your continuity, we need your expertise, we need your connections, we need your way of thinking,'" Morehouse said.

The second happened when he least expected it — in a grocery aisle at Vons, while he was in his sweats after an evening workout.

An elderly woman saw him and crossed half the store to speak to him.

"She said, I just want you to know that I have been living in Ventura for 83 years and you are doing a fantastic job. Keep it up,'" he recalled. "When I have people I don't know coming up to me, out of nowhere, telling me I am doing a good job I had to reconsider."

He insists he's devoted to another four years, though the 56-year-old concedes that his late change of heart has put him behind in the money race and likely cost him some critical endorsements.

He said he is committed to implementing the city's long-range vision and downtown plan, boosting the local economy, and representing what he believes is the majority of Ventura residents who fall between the no-growth and pro-development camps.

"I am about building consensus," he said of his career in government. "I am about trying to find where the middle is, because that's where 80 percent of our agreement is. I am not a flamboyant character. I am not out there to grab headlines."

Morehouse said he's frustrated, however, with what he called the lack of public understanding of how the city collects and spends its revenue.

He disagrees with his challengers, who have hammered on the city's development approval process as cumbersome and expensive. The problem, to him, is that the city is trying to adopt clearer development guidelines while, at the same time, a short-handed planning department is processing projects submitted under the old rules. He feels the process is getting better, and he wants to see promised community plans for the city's west end and midtown fulfilled.

"We are trying to solve 40 years of problems in the last five years," he said. "And that's what's been frustrating everybody, because people are pent up and want change and want it to happen overnight."

Morehouse has used much of his time at candidate forums to talk about an issue no one else is discussing: greenhouse gases and development.

To him, the most pressing issue facing the city is the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, or AB32, requiring the state Air Resources Board to develop regulations and market mechanisms to reduce California's greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020.

"The implications for development are enormous," said Morehouse, a proponent of more compact and mixed housing, built near transit. "It's not a sexy topic, but this is going to have a huge impact across the state."

The mayor will put his own interests aside for the greater good, said local resident Ed Lacey, an attorney who was part of a group that crafted a living-wage law adopted by the City Council.

"He doesn't overpromise, which to me is the sign of a good leader," Lacey said. "He's well-centered. He doesn't try to appease everybody, and he doesn't get influenced by the group that clamors the loudest."

His advocacy for hillside protection earned him the Ventura Citizens for Hillside Preservation endorsement.

Morehouse said he lost the Ventura Chamber of Commerce endorsement, which he got four years ago, because he publicly stated in a presentation that "we ought to exact a pound of flesh out of Wal-Mart" and has since been cast as anti-business. The labor unions also abandoned him because he was unwilling to champion an ordinance to block a Wal-Mart Supercenter, he said.

The mayor was the only incumbent not to receive the backing of the city's police and fire associations.

"I don't see how we could endorse someone who is telling us his commitment to public safety is lukewarm at best," Police Sgt. Jerry Foreman, association president, said.

Morehouse said such criticism comes with the territory. He said he's committed to adding more police and fire personnel when the money is available.

"If you are looking for flashy quotes, then I am not your guy," said the Midwest native who did his graduate work at Indiana University. "My duty is to get the job done. And I am propelled by the people who have watched me, built trust in me, and know the knowledge I have accumulated in my 30 years in government. I think that is the most important thing I bring. And I have great respect for my peers."