Mike Holmes- Vice Mayor
Mike Holmes, a fifth generation native of the Auburn area, where he was instilled with the values of integrity and helping your neighbor. At Placer High School Mike swiftly demonstrated his leadership skills by being elected to several student body offices including Student Body President his senior year. He was also active in the California Cadet Corps, a military training program, and was selected to be the only statewide Cadet Colonel at the encampment at Camp San Luis Obispo that year. (Mike was inducted into the Placer High School Hall of Fame in 2003.)
Following attendance at Sierra College, Mike graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in history. Accepting no further student deferments, he volunteered to join the Navy and was commissioned from Officer Candidate School on November 22nd, 1963. His first shipboard assignment was aboard a destroyer with responsibility for over 60 men in the engineering department. During his next tour of duty, Mike was an advisor to the South Vietnamese Navy Junk Force and Sea Forces for over 16 months. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with combat "V" during that assignment. Following an assignment on a guided missile cruiser Mike attended Chinese language school in Washington, DC, for one year. Intelligence duty in Taiwan and a tour on an oiler off Vietnam completed Mike's initial Navy career.
Mike attended graduate school at the Monterey Institute of International Studies where he earned a Masters degree in political science and Asian Studies. While teaching history and political science at Hartnell College in Salinas, California, he completed a Master of Public Administration degree at Golden Gate University before being recalled into the Navy in 1980 as an Associate Professor at the University of Southern California. His next assignment was to the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington, DC, as an international affairs officer where he was responsible for military sales to the United Kingdom, South Korea, and the People's Republic of China. During that period he served on several working groups coordinating policy within the administration including representatives from the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, and other agencies.
Due to his language and diplomatic skills, Mike as selected to be the Naval Attaché to China where he served in 1989 and 1990. He received the Defense Meritorious Service Medal at the end of that posting. His last two Navy tours were as commander of the only US Naval Base in South Korea where he was responsible for support to the Seventh Fleet and the health and well-being of over 400 US personnel, dependents and Korean Nationals. This was followed by a tour as Defense and Naval Attaché in Hong Kong. He was awarded the Legion of Merit for his work in Hong Kong.
After his retirement from the Navy in 1994, Mike returned to the education field by successfully establishing a Navy JROTC program at a high school in the Los Angeles area.
Upon returning to his hometown in 1999 Mike quickly became involved with community service. He was elected foreman pro tem of the Grand Jury, served as President of the Auburn Cemetery District Board, and was elected to the city council in November 2002 serving as mayor in 2005-2006. Mike was re-elected to the city council in 2006 and served a second term as mayor in 2008-2009. He is a director of the Placer County Air Pollution Control Board. Mike has served on a number of Placer County and Auburn City boards and commissions and is currently on the board of the Sierra Economic Development Corporation. He is a board member of the Auburn Rotary Club and was made Paul Harris Fellow for his work in the community.
He met his wife, the former Rita Miller, in 1970 while assigned to Washington, DC. They were married six years ago which brought Rita's daughter from a former marriage, Michelle, into his life. Michelle is a university student in Florida.