So what makes Paladin Principle, a recently launched public affairs and consulting company based in Oxnard, different from other firms offering similar services?

For one thing, they actually believe in the companies they represent.

“People can tell whether you’re representing something you aren’t committed to or whether you’re representing something you do believe in,” said Fred Trueblood, one of the firm’s four founding consultants. “We don’t have to walk into a room full of people or walk into a meeting and wonder what it is that we’re going to say. We already know that because we believe it. That single notion makes a big difference.”

The group has the luxury of being choosy with its clients at least in part because three of its four founding members – Trueblood, Ernie Villegas and Lin Graf – are all retired. Jeff Gorell adds a splash of youthful energy at age 36. The firm, launched last September, has become something of a go-to company for mid-sized companies’ public relations needs, especially concerning pressing California issues. Its current roster of seven clients includes businesses as diverse as the Cabrillo Economic Development Corp., a company that provides affordable housing, the Gold Coast Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Limoneira Co., an agribusiness company, and Clearwater Port, the company vying to put a liquefied natural gas port off the coast of Ventura County with minimal environmental impact.

The group has wide roots. Among other things, Villegas was mayor of Fillmore after working in public affairs for Southern California Edison Co. for nearly 30 years; Graf led the Carpinteria Valley Chamber of Commerce for nearly a decade; Trueblood has held various community positions in Camarillo, Antelope Valley and Santa Clarita Valley; and Gorell wrote speeches for former Gov. Pete Wilson before taking over communications for the California Manufacturers and Technology Association.

“The power of this group is really the diversity of experience. Between us, there really isn’t an issue or activity that we haven’t touched or been touched by,” Trueblood said. “When a client hires us, that’s what they receive: not just a one-man shop, but a collective intelligence.”

Trueblood said the company spotted an opportunity in the consulting market. Between the single consultants servicing small- to mid-sized firms and the corporate behemoths was fertile territory. “It really became apparent to us that this mid-market was wide open,” he said. Gorell said Paladin works with its clients from the earliest stages of mapping a strategy to implementing that strategy on the ground, all while taking advantage of the members’ extensive relationships in Ventura, Santa Barbara and northern Los Angeles counties.

“We’re less like Aerosmith and more like John Fogerty: a little more grassroots,” Gorell said. “This community is very sophisticated. They’re not fooled by the gloss and pomp and circumstance of these larger run campaigns and issue management efforts. They see right through that. We connect with them one on one, one handshake at a time, one organizational summit at a time. That’s our method of execution.”