Triumph and Tragedy

Nineteen-ninety-six was a year of soaring success and heart-rending failure.

Of Olympic dreams fulfilled by a gold-medal archer and a softball slugger, and the loss of a scrappy Little League second baseman swept away in a Moorpark creek. Of cops who quelled crime, and two who died fighting it.

Of an economy that finally hit its stride, and of never-ending skirmishes between rival hospitals and shopping malls.

Of smaller classes for young students, but too few classrooms to properly hold them.

Of the lurid Sherri Dally murder case--the potboiler of 1996.

But also of the pending closure of job-rich Camarillo State Hospital and the prospect that the site will become Ventura County’s first public four-year university--the story of the year.

EDUCATION

Sushi State?

It’s hardly a done deal, but odds are better than ever that the California State University campus this county has courted for decades could open by fall 1998.

Already named Cal State University Channel Islands (CSUCI), the potential four-year university took a huge step forward this fall when a gubernatorial task force recommended conversion of stately red-tiled Camarillo State Hospital to the college campus it already resembles.

Such prospects relieved the gloom of Gov. Pete Wilson’s earlier announcement that the 60-year-old Camarillo hospital, the employer of 1,500, would close in 1997, shifting 800 patients to community homes or hospitals out of the area.

Now, the overriding question is where to get the $10 million for start-up costs, $25 million to $50 million for construction and $20 million a year to cover annual operating costs.

About $6 million will come from selling a lemon orchard first planned for the new campus. The governor’s preliminary budget will provide more clues Jan. 10. And Cal State officials must submit an economic plan by early spring.

With the rare and heady rush of $13.5 million in newfound money, the county’s elementary schools hired 350 teachers to cut class sizes in primary grades to 20 students or fewer. However, the state program did not provide enough cash to pay for new rooms to house all the extra classes. That shortfall, plus a 2% to 3% enrollment increase from “baby boom echo� students, created an urgency to expand.

In the continuing fight for control of the county Board of Education, voters weighed in with a split decision. Wendy Larner, a member of the board’s conservative Christian majority, lost badly to moderate Janet Lindgren. But conservative Ron Matthews was easily elected. Both vowed to bring peace to the board, which has split over everything from the powers of Supt. Charles Weis to accepting federal grants.

POLITICS

A New-Term Correction

After edging to the right in recent years, Ventura County’s traditionally conservative politics joined the anti-Newt nation in 1996 in suggesting greater moderation.

This county favored President Clinton over Bob Dole, even though the Dole campaign made Ventura County a regular stop. And moderate Brad Sherman, who edged Republican Rich Sybert to win a seat in Congress, was hurt less than Democrats usually are by voters in predominantly Republican Thousand Oaks, this county’s portion of the 24th Congressional District.

The November election did see other Republican incumbent lawmakers--Rep. Elton Gallegly (Simi Valley), Sen. Cathie Wright (Simi Valley), and Assemblymen Nao Takasugi (Oxnard) and Brooks Firestone (Los Olivos)--swept back into office with no strong opposition. And a mellowed Tom McClintock (Northridge), a pugnacious conservative when he first represented the county in the Legislature, easily won a seat in the Assembly.

On the local level, the nonpartisan Board of Supervisors retained its female and Democratic majority despite the retirement of Maggie Kildee after 16 years. Kathy Long, a Kildee aide, defeated former Camarillo Mayor Mike Morgan. Supervisor Susan Lacey, another Democrat, won reelection.

The March primary produced a ray of hope for library backers throughout the county. After library taxes failed the previous fall, Ojai area voters ratified a $35 annual property tax to keep their library open 50 hours a week. But by year’s end, the issue of how to keep the county’s struggling 15-branch system afloat remained an open question.

There was a victory for Ventura and the Buenaventura Mall in their continuing effort to renew the aging mall. Ventura voters decided it was OK to funnel sales tax revenue to the owners of Buenaventura to help pay for a $50-million expansion.

CRIME

Violent Death

Perhaps no crime in recent county history has captured the local imagination as has the Sherri Dally murder case: a story, prosecutors say, of the slaying of a loving mother by her adulterous husband and his girlfriend.

After the 35-year-old Ventura homemaker was killed last spring, investigators focused on husband Michael Dally and girlfriend Diana Haun, both Oxnard grocery clerks. The Dally-Haun trial is set to begin in February.

Also expected to face a jury this year is troubled Vietnam veteran Michael Raymond Johnson, who shot and killed Sheriff’s Deputy Peter Aguirre Jr. in July as the young deputy stepped into the Ojai house of Johnson’s estranged wife.

No charges were filed in the death of Oxnard Officer James Jensen during a predawn SWAT raid last spring. But a district attorney’s investigation did find gross negligence by Jensen’s colleague and mentor, Sgt. Dan Christian, who accidentally shot his friend in the back.

Prosecutors also chastised the Oxnard Police Department for a series of mistakes in the planning and execution of the fatal raid. Jensen’s widow, who tearfully clutched Christian’s hand during her husband’s funeral, has filed a lawsuit against the sergeant and the city.

Overall, Ventura County probably will remain the safest urban area in the West. But after years of decline in violent crime, Oxnard experienced a spate of killings in 1996, 18 slayings out of the county’s 34. And the victims in eight of the killings were children.

PUNISHMENT

Hung Jury

In a compelling courtroom drama, the trial of a former high school teacher accused of killing a Simi Valley police officer ended in a mistrial.

Jurors could not decide whether Daniel Allan Tuffree intentionally killed Simi Valley policeman Michael Clark when he saw the officer entering his backyard in 1995, or if Tuffree was a troubled, frightened man who fired in self-defense.

Prosecutors eventually agreed not to seek the death penalty in exchange for Tuffree’s waiving of his right to a jury trial. A judge will hear the retrial this month.

Punishment was more immediate in the case of three Conejo Valley teenagers convicted of killing an acquaintance for drugs in a backyard clubhouse. After a jury found Jason Holland, Brandon Hein and Tony Miliotti guilty of first-degree murder, a judge declared them to be remorseless and gave them the maximum sentence--life in prison. A fourth youth, Micah Holland, received 25 years to life.

On the corporate side of the ledger, Rockwell International pleaded guilty to three felony counts of mishandling hazardous waste in the chemical explosion that killed two scientists at the Santa Susana Field Lab in 1994. The company also paid a $6.5-million fine.

ECONOMY

Hitting Stride

After years of economic stagnation, the Ventura County economy hit its stride in 1996 with low unemployment, thousands of newly created jobs and high consumer spending.

Fired by the success of biotechnical giant Amgen Inc., which hired two new employees a day through the year, Thousand Oaks led the way.

Countywide, home sales were expected to reach their highest level since 1989.

At either end of the county, long-delayed projects resurfaced: Moorpark planners approved a 3,221-home mini-city; Simi Valley welcomed the final 652-dwelling phase of the troubled Wood Ranch development; and owners of 303 acres of cropland near Oxnard High School unveiled plans for a country club subdivision.

New shopping centers and outlet malls also opened in Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, Moorpark and Fillmore. Ventura and Oxnard planned movie theaters to revive their downtowns.

After Martin V. “Bud� Smith sold the county’s largest real estate empire to a high-profile Wall Street investor, the buyer decided to spruce up the landmark Financial Plaza in Oxnard with a $4-million face-lift.

Already a growing economic power, the tiny Port of Hueneme showed greater promise when the state Coastal Commission signed off on the purchase of 33 acres of surplus Navy land, an acquisition that could increase harbor operations by 50%.

Even as the economy boomed, however, the county suffered two of its largest employee layoffs in recent history: The old Nabisco plant in Oxnard closed, costing the jobs of 550 workers. And a computer modem manufacturer in Thousand Oaks notified 350 workers that they would have to find other jobs.

GROWTH

New Concerns

As developers recognized the pent-up demand for new construction--lining up to build new shopping centers, movie theaters, commercial buildings and housing subdivisions--concerns emerged anew that rapid growth could destroy the city--separating greenbelts that drew many residents here in the first place.

In the most far-reaching, growth-control vote in years, a task force of city and county officials agreed to limit construction of houses in unincorporated areas to lots of 2 acres or more.

The weakness of the previous 1-acre standard had been highlighted when county supervisors said they were obligated to consider a 270-house project on citrus orchards near Somis, and cities responded with outrage.

A new study found a loss of 1,100 acres of prime farmland every year in this county, causing agricultural interests to step up their drive to keep farming--and the infrastructure that supports the area’s No.1 industry--viable.

Growth issues also dominated debate in Thousand Oaks, where environmentalist Linda Parks won a City Council seat, placing first in a 10-candidate field. Parks had gathered thousands of voter signatures and put before the council a measure that prohibited city approval of development on publicly owned golf courses, parks and open space without voter approval. The City Council approved the measure rather than put it on the fall ballot.

And in a bit of environmental one-upmanship, then-Mayor Andy Fox backed a second growth-management measure that forbids projects with densities greater than the city’s master plan without voter ratification. The voters thought that was a good idea.

HEALTH

Hospital Wars

The nasty and expensive game of showdown played by Ventura’s two rival hospitals for four years reached a new level in 1996.

First, private Community Memorial Hospital spent $1.5 million to defeat a spring ballot measure that would have allowed construction of a $51-million wing at the nearby Ventura County Medical Center.

Then, after Community Memorial blocked a smaller medical center project, officials counterattacked by discussing a partnership with some of the nation’s largest hospital chains. In courting Tenet Health Care Corp. and Columbia/HCA, county officials made it clear that they thought that was the only way to keep open a public hospital that Community Memorial claims is unfairly competing for private patients.

The bold county offensive prompted a quick response: St. John’s Medical Center in Oxnard, always neutral in this fight, announced support for limited new construction at the county hospital. And as the year ended, Community Memorial was proposing talks to merge the two hospitals and finally end their tiresome feud.

ENVIRONMENT

A Park Complete

Sixteen years after creating the Channel Islands National Park, Congress last year gave up on negotiations and decided to seize the last chunk of the islands for public use.

Next month, the Park Service will take possession of the 6,264-acre Santa Cruz Island ranch of Oxnard attorney Francis Gherini. The ranch’s value is still in dispute. But to animal lovers, the main issue is what will happen to 2,500 sheep that now graze the rugged island. The animals could be slaughtered by sharpshooters come Feb. 10, or rounded up and escorted to the mainland.

On the mainland, a dispute at least as rancorous surrounded the county’s decision to expand the Toland Landfill. Santa Paula and Fillmore, both near the dump, railed against it. But even a lawsuit failed to stop the parade of garbage trucks that now rumble daily down Toland Road.

But if the Santa Clara Valley was the west county’s new dumping ground, the Toland Landfill’s expansion brought relief to neighbors of the Bailard Landfill on the shore of the Santa Clara River near Oxnard. Bailard, derided for decades as an environmental hazard, finally closed.

And in an annual dose of good news for a county still among the nation’s most polluted, air quality officials reported skies were cleaner in 1996.

CALAMITIES

Fire and Rain

It rained hard and blew ferociously, but fickle weather generally favored us last year.

January storms further damaged the battered Ventura Pier, but it is now set for full reconstruction with steel support. Even a terrifying arson started on a blustery October night at Grant Park above downtown Ventura was pushed away from the heart of the city by blessed ocean winds and then eerily extinguished as the season’s first sprinkles unexpectedly dampened brown hills.

Earlier in the year, a fire stretched 11 miles, all the way from Santa Paula to Fillmore, but blackened only mountainside and one citrus grove.

However, heavy January rains proved disastrous in Moorpark when 11-year-old Joel Burchfield tried a well-known shortcut across a turbulent arroyo and drowned. After an agonizing funeral, Joel’s Little League teammates dedicated their season to him. Wearing red wristbands bearing Joel’s number, they played as if they had an angel on their shoulders and qualified for the Little League World Series. They didn’t win, but a crowd of 4,000 greeted them on their return.

THE ARTS

A Center for Moorpark

For the third time in two years, an east county city inaugurated a center for the arts when Moorpark College unveiled its $10-million arts emporium in October.

The question now is whether the 400-seat auditorium has saturated a market that includes the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center and the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks.

The west county’s largest performing arts center in Oxnard was also granted new life in 1996, when directors approved a $650,000 renovation.

RECREATION

Play Ball

Indeed 1996 was a year for soaring beyond expectations. Simi Valley archer Justin Huish became the county’s first two-time gold medalist with nerveless and unerring performances at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. And former Buena High catcher Kim Maher starred for the United States’ gold-medal softball team.

At Ventura College, both the men’s and women’s basketball teams also made history, winning state championships in the same season.

Meanwhile, Ventura and Oxnard are still trying to get a minor league baseball club in town. Oxnard now thinks it has a deal to get the former Palm Springs Suns to town by 1998. And Ventura is negotiating with a developer who says he has a second team locked up--if the city helps build a $10.5-million stadium.