Ventura County 1991 / THE YEAR IN REVIEW : THE STORIES: THE CENSUS : Asian Population Up 104%, Hispanic, 56%

If news consists of who, what, when, where and why, perhaps no 1991 story was bigger news than the new U.S. census figures for Ventura County.

Who are we? Homeowners, for the most part, with 66% of Ventura County’s 217,000 dwellings owned by the people who occupy them. And family types, judging by the fact that nearly three-quarters of the county’s children live with both of their parents. Both figures greatly exceed state averages.

Where are we growing? In the east county, primarily, although all of the county’s 10 cities gained population during the 1980s.

The county’s population jumped 26.4%, to 669,016, fueled by a 56% increase in Hispanic residents. Latinos, most of whom immigrated from Mexico, now number 177,000, or just over a quarter of the county’s population.

But in percentage terms, Ventura County’s 33,000-member Asian community grew even more, with a 104% increase.

OUTLOOK: County planners predict continued but slower growth in the 1990s, with as many as 15,000 new residents per year. Growth in the Latino population is expected to increase the need for bilingual teachers and may have a major impact on demand for social services.

WAR: Home Safe From Persian Gulf Duty

Welcomed by brass bands, parades and cheering crowds, more than 2,000 military personnel returned to Ventura County from service in the Persian Gulf War.

And they all got home safely, according to military officials.

The Naval Construction Battalion Center at Port Hueneme sent about 1,800 Seabees to build tent cities, hospitals, and other facilities for the troops. Though the Seabees were not at the front, they faced a constant threat of attack by Iraq’s Scud missiles.

Closer to the action were the 150 air-evacuation medics from the Air National Guard station at Point Mugu. And a Naval Air Reserve unit from Point Mugu drew the risky assignment of retrieving downed pilots from behind enemy lines.

Hundreds of well-wishers welcomed the troops home--often at middle-of-the-night landings where some soldiers saw a new offspring for the first time. “She’s so beautiful,” said Seabee Denny O’Connor, 20, as he caressed his daughter, Mariah, who was born while he was serving in the Gulf.

But like the Vietnam War, the Gulf War prompted protests, especially in the early days. Dozens of protesters gathered in Thousand Oaks and in Oxnard, carrying signs denouncing U.S. involvement. “War is no longer a viable way of solving problems,” said one protest organizer.

Although none of the county’s service people were injured, returning veterans said the war took a heavy toll, particularly among reservists who had to give up high-paying jobs when they were called up. Some admitted that when they joined the reserves they never expected to be sent off to war.

And as the excitement of coming home wore off, many military personnel said they had difficulty readjusting to normal life with their families.

The military provided counselors and other services to help returning veterans ease back into the peacetime routine.

OUTLOOK: The Seabees based at Port Hueneme are back to performing normal peacetime missions, such as disaster relief. Next month, a 600-member battalion will return from Okinawa while another battalion ships out to take its place. In May, a similar switch will take place when a battalion currently in Rota, Spain, is replaced.

ECONOMY: Unemployment and Welfare Claims Rise

Perhaps the most telling sign of what happened to the county’s economy in 1991 was a major employer’s decision this month to hire 76 new workers.

It was not a good sign.

The employer was county government, and it needs more people to handle a record demand for welfare benefits. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said a veteran welfare worker, referring to a 22% increase in aid requests during the past year. Since 1988, county welfare rolls have increased from 18,000 cases to 32,356.

The county’s unemployment rate, meanwhile, crept upward almost every month of 1991, hitting 7.8% in September--a five-year high--before easing back to 7.6% in October. By one estimate, the county has lost more than 5,000 manufacturing jobs in the past year. Another 1,000 construction workers were idled.

While real estate sales picked up somewhat compared to 1990, median prices declined. In July, for example, the county’s median selling price of $234,000 was 2.4% less than the previous year. More than 26,000 homeowners were given property-tax reductions because their homes had dropped in value.

And since people are spending less, local governments are taking in less sales tax revenue. Simi Valley imposed a hiring freeze after its sales tax revenue dropped 22% in the third quarter.

After cutting 54 jobs during the summer, the county adopted a hiring freeze that will keep more than 400 jobs vacant. The district attorney’s office decided that it could no longer afford to prosecute some crimes.

Not all the economic news was bad. Amgen Inc., the big pharmaceutical firm in Newbury Park, hired 275 scientists and other professionals and said it expects to hire another 600 new employees in the next two years. Ventura-based Kinko’s Copies boosted employment by 30%, to 200 workers.

OUTLOOK: The good news, according to some business leaders, is that the economy appears to have bottomed out. But they do not expect it to turn upward again until well into 1992. In a countywide survey, 71% of business owners said they foresee no new hiring for several months. Several experts, meanwhile, predict that California home prices will continue to decline. The state budget deficit--forecast at 8% to 13% over the next 18 months--could have dire implications for the county, which relies heavily on state aid.

GANGS: The Violence Is Just Beginning, Police Say

For smug Ventura County residents, gang violence used to be a Los Angeles story. The weekend body counts on television provided one more reason to feel good about living here instead of there.

That was before two young men were gunned down at an April baptism party in Saticoy--and before a young mother was slain the following month by drive-by gunfire in Thousand Oaks.

For law enforcement, 1991 was the year that gang activity mushroomed in Ventura County, with at least 34 gangs identified. Virtually every community in the county has at least one, officials said.

After one gang slaying each in 1989 and 1990, four killings were blamed on gangs in 1991. Only one of the victims was believed to be a gang member. Officials estimated that 70% to 85% of the cases in Juvenile Court stemmed from gang activities.

What especially concerns local gang experts is the motive--or lack of it-- behind much of the gang activity. Unlike Los Angeles gangs that kill to defend their drug-selling turf, many Ventura County gangs “are engaging in gang violence for nothing more than the thrill of it,” one prosecutor said.

OUTLOOK: The trial of two men in the Thousand Oaks slaying, scheduled to begin in January, promises to shed more light on the county’s middle-class gang phenomenon. Whatever happens in the court system, authorities see no letup in gang crimes. “I don’t think it’s cyclical,” said one deputy district attorney. “I think it’s just beginning.”

SEACLIFF: Train Derailment Releases Toxic Cargo

On a bright Sunday afternoon in July, the county’s biggest disaster of the year began with a tiny roller bearing on a Southern Pacific freight train.

As the northbound train gathered speed through the Ventura County countryside, the bearing started to overheat. In the coastal community of Seacliff, it failed and flew apart, causing 12 cars to jump the tracks.

One of the cars held 5,000 gallons of naphthalene, a highly flammable solvent. Another car was loaded with drums of aqueous hydrazine, a widely used toxic chemical that is believed to cause cancer. None of the naphthalene escaped, but eight drums of hydrazine burst open and another 15 were punctured.

Although Seacliff is sparsely populated, it was an especially bad place for a toxic chemical disaster--squeezed between rugged mountains and the Pacific Ocean, right next to the Ventura Freeway. The tricky job of cleaning up the mess prompted officials to close the freeway for more than five days, forcing about 275,000 motorists to make an hours-long detour over twisting roads through the Ojai and Rincon valleys. Amtrak passenger service was shut down, and about 300 residents of Seacliff were evacuated for most of a week.

OUTLOOK: County and local governments that took part in the cleanup are still trying to get Southern Pacific to pay costs amounting to more than $700,000. Railroad officials say they should not be held responsible because it was a leased car that caused the derailment. Federal and state officials are considering proposals to tighten the rules governing transport of hazardous materials.

POLITICS: Slow-Growth Slate Replaced by Voters

Only two years after giving slow-growth advocates control of the Ventura City Council, voters turned to a pro-business slate that promised to get the city out of its economic doldrums.

With the election of Tom Buford, Greg Carson and Jack Tingstrom to the council, the coalition of ranchers, bankers, merchants and union members that supported them set sights on the 1992 Board of Supervisors elections, targeting incumbents John K. Flynn and Susan K. Lacey for defeat.

Both are seen as too cozy with slow-growth forces to suit the coalition, called Venturans for Responsible Government.

Thanks to a massive statewide redistricting, several other Ventura County politicians may face new election challenges in 1992.

For example, Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura) decided to move from Ventura County and run in a new district encompassing Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

The decision gives Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) a clear shot at representing a new, predominantly Republican district covering most of Ventura County. Other officials are debating whether to run in revised districts or seek higher office.

Mainstream county Republicans were embarrassed to learn that their newly elected Central Committee chairman, Bill Jones, had expressed support for David Duke, the onetime Ku Klux Klan leader from Louisiana.

Earlier this month, party officials orchestrated Jones’ ouster--which he has vowed to fight.

The Jones brouhaha came only a month after local Republicans had beamed with pride at the opening of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library outside Simi Valley. The dedication ceremony featured a first-ever assemblage of four ex-Presidents with President Bush.

OUTLOOK:The redistricting plan will take effect in late January unless the Legislature and governor agree on an alternative. Latino leaders asked the state Supreme Court to revise the plan so the county’s Hispanic neighborhoods will not be split up among three districts.

ENVIRONMENT: Water Conservation Measures Succeed

First came the “March miracle” of late-season precipitation that boosted rainfall to almost normal levels.

Then came the coolest summer on record, which resulted in less evaporation and reduced need for watering.

But the main reason that Ventura County avoided the worst effects of the state’s 6-year-old drought was conservation,which succeeded beyond all expectations. Residential users cut consumption by a countywide average of 21%, led by Ventura, where customers cut their water use by 38%. Agriculture was close behind, with a 19% reduction.

Another major environmental controversy moved closer to resolution when the Board of Supervisors endorsed in principle the construction of two giant east-county housing projects on a single site. As part of the deal, entertainer Bob Hope agreed to abandon his proposed Jordan Ranch project and build the 750 homes next to 1,850 houses planned by Ahmanson Land Co.

Hope and the developers would sell or give more than 10,000 mountain acres to public agencies in exchange for building permits.

Air-pollution officials were disheartened by a doubling in the number of days when ozone exceeded federal standards, for a total of 30 unhealthful days last year.

But they noted that 1990 had been an unusually good year, and that the gloomy summer weather helped increase smog levels in 1991.

OUTLOOK: Three months into what is supposed to be the rainy season, local water officials are concerned by the lack of any significant rainfall until last weekend. The next three months are crucial, they say, if the area is to weather 1992 without further restrictions on consumption.

CULTURE: Fractious Year for Leaders of Art World

Even in the often fractious world of the arts, it was an especially tumultuous year for Ventura County cultural organizations, with leadership changes at the Ventura Arts Council, the Ventura County Symphony and the Ojai Music Festival.

Laura Zucker, an arts consultant with a background in theater, took charge of the 10-year-old arts council,the county’s main arts advocacy group. She replaced Maureen Davidson, who said she was frustrated by increasing bureaucratic demands of the job.

More wrenching, by most accounts, was Frank Salazar’s announcement that he will relinquish his baton after 29 years as conductor of the symphony, effective in 1992.

The timing is a year sooner than Salazar had planned, and the decision was seen as a compromise with some symphony board members who wanted Salazar to step down even sooner. Leaders of the symphony, which stages six subscription concerts a year, reportedly had been at odds over programming and the organization’s overall direction.

Under new Director Christopher Hunt, the Ojai festival managed to stage its series of classical-music concerts for the 45th year, despite beginning with a $150,000 deficit stemming from poor box-office receipts the previous year.

At midyear, the California Arts Council dealt a rebuke to the Ventura County Arts Alliance, denying it money and questioning its commitment to promoting the arts.

OUTLOOK: County officials and the city of Ventura have hired a consultant to come up with a unified cultural agenda. The report is due early next year.

EDUCATION: Elys Convicted of Abusing Expenses

The conviction of former trustee James T. (Tom) Ely and his wife, Ingrid, on embezzlement charges highlighted a year of major changes for the troubled Ventura County Community College District.

Its governing board hired a new chancellor and demoted the president of Moorpark College. The president of Ventura College announced that he will retire in 1992. A district vice chancellor was replaced after being convicted of spouse abuse.

The board also tightened management procedures in an attempt to prevent abuses like the more than $14,000 in padded expense accounts attributed to former trustee Ely.

At many of the county’s other school districts, it was the usual story of needs increasing and funds declining.

The Oxnard Elementary District, for instance, laid off 63 employees and dropped its music program. Special reading programs were eliminated in the Conejo Valley Unified District, and Camarillo voters rejected a $55-million school-construction bond issue.

Throughout the county, parent groups were asked to step up their fund-raising efforts.

Meanwhile, a 320-acre site between Camarillo and Oxnard was chosen for a proposed Cal State campus that would eventually serve 20,000 students.

OUTLOOK: Before the new Cal State campus can be built, the state’s voters must approve an education bond issue in the June, 1992, election. Local school districts are worried that the state’s continuing budget shortfall--forecast to be as much as $13 billion over the next 18 months--could put new pressures on their programs.

The Elys, meanwhile, are supposed to begin serving their sentences this week. But a lawyer for Tom Ely, sentenced to a year in jail, plans to seek a postponement because Ely is undergoing cancer treatment.

PEOPLE: 2 Mother-Son Cases End Very Differently

Few news events during the year evoked more feelings of anger, relief, confusion and heartache than the stories of two very vulnerable people.

Only one story had a happy ending.

Eric Schimmel, a 19-year-old retarded youth from Frazier Park, lived on handouts for more than four days after County Jail officials released him without telling his mother.

Schimmel, who has the mental capacity of a 5-year-old, had been arrested after he entered a neighbor’s van, presumably to get at the toys inside.

While his mother, Linda Smith, launched a frantic search, Schimmel hiked 20 miles to Fillmore. There, he sat outside a Vons supermarket, where a clerk brought him food and sought help from a local relief agency.

It was not until someone filed a suspicious-person report that deputies recognized him as the missing Schimmel.

“Mommy, are you mad at me?” Schimmel asked when he was reunited with his mother.

She wasn’t, but many people were infuriated with jail officials.

The sheriff’s department launched a review of its arrest policies to prevent a recurrence.

Even harder to fathom was the case of Baby Boy Sanchez.

Barely out of the womb, the little boy was left to die in a portable toilet in Saticoy, where his farm worker mother had apparently given birth.

The tiny body was found when the toilet was emptied.

A Los Angeles minister was the only one present when Baby Boy Sanchez was buried at Ventura’s Ivy Lawn Cemetery.

But dozens of people responded to the story, including a Simi Valley couple who bought a headstone to mark the little boy’s grave.

Another couple left gifts at the burial site, with this note:

“Here are some things we thought every child should have. Here are some lullabies to sing you to sleep at night, a night light to help you find your way in the dark, and a teddy bear to hold on to if ever you should be afraid.”

OUTLOOK: Schimmel entered a diversion program that will result in the charges being dropped if he gets counseling. But his parents said they are having trouble arranging it because of their remote location.

Francisca Sanchez Jimenez, the mother of Baby Boy Sanchez, is awaiting trial for murder in the infant’s death and attempted murder in the case of a second child, who also was left in a toilet. She has claimed insanity.