VENTURA COUNTY 1993 : A Smashing Year : RAMPAGE: Not Just a Crime Yarn

Most stories fit tidy categories like government, environment, politics. Or crime--which describes Ventura County’s most sensational story of 1993: Alan Winterbourne, jobless for seven years, opens fire in the Oxnard unemployment office, killing three people. Later, he guns down a pursuing detective before dying himself in a barrage of police bullets.

But woven into the Winterbourne saga are threads of some of the other big stories affecting the county this year.

Chronic unemployment apparently sparked the rampage--a reflection of the county’s still-dismal economy.

The gunman’s frustration with the unemployment system--shared by many of its ever-growing clientele--pointed up the crises facing government at a time of greater needs and fewer resources.

And the sheer extent of the bloodshed--it was the deadliest shooting rampage in the county’s history--raised fears about the price of the county’s inexorable growth. This was, after all, the kind of random violence that happens in a New York subway or a Los Angeles parking lot--not Ventura County. Or so we thought.

But the year’s most horrifying story had a hopeful element for those who cherish the county’s small-town roots: the outpouring of sympathy for the victims and their families. For weeks afterward, hundreds paused to lay flowers and wreaths at a makeshift shrine marking the spot where Oxnard Detective James O’Brien gave his life. At his funeral, even some of the gang members he had kept tabs on paid their respects.

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Outlook: Three police agencies--from Oxnard, Ventura and Ventura County--are still investigating the massacre. Then the district attorney’s office will do its own report on the police shooting of Winterbourne. Government agencies, especially those that deal with the public, are already following the lead of unemployment offices and are re-examining security.

ECONOMY: Stuck in Neutral

When the year began, business leaders were hopeful. The economy had hit bottom, they said. Get ready for the rebound.

For the most part, we’re still waiting.

Nearly one in 10 county residents was unemployed as the year’s final quarter began. And October’s 9.3% jobless rate was exactly the same as in October, 1992, thanks largely to layoffs by manufacturers and government.

Nearly a tenth of the county’s population was receiving welfare, food stamps or Medi-Cal benefits--more than three times the caseload five years earlier. Even in the affluent east county, welfare cases have doubled since 1988.

While the county’s population passed the 700,000 mark, we grew more slowly than the state and region. And more people left the county seeking jobs in other states than came here from those areas.

But the 2,900 jobs lost in 1993 were fewer than the 5,100 that disappeared the previous year.

And there were other positive signs: Housing sales improved, led by a 35% increase in August compared to the year before. Amgen announced plans to double its local work force to 4,000. And Blue Cross of California said it would recruit 700 white-collar workers for its new offices in Newbury Park.

Retail sales--up 2% in 1992--continued to rise, especially in the east county, suggesting more consumer confidence and willingness to spend.

In one category, at least, there were no mixed signals: Private generosity is up. Last winter’s United Way campaign exceeded its $5.12-million goal by $200,000, and this season’s drive for $5.35 million is running ahead of schedule.

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Outlook: High unemployment will probably continue for much of the year, economists say, and even more government layoffs are expected. Two public-private groups have started campaigns to lure new business to the county. If the short term is uncertain, several developers have confidence in the county’s long-range prospects, as evidenced by their proposals to build hundreds of new homes in Moorpark, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Oxnard.

ENVIRONMENT: Clearer sailing

It was a year to breathe easier--literally.

The summer’s mild smog season--second-best in 20 years--was the latest in a string of good years that dropped us to 13th place in the national ranking of ozone-afflicted areas. Only a few years ago, the county’s ozone problem was the fourth worst in the country.

But if Ventura County skies were bluer, they were no place for condors to fly. Three of the endangered birds hit power lines and died in the space of a few months, prompting biologists to evacuate the remaining birds from their unsafe sanctuary above Fillmore to more remote digs in Santa Barbara County.

After a decade-long battle, Chevron and other oil companies secured state permission to run oil tankers along the Ventura County coast, for three years. After that, they had talked about using a new oil pipeline to be built through Ventura County, but the project was put on hold when the companies decided to use existing pipelines instead.

A far more controversial project--the Weldon Canyon Landfill--also was spiked, the victim of a grass-roots campaign that seemed to involve virtually every resident of the Ojai Valley. But the Board of Supervisors’ decision to abandon the project left the county once again struggling for a long-term solution to its garbage problem.

Some of the county’s most scenic areas will remain that way. The National Park Service purchased the 2,308-acre Jordan Ranch, considered the crown jewel of a growing network of parkland and trails in the Santa Monica Mountains. State park officials bought the 640-acre Broome Ranch near Thousand Oaks. And in the west county, officials vowed to maintain the pastoral greenbelt between Oxnard and Ventura--for five years, at least.

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Outlook: With Weldon’s defeat, trash disposal will continue to be the county’s most pressing environmental issue. The Legislature approved a new countywide Waste Authority to take charge, if county officials and seven of the 10 cities approve. Preserving the Santa Clara River--Ventura County’s longest, and the last mostly wild stream in Southern California--is the goal of a broad-based committee that hopes to come up with a management plan in 1994.

GOVERNMENT: Sky Doesn’t Fall

It looked awfully bleak back in January.

Gov. Pete Wilson wanted to shift billions in property tax revenue from local government to schools. In Ventura County, officials said that might mean closing 18 fire stations, shutting down 12 libraries and laying off 400 people.

Wilson and the Legislature eventually backed off somewhat, and in the final county budget, only one fire station was closed and all the libraries stayed open--although hours were reduced drastically. But officials on all levels warned that more cuts would eventually be needed unless revenues increased.

Voters took the crisis seriously. In November, they made permanent a half-cent sales tax for law enforcement. Most county offices switched to a four-day week in another cost-cutting measure.

But the grand jury thought the county could have managed its money better. The panel faulted the Board of Supervisors for giving raises to high-level managers while eliminating 200 positions. And the county auditor said the Fire Department was top-heavy with managers and too liberal with overtime and sick leave.

Some cities also had budget problems. Ventura eliminated positions and decided that most employees would not get pay raises. Oxnard abolished five city departments through consolidations. Thousand Oaks, however, was able to hire seven more police officers.

Seeking a fiscal savior, Oxnard officials flirted with the idea of bringing card casinos to Ventura County. But they unanimously abandoned the idea after hundreds of opponents packed a council meeting--a session highlighted by Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury’s announcement that casino promoters were being investigated for possible laundering of contributions to council candidates.

Perhaps no issue frustrated local government--and many residents--as much as cable television. A new federal law aimed at cutting rates went into effect. Result: higher bills for many customers, as companies reconfigured their “basic service” lineup. To howls of protest, one Ventura company dropped three Los Angeles stations, tuning out such programs as “The Simpsons” and “Wheel of Fortune.”

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Outlook: With California’s economy still limping along, look for another round of budget crises at both the state and local level. Oxnard will decide on a plan to merge the police and fire departments to improve efficiency and productivity. Oxnard, Ventura and Thousand Oaks have decided to hire a lawyer to determine what the cities can do to regulate cable rates and service.

PUBLIC WORKS: Building Boom

Amid the economic doom and gloom, spirits soared as public projects took shape on both sides of the county.

In Thousand Oaks, the $64-million Civic Arts Plaza began looming over the Ventura Freeway. A few miles north, the $39-million connector between the Moorpark and Simi Valley freeways gave commuters another route to Los Angeles.

And in the west county, we renewed our love affair with the ocean when the Ventura Pier reopened after a $3.5-million face lift, to the delight of 2,000 opening-day visitors.

Less visible but no less significant was the $10-million expansion of cold-storage facilities at the Port of Hueneme, allowing dramatically increased shipments of Ventura County’s $200-million citrus crop to the Pacific Rim. The new facility is expected to bring 70 more ships a year into the port and boost its income by 20%.

The county’s newest form of transportation--the Metrolink commuter rail system--continued to build ridership. Its Moorpark and Simi Valley stations are out of the way for most county residents, but thousands got a taste of train travel when Metrolink provided hugely popular runs to the Ventura County Fair.

United Express became the second commercial airline at Oxnard Airport, which now has 14 flights a day to Los Angeles. And government and business leaders were intrigued by the Navy’s new willingness to share its 11,000-foot-long runway at Point Mugu with commercial jetliners. But so far, the airline industry--which has lost $10 billion since 1980--has shown no interest in flying jetliners into Ventura County.

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Outlook: The Civic Arts Plaza is set to open in October--coinciding with Thousand Oaks’ 30th birthday. A major expansion of bus service is scheduled to begin by July, providing smoother links between eight cities and hooking up with Metrolink. Ventura will begin looking at sites and evaluating the environmental impact of a proposed desalination plant.

CRIME: Safer, but Still Worrisome

Serious crime dropped 1% in the first six months of the year. Ventura County remained the second-safest urban area in the West, and you would have to go all the way to Amherst, N.Y., to find a less crime-ridden city than Thousand Oaks or Simi Valley.

None of which helped Kellie O’Sullivan, JoAnn Linkenauger, Norma Rodriguez, Beatrice Bellis, Ruben Hernandez, Cindy Burger, Jesse Strobel, Adriana Meza or Armando Cauich--some of the county’s 44 homicide victims in 1993.

Aside from who did the deed, some of the slayings raised larger questions: Would JoAnn Linkenauger be alive if a Spanish-speaking neighbor’s call to 911 had been understood? Is the 20-member Port Hueneme Police Department up to handling three homicides in the space of a few months?

Gangs remained a high-profile concern, especially after a shootout between rival gangs at a crowded Ventura beach left sunbathers unscathed but scared. Even before that episode, 700 people packed into a town meeting after 17-year-old Jesse Strobel was fatally stabbed in a gang-related attack. Oxnard schools became the first in the county to use metal detectors to search for weapons.

Among illegal drug users, methamphetamine enjoyed a surge in popularity, probably because it’s cheaper than the longtime favorite, cocaine.

Ventura High School was rocked by the arrest and guilty plea of veteran coach Harvey Kochel, who admitted having sex with a minor student.

One of the biggest stories was not about cops vs. crooks, but about law enforcement vs. law enforcement. After the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department launched a drug raid on the county line that found no drugs but left a ranch owner dead, Ventura County Dist. Atty. Bradbury said the whole affair was motivated by a desire to seize the ranch under forfeiture laws.

Sheriff Sherman Block denied the allegation and accused Bradbury of seeking publicity--which the D.A. got on “20/20” and other TV shows. Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren was dragged into the controversy, and he sided with Block.

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Outlook: Law enforcement got a boost with passage of the half-cent sales tax. Two Municipal Court judges will start hearing felony cases to keep the criminal justice conveyor belts moving swiftly. And for the first time ever, a woman will become the county’s top jurist when Melinda A. Johnson becomes presiding judge of the Superior Court.

POLITICS: Taking Bows

It was what they call an “off year” politically, with no elections for national, state or county office. But there was no shortage of political news.

After 20 years, state Sen. Gary K. Hart decided to leave politics, and Assemblyman Jack O’Connell said he would seek Hart’s seat--setting off a scramble for the open Assembly slot.

Ventura voters decided to retire Councilman Todd Collart, but reelected another incumbent and added both a business booster and an environmentalist to the council lineup. Ventura Councilman Gregory Carson was convicted of drunk driving, possibly dealing a blow to his hopes for higher office.

After only one term on the Board of Supervisors, 28-year-old Maria VanderKolk said she was weary of politics and would not run again--touching off a scramble in her east county district.

Public schools got a boost with the defeat of Proposition 174, the school voucher initiative--despite the support of the community college district’s governing board, whose endorsement provoked a storm of protest.

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Outlook: For perhaps the first time ever, Ventura County will have two candidates for statewide office. Former Assemblyman Tom McClintock is running for controller, and state Sen. Cathie Wright hopes to become the state’s first female lieutenant governor. Four county officials appointed because of death or retirement--schools Supt. Charles Weis, Sheriff Larry Carpenter, Auditor Thomas Mahon and Assessor Glenn Gray--will try to retain their posts in the November election.

HEALTH: Smoke clears

To tobacco bashers, the county’s biggest advance on the health front was the growing movement to ban smoking in restaurants and other public places. First Moorpark, then Thousand Oaks, Ojai, the Board of Supervisors and Ventura passed anti-smoking measures. Only Simi Valley rejected a no-smoking law as anti-business.

While health care reform started wending its way through Congress, Ventura County hospitals were already making changes.

Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks announced plans to expand its heart-surgery and obstetrics facilities. Westlake Medical Center opened a $10-million cancer center, and Ventura County Medical Center held hearings on a $50-million expansion--to the dismay of angry neighbors.

Camarillo’s Pleasant Valley Hospital disappeared, in name at least, after a merger made it a satellite of St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard. Santa Paula Memorial Hospital stayed open by raising $500,000 from the community. Ojai Valley Hospital got a new corporate owner, its third since 1988.

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Outlook: The fate of President Clinton’s health plan will be one of 1994’s top stories, and Ventura County hospitals and physicians will be watching closely. So will employers--the ones earmarked to pay the bulk of the costs under the plan.

ODDITIES: Bearing Up Well

Some editors call them “Holy cow, Mabel” stories. They’re not all that consequential, perhaps, unless someone you know is involved. But they are the kind of stories you spot during breakfast and say something like: “Holy cow, Mabel, listen to this!”

Like the Case of the Missing Milk Duds. Dist. Atty. Bradbury filed suit against the candy maker for skimping on dud supplies, thus making a trip to the movies safer for unsuspecting candy-lovers.

And remember those two fellows who swiped a plane from Oxnard Airport for a joy ride around the county, then landed in the Santa Clara riverbed? Police found a bottle of vodka in the cockpit, and the pilot was sentenced to 28 months in prison.

Then there’s that plan to enhance the experience of camping at Lake Casitas--with cable television, to be installed at 150 campsites.

Edgar Allen Poe could have written the story of Richard Maytorena, whose conscience made him to confess to a 17-year-old slaying in Oxnard--a death police had considered an accident. Maytorena got a year in jail.

And who can forget Joshua Isaacs, the plucky 13-year-old from Ojai who was mauled by a bear while camping near San Bernardino. Only two days afterward, Joshua returned to thank the camp counselor who prevented him “from becoming bear droppings.”

Like many people taking stock after a difficult period, Joshua looked for the good as well as the bad:

“I actually like bears,” he said. “This one just wasn’t very nice.”

DISASTERS: Fire and Rain

Perhaps no story involved the entire county so much as four wildfires that blackened more than 70,000 acres and destroyed 41 homes.

In Ojai, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Ventura and almost anywhere else in the county, residents had only to step outside to chart the path of destruction, as evidenced by columns of smoke rising for miles. Night after night, television brought mind-numbing images of orange and red into living rooms as more fires broke out across Southern California.

Closer to the flames, thousands of firefighters who came from as far away as Montana faced a vision of hell worthy of Dante. None died, but several were injured and virtually all of them were bone-tired after the weeklong battle to extinguish the flames.

Arson was suspected in all four blazes--and so far the culprits have gotten away with it.

Though enthralled by the fires, most city dwellers felt confident that their homes were safe. Not so last February, when two straight weeks of rain sent the Santa Clara and Ventura rivers over their banks and raised fears of widespread flooding.

Thousands of lemon trees were washed away near Fillmore, and debris carried down by the rivers gave the county’s beaches their worst trashing in 25 years. California 33 above Ojair was closed for four months after a landslide.

The floodwaters killed one farm worker who was swept off a tractor into Calleguas Creek. Several fatal traffic accidents were also blamed on the weather.

The deadliest catastrophe of the year remains unexplained: the disappearance of Vil Vana, a fishing boater that vanished off Santa Cruz Island with seven men aboard. Mysteriously, no bodies or debris were ever found--only a wet suit and a life preserver. One theory: The boat may have capsized after a Navy sub got tangled in its nets.

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Outlook: Mudslides have already occurred in fire-damaged areas, and more are feared as the rainy season continues. Last year’s rains caused the Lake Casitas reservoir to spill for the first time in six years--an event likely to recur this year if rains are heavy. Those fires probably spared the County Fire Department from any serious cuts in coming budget discussions.