Year in review-
2007 a year of ups and downs for city of T.O.
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

Amgen restructuring

In August, Amgen announced it would restructure by reducing staff 12 to 14 percent- 2,200 to 2,600 workers- and making other cutbacks. The initiatives are expected to be complete by 2008 and save the Newbury Park company about $1 billion.

Approval changes from the FDA affecting how the anemia drugs Epogen and Aranesp are to be labeled will adversely affect Amgen's revenue, CEO Kevin Sharer said.

Amgen also changed its adjusted earnings projection for 2007 from $4.28 to between $4.13 and $4.23 a share.

Capital investments are being reduced by about $1.9 billion in 2007-08 to improve cash flow. Some production operations will be closed, and other facilities will be scaled down.

Amgen is a biotechnology company headquartered in Thousand Oaks and founded in 1980.

Conejo Valley Days struggle

During outgoing Mayor Andy Fox's recent state of the city speech he bragged that the city was stronger than it's ever been in its 43-year history, but at the previous City Council meeting the council hesitated at giving seed money to keep Conejo Valley Days afloat.

For more than 50 years, Conejo Valley Days has brought the community together while raising funds for local charities. Four years ago the event began struggling financially after a rain-out resulted in a loss of money. Every year since then organizers have come closer to being profitable and again providing charitable grants to the community.

A donation of $15,000 from Aviara Realty saved the CVD parade earlier this year.

With help from the city and other sponsors, the group hopes to get permanently back into the black in 2008, chair Marty Campbell said. Though the organizers have not made money the past few years, the charities they serve who run booths and provide services made about $200,000 profit last year, she said.

Before Campbell went before the council, city staff told her the city was too strapped for funds to be a major sponsor.

Big-ticket items

Over the past year the city's budget showed no signs of belttightening. The budget for 200708 was set at $213 million. About $40 million in undesignated city reserve funds were used to pay for budget items the city couldn't otherwise afford. The one-year budgets approved by the City Council for the next two years beginning in July include some big-ticket items: $2 million for Auto Mall street parking modifications, $7 million in streetscape and landscape projects and $5 million for the proposed Discovery Center.

Another $5 million has been set aside for the Lang Ranch Park Phase I that would add eight baseball fields for Little League events. The Civic Arts Plaza will also get millions to spruce up its appearance. New furniture is to replace the old at city hall and the main library. The outside of the facility is to be painted.

Help for day laborer site The site that daily serves more than 200 laborers looking for work will have flowers planted, permanent restrooms and other improvements at a cost of $100,000. City leaders said they had no choice but to create the site because the day laborers would otherwise be urinating in private yards and creating other nuisance problems for residents.

No restrooms, showers or other facilities were built for the approximately 80 homeless people recently counted in Thousand Oaks by the Ventura County Homeless and Housing Coalition. In fact, the city cracked down on the homeless. Officials are no longer allowing cooking, camping and living on public or private areas inside the city.

DARE program dissolved

Two police officers are among the three new school resource personnel added full-time at Conejo Valley Unified School District high schools after the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program was dissolved.

The city's police force added a detective to protect Thousand Oaks youth from Internet sexual predators as the police joined a network of officers around the country fighting crime against young people that comes through technology.

Teen killed in auto accident

Three young men from the Thousand Oaks area had almost made it home safely from Tijuana, Mexico, on Aug. 27, but one of the teenagers was killed when their vehicle left the northbound side of the 101 Freeway just south of the Rancho Road exit.

The 2007 Scion hit a sign and rolled down an embankment at 2:10 a.m., a California Highway Patrol collision report said.

The 18-year-old who died of multiple blunt force injuries was Ryan Edwards of Newbury Park. Authorities said the 17-year-old driver and the other passenger, Brandon Kessler, 18, survived because they were wearing seat belts.

Olympic pool at CLU

Many years ago, California Lutheran College built a small pool around which officials would gather to barbecue and talk about how they were going to build a great university.

Today, a much larger CLU has a giant pool, where students can compete in diving, swimming and water polo. About 800,000 gallons of water fills the 50-meter Olympic competition pool that is 7 feet deep on its shallow end. Divers can plunge off 3-meter diving boards into the 14-foot deep end.

The pool had its initiation on Jan. 29 during what was called "The Plunge," where members from the swim, water polo and dive teams all jumped into the pool at once. The teams are now practicing regularly and holding their matches at the pool.

Somber celebration

Tears flowed down thousands of faces in February as the Conejo Valley joined the family of Lance Cpl. Anthony Charles Melia in celebrating his life. The 20-year-old Marine was shot to death in March while serving in Iraq.

Children held the hands of their parents. Elderly decorated veterans stood at attention. The Thousand Oaks High School Lancers held a sign that read: "Lost but Never Forgotten."

Roads were lined with hundreds of residents wearing black, reverently holding flags and placing their hands over their hearts as the hearse carrying Melia brought him one last time through the town he grew up in. His carriage was preceded by a large motorcade of deputies and followed by five limousines with family members. Red, white and blue ribbons decorated trees.

When the procession ended at Calvary Community Church, soloists sang "The Impossible Dream" and "Ave Maria." A video of Melia was shown- the bright, smiling boy growing up surrounded by a loving family. In the clips he was playing sports, sitting on the couch eating pizza, and often had his arms around those he loved. Scriptures were read and prayers were spoken.

Sobbing could be heard as about 2,000 people gathered in the auditorium where flowers surrounded his flagcovered casket. During the service Marines spoke of Melia and presented a Purple Heart, a medal awarded in the name of the president of the United States to those wounded or killed in military action, to the Marine's mother.

At the graveside service at Pierce Bros. Valley Oaks in Westlake Village, military honors included a 21-gun salute and folded flags presented by Marines to Melia's 22yearold sister, Nicole; his 17-year-old brother, Daniel; his parents, Vicki and Mike; and his grandparents, June Sojpack and Joann and Charles Melia.

Library addition The Thousand Oaks Library Foundation took the initial step to build what could be a $30million, twostory 40,000squarefoot addition to the Grant Brimhall Library in Thousand Oaks.

On Jan. 4, the group approved a site for a structure to hold library collections that include the documentation of the career of radio legend Norman Corwin. The library has his correspondence, scrapbooks, radio and television scripts, motion picture screenplays, sound recordings, video recordings, photographs, business records and contracts, press clippings and other documents, most dating from 1938 to1990.

The foundation is currently seeking donations nationally.

Science center anticipated

At an estimated cost of $49 million, a Discovery Center for Science and Technology is expected to be built and equipped to enrich the lives of more than 1 million children, families and educators.

That was the plan presented to the City Council last March by Wayne Davey, president of the Discovery Center, a nonprofit group organized to create excitement about science education by promoting curiosity, exploration and discovery.

Council members unanimously voted to authorize a feasibility study to build a 70,000square-foot structure next to the Civic Arts Plaza. If it proceeds, the Civic Arts Plaza might get a new name- the Civic Arts and Science Plaza.

New Costco, Home Depot?

Home Depot and Costco have proposed building stores in Thousand Oaks. Some are excited about the possibility of city tax revenues generated from the stores. Concerns over increased traffic and other environmental impacts have also been heard during community discussion.

Vicious dog attacks

Blue, a pit bull who went on two bloody attacks in Thousand Oaks, has been put to death. His first attack was on 60-year-old Cheri Lee while she was walking her 8-pound Shih Tzu, Rosie, on the greenbelt near her home.

After animal control took custody of the licensed and neutered dog, Blue was placed in the Agoura Animal Shelter- in one of the outside kennels. Someone soon released him in the middle of the night, and the dog was loose to roam again.

Running the streets once more, Blue killed a pet cat and attacked a small dog before he was eventually captured and euthanized.

Several other dog attacks were reported in Thousand Oaks. As the year went by, it began to look like those walking small dogs were just dangling a treat for large, vicious dogs.

Young boy slain A 6-year-old boy was killed with a meat cleaver as his mother fought the assailant, attempting to save her son's life.

On a Sunday night in August in the 1800 block of W. Hillcrest Drive in Newbury Park, neighbors heard a man shouting, "Die, die, die!" and saw young Sev'n Molina take blows to his head from a meat clever allegedly wielded by a man who knew his mother.

His mother begged those outside to help the child, but no one could save him, according to Patrick Bowman, who lived in the apartment above Sandra Ruiz, 33, and her son.

Ruiz was critically injured in the attack.

A slashed arm and an almost completely severed hand were among the wounds witnesses observed.

A 54-year-old unidentified woman, credited by witnesses with trying to stop the attack by somehow knocking the cleaver out of the attacker's hand, suffered a cut to her face.

After police subdued him with a Taser gun, Calvin Leonard Sharp, 27, was arrested on suspicion of one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder.

Sharp was taken into custody at Ventura County Jail with bail set at $1 million.

Hospital adds wing

What CEO Jim Sherman described as "The Four Seasons of hospitals" has been completed.

Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center nearly doubled in size by adding a 200,000squarefoot, $120million patient wing that opened this year.

Patients will find 90 new private rooms at Los Robles and 10 private registration rooms, where those seeking medical treatment can feel comfortable giving personal information when they first arrive at the hospital.

Also, some elevators are designated for patients and staff only, separate from those for public use.

Layoffs at Countrywide

Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest mortgage lender, with a total workforce of about 61,000, has begun laying off staff.

According to a report released by the company, about 500 positions have been eliminated across the country.

Although the company's headquarters is in Calabasas, it has offices in surrounding cities, including Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley.

The Calabasas and Ventura County offices were not affected by the cuts, a spokesperson said.

Reductions took place in the company's Full Spectrum and Wholesale lending divisions, which made subprime loans to risky customers.

Fire service questions

A consultant hired to investigate fire service in Thousand Oaks found that Ventura County takes from $5.6 million to $6.2 million more a year in taxes from residents than it returns to the city in fire protection services, according to a city report.

The report sparked a discussion at a City Council meeting on how to enhance fire service in Thousand Oaks.

The city's staff is currently meeting with Ventura County to work on getting more for the money residents are charged.

The city hasn't made a close fiscal examination of the services provided by Ventura County Fire Department since 1993.