The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 193

SECTION Cos Angetes 8Rme0 VCCCt TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1997 OUNTY CSUN Center Recommended for Hospital Site Education: Camarillo State may be a campus by 1999, but for Cal State Northridge, not an independent university, trustees say. we got today was a commitment for a campus in Ventura County. It's a very, very important step in the right direction." The committee's recommendation, which is contingent on several factors in- Still, officials said they have a lot of work to do between now and the September meeting to persuade trustees to include the conversion proposal in their 1998-99 budget For example, officials must lay the groundwork for a special authority to oversee proposed development ventures at the site. "Looking at how this campus will be administered, we're going to look at this as an off-campus center for now," said Trustee Jim Considine, chairman of the campus development committee. "We're still looking down the road to a four-year university.

And this brings us one step closer to that goal" Monday's decision culminates months of planning aimed at transforming the Please see CAMPUS, of tagging the now-shuttered mental hospital as the site of the university system's 23rd campus. Instead, they proposed proceeding more cautiously by moving CSUN's off -campus center in Ventura to the Camarillo site by January 1999. Later, they said, the site could be expanded into an independent four-year public university, to be called Cal State Channel Islands. "This is a watershed decision," said Handel Evans, president of the yet-to-be-launched Channel Islands campus. "What STAYINQ PUT CSUN president is passed over for job at Wayne State University.

B9 eluding the state's willingness to contribute $6.5 million for annual operating expensesis scheduled to go before trustees in mid-September. According to Cal State officials, the full Board of Trustees almost always upholds the recommendations of its committees. Photos by CARLOS CHAVEZ Los Angeles i By FRED ALVAREZ TIMES STAFF WRITER LONG BEACH-Setting the stage to convert Camarillo State Hospital into a college campus, a Cal State University panel on Monday agreed to ask the full Board of Trustees to take over the hospital property and turn it into the new home for the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge. Cal State trustees, who served on a campus development panel, stopped short VENTURA COUNTY FAIR Event Goes to Pieces, Then Goes Amusements: The morning after is a time to tear down arid pack up rides and pickup paychecks and ribbons. By BRENDA LOREE SPECIAL TO THE TIMES It was the morning after.

Not a snow cone in sight. No more cotton candy being spun. The sounds filling the air weren't from calliopes and shrieking kids but from mallets breaking down metal poles. Trucks, motors idling, were backed up to the commercial and youth buildings, rear doors splayed open. The Hot Dog on a Stick booth did about 8 mph down Main Street, towed by a Ford pickup.

Next stop: the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona. This fair, one of the most successful of the some 100 Ventura County fairs, had Please see FAIR.B6 THOUSAND OAKS A GOOD READ: Nicole Glaser. 7, was among bookworms at the library, where kids in the summer reading program polished off 88,500 books. B2 THOUSAND OAKS BACK TO SCHOOL Cal Lutheran has planned for welcoming, events for 330 freshman, transfer and interna tional students. B2 -i.

i' SHERfT SUIT: The Sheriffs Department was sued by the family of a man who died after being restrained in'a New Year's Eve confrontation. B4 CAMAR1LLO TEST RESULTS: Residents are told that methyl bromide vapors from a strawberry field are within stale safety guidelines. B3 '( MOORPARK PLAYING WITH FIRE: Officials said a hillside brush firet was started by children playing 1 with matches. There were no injuries. B2 OXNARD TRIAL MOTIONS: Lawyers for a cou-' pie charged in the slaying of their daughter argued over whether the pair should be tried separately.

B4 SIMI VALLEY EQUIPMENT THEFT: After a phone call from one of the culprits, the high school music booster club has recovered stolen goods. B2 Three pigs bid farewell to the Ventura County Fair from the back of a truck. Temporary camie Robert DeLap of Oxnard waits for his paycheck before leaving town. 1 jeictwt AU OATS I 77 f3P 0 gpp Sister Offers Haun Alibi for Time of Murder trial: Mary Oliver testifies that after, accusations were made, she asked for accounting of activities on day Sherri Dally disappeared. By TRACY WILSON i TIMES STAFF WRITER Establishing an alibi for her accused sister, Mary Oliver told a jury Monday that Diana Haun was sunbathing on a Ventura beach and bicycling in Camarillo on the day Sherri Dally was abducted from a Target parking lot Oliver testified that her younger sister told her that on May 6, 1996, she ate breakfast at a fast-food restaurant and then rode her bicycle to Ventura Harbor, where she lounged on the beach until nearly noon.

Haun later went on a bike ride in Camarillo, Oliver said, and was hurt when a truck bumped her rear wheel, knocking her into the dirt An Oxnard resident, Oliver said she pressed her sister on her whereabouts that day after Haun was arrested in connection with the disappearance of Sherri Dally. "She was being accused of doing a murder," Oliver explained. "We wanted to be sure we knew what she did that day." In addition to Oliver's testimony Monday: Prosecutors began to present evidence about the discovery of Sherri Daily's remains in the bottom of a steep canyon north of Ventura. They also called a detective to the witness stand who told the jury about a curious phone call he heard during a Wiretap on the home phone of co-defendant Michael Dally. "I have a small problem," Dally is heard saying on tape to someone Please see TRIAL, B4 Time STEVE OSM AN Ua Angela Times struck a eucalyptus tree.

truck that Kidnapping 13 Bennett Launches New Campaign Reform Initiative For Monday, Ug. 25 FANTASY Winning Number 8-1 1-15 28-37 DAILY 3 Winning Number: 1-0-0 ON THE WEB ingly concerned that we have opened a loophole that will negate campaign limits altogether." Two months later he feels just as strongly. "I think the council abused the trust of citizens when they agreed to modify the law," Bennett said Monday. Like Bennett's original ordinance, the new initiative would limit campaign contributions to Please see BALLOT, P4 At the time, Bennett pointed out that San Diego has had a similar campaign-finance ordinance in place since 1973, and it has never been challenged. If PACs contribute, Bennett argued, there would be no way to monitor how much individuals -give.

"People are going to be able to legally launder money," Bennett predicted at. the time of the reversal. "I'm growing increas form law written by Bennett that forbade organized groups and Political Action Committees (PACs) from contributing to City Council elections. But the City Council voted 5 to 2 in June to reverse that provision of the law after City Atty. Bob Boehm warned that such limitations could be considered unconstitutional if found to violate free-speech rights guaranteed by the 1st Amendment.

By HILARY E. MacGREGOR TIMES STAFF WRITER VENTURA-Ventura City Councilman Steve Bennett, the city's tireless advocate for campaign finance reform, announced Monday that he will launch a ballot initiative for November 1998 to prohibit all organized groups from giving money to candidates. In 1995, 81 of Ventura voters approved a campaign-finance re For current and past lottery numbers, winners and other information, go to The Times' Web site at http:www.lattrnet.ceni Cicft on News, then defc on Lottery. Ojai Man, 54, Killed, 2 Injured in Freeway Rush-Hour Crash BY PHONE i Results in and Spanish: (800) 225-CS69 1 Ventura County Focus B2.B3 Obituaries B6 Weather B7 L.A. County News B8 Editorials BIO Commentary Bll bound traffic.

A Caltrans crew spent another two hours repairing a guardrail, and by 1 p.m. all three lanes were open. The crash also brought southbound traffic on California 33 to a crawl as far north as Canada Larga Road, as morning commuters were taken off the freeway at Main Street in Ventura. CHP spokesman David Cockrill said that Reeves was killed moments after his 1989 Ford pickup truck was sideswiped by a Volkswagen Sirocco, careened off the right shoulder of the freeway and hit a eucalyptus tree. The driver of the Volkswagen was identified as Joanna Gomez, 38, of Ventura.

Gomez was traveling between 75 and 80 mph in the southbound fast lane of the Ventura Freeway when she lost control of her car and swerved into the center lane. Please see CfMSH.B By SCOTT STEEPLETON SPECIAL TO THE TIMES VENTURA An Qjai man on his way to work was killed Monday morning in a two-car accident on the Ventura Freeway that tied up traffic for more than four hours, authorities said. Authorities identified the victim as J.B. Reeves, an auto dealership supervisor who celebrated his 54th birthday Sunday. California Highway Patrol officers closed the southbound lanes of the Ventura Freeway near the Santa Paula Freeway interchange following the 6:45 a.m.

crash. Rush-hour traffic was diverted off the freeway at Seaward Avenue, and cars were backed up for nine miles, beyond Emma Wood State Beach, authorities said. The accident scene was cleared by 11 a.m., with two lanes reopened to south On the Record "We know it was a good one. Everything worked. The weather smiled and the crowds smiled.

We're feeling very good down here today." Michael Pahnzak, manager of Seaside Park the home of the Ventura County Fair sums up the 1 2-day event. Bl 4- Coroner Mitch Breesef photographs.