ACORN TOP TEN OF THE YEAR

10 community members who stood out from the pack in 2019- 2020 and helped make difference

Troy Brown

Troy Brown

Troy Brown, Moorpark’s city manager, has been busy since his arrival in spring 2018. The husband and father of two has spent the past year hearing from the public with a variety of surveys and workshops about Los Angeles Avenue, High Street, arts in Moorpark, quality of life and the city’s finances.

He’s also brought in two leaders at City Hall: Karen Vaughn, community development director, in February, and Kambiz Borhani, the finance director, in August.

Honest with the City Council when it comes to the constraints on Moorpark’s budget, Brown, 52, has also been working behind the scenes to get the final OK from Caltrans to move forward with the fully-financed Princeton Avenue improvement project.

As the city’s chief executive, Brown has overseen two large housing projects clear the planning process in a city with a shortage of housing stock.

Brown’s biggest task may lie ahead of him, as the city prepares to fully revamp its general plan—a first since Moorpark was incorporated in 1983.

Tania De Haz

Tania De Haz

Tania De Haz believes Moorpark is a “small community with a big heart.” The Moorpark resident fell in love with the city and its residents 20 years ago when she moved to the U.S. from Ecuador.

Shortly thereafter, the bilingual mechanical engineer founded Tania’s Agency, a domestic employment agency that offers auto registration services and income tax returns to the community.

De Haz believes in treating everyone she works alongside with dignity and respect. She has a hand in every job placement she makes and believes she has helped more than 1,000 people find employment in the city.

The longtime Chamber of Commerce member also believes in giving back, which is why she joined the Arts Commission in 2014 to be one of the voices of the Latino community.

Molly and John Chester

Molly and John Chester

Molly and John Chester, owners of Apricot Lane Farms, are not your typical farmers. Before founding the bio-diverse farm in 2011, Molly worked as a private chef and John as a documentary filmmaker.

The two decided to use their unique backgrounds to their advantage by documenting the struggles and triumphs of turning 200 acre of barren soil in northwest Moorpark into a self-sustaining farm.

In 2019, after eight years of hard work, the couple debuted “The Biggest Little Farm,” a feature-length film about the creation of Apricot Lane Farms, to the acclaim of audiences and critics worldwide. The film put Moorpark on the map and provided insights into an “oldschool” way of farming in Ventura County.

The Chesters also maintains the farm’s roots to the community by selling their produce at farmers markets and producing product lines in Moorpark.

Larnoe Dungca

Larnoe Dungca

Larnoe Dungca may hold the title of Grand Knight for the Knights of Columbus Council 9969 at Holy Cross Catholic Church, but the Moorpark resident said it’s the entire group of men who help make the faith-based service organization so valuable to the city they serve.

“They are an awesome group of multifaceted men,” said the 56-year-old via email, whose ability to speak was impaired following a stroke in December. “When anyone needs assistance of any sort, they are there to help.”

The local Knights of Columbus chapter, founded in 1989, has about 150 members who are best known in the community for hosting the Friday night fish dinners during Lent at Holy Cross. The Knights also host an annual golf tournament, a Thanksgiving food drive, and a Tootsie Roll Drive to help people with intellectual disabilities.

Despite his stroke, Dungca is still a regular at meetings and is a leader in the organization that he joined 10 years ago. “In the organization, I’ve practiced the Catholic principles I believe in by serving the parish and local community. I really found a community to call my own.”

Daniel Groff

Daniel Groff

Since he moved to Moorpark in the 1990s, Daniel Groff believed he had a role to play in the development of the city. The married father of four joined the Moorpark Morning Rotary Club and Moorpark Chamber of Commerce, before dedicating one year to the city’s parks and recreation commission and six years to the city’s planning commission. He also worked with fellow Moorpark business owners to host the inaugural Holiday on High Street event, which brought snow, train rides and a tree and menorah lighting to the historic avenue.

But Groff knew he could do more to contribute to the revitalization of downtown High Street. That is why, last year, the CEO of Insurance Brokers West decided to move his business from a bustling intersection on Los Angeles Avenue to a quiet spot in the downtown corridor.

Groff purchased the 223 High St. site and is still working to renovate the historic building into a new office space. He hopes to turn the building’s downstairs into a shared workspace and bring in a new restaurant or bar.

Latasha Jamal

Latasha Jamal

As Moorpark Unified School District’s assistant superintendent of business services, Latasha Jamal is passionate about fairly allocating the district’s resources to ensure students have what they need to succeed.

Before being named to the position in 2018, Jamal spent a decade working in the financial side of public education in both MUSD and in the Pasadena Unified School District.

Her fiscal expertise and her encouraging demeanor helped her create a cohesive team and foster a positive workplace culture in the local district’s business services department.

Beyond her strengths as a team leader, the mother of five also helped keep a watchful eye over MUSD’s approximately $60 million general fund budget to ensure the district met its obligations and remained financially viable.

Ken Rayzor

Ken Rayzor

Though Ken Rayzor has been a guiding force of Moorpark’s High Street Arts Center for nearly a decade, his steady hand as its general manager this past year has once again helped bring quality shows to the local stage and thousands of visitors into the city.

What’s more, the award-winning theater on High Street has remained financially solvent with ever-rising ticket sales that have grown “tenfold” in Rayzor’s tenure, he said.

The former president of Moorpark Little League continues his volunteerism as an executive committee board member with the Moorpark Foundation for the Arts, the theater’s fundraising arm. The theater has been a constant on High Street, not an easy feat given the downtown’s general lack of nightlife, but, according to Rayzor, it draws about 25,000 attendees a year to the theater—15,000 of which come from outside of Moorpark.

The theater also serves as a way to introduce the next generation of actors and directors into the arts by inviting schools to see shows, and providing summer and winter youth camps that end in a stage production. It also produces a springtime showcase with the kids from the Boys & Girls Club.

The 62-year-old father of two and his wife, Kathee, have lived in Moorpark for the past 30 years.

Karen Helus

Karen Helus

It would have been easy to understand had Karen Helus chosen to remain private following the death of her husband, Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Helus, in the Borderline Bar and Grill shooting in November 2018.

Instead, the Moorpark resident has stepped forward as a constant presence at a myriad of events that have been rallying points for a community still healing after the fatal shooting that claimed 12 lives.

She has stood beside others at numerous commemorations, dedications and scholarship award ceremonies in the year since Borderline.

Though the pain from that night may never be forgotten, Karen Helus—alongside her son, Jordan—has done her part to ensure that the memory of those lost that night will be remembered well into the future.

Bill Larrick

Bill Larrick

In 2000, Bill Larrick was designing and building circuit boards out of the two-car garage in his Moorpark home.

Times have certainly changed. In January, the 47-year-old moved his company, Laritech Inc., into a 77,000-square-foot facility. In the past year alone he’s grown his staff from 108 employees to 130. His company, Larrick said, plans to grow in the years to come.

The Ohio native and graduate of Ohio Northern University said he decided to base his circuit board manufacturing business here because he loves Moorpark’s small-town feel and its business-friendly atmosphere. Besides, he said, after a previous career spent driving across Southern California, he likes the short commute.

A regular on Inc. 500’s list of fastest-growing companies in the U.S., Laritech makes the circuit boards found in a variety of products from scooters to spaceships. Larrick said the company’s new building has given them plenty of space to expand, and he’s excited about the future.

Mara Rodriguez

Mara Rodriguez

Mara Rodriguez, a longtime staff member with Moorpark College’s Exotic Animal Training and Management program, understands the value of giving hands-on experience to students who want to work with wild animals.

After all, the operations instructional technician began her 30-year career with America’s Teaching Zoo as a student herself in 1990.

Over the past three decades, Rodriguez estimates that she has personally cared for more than 1,000 animals—from rats and pigeons to tigers and monkeys. She personally raised visitor favorites like Neil the Bengal tiger and Ira the lion, and helped spearheaded fundraising efforts to bring the big cats new enclosures on campus.

Beyond her work with animals, Rodriguez transformed countless students’ lives by teaching them how to become animal professionals so they could go out into the world and live their dreams.