Top Hiring Employers in the Conejo Valley, Ventura County and Adjacent Areas as 2016 Winds Down

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what where
job title, keywords or company
city, state or zip jobs by Indeed

As we wind down another year, now is a great time to start looking for a job, or perhaps a new job. This popular list of over 300 employers in Ventura County and surrounding areas provides local job seekers with some great resources for discovering opportunities close to home.

Let's take a closer look at that list and highlight 36 of the companies that have the largest number of posted job openings in late November 2016 as we wind our way down towards 2017. These 36 companies alone have well over 1,800 current job opportunities.

Conejo Valley (Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Newbury Park, Agoura Hills, Calabasas) Top Hiring Employers

Simi Valley/Moorpark Top Hiring Employers

Camarillo/Oxnard/Ventura Top Hiring Employers

Top Hiring Employers in the San Fernando Valley, Santa Barbara, Malibu and Other Local Cities

Click here for some practical resume submission tips. And of course, don't limit yourselves to just these companies! Check out the more comprehensive list at this link.

what where
job title, keywords or company
city, state or zip jobs by Indeed

Complying with Voting Laws in California

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With the Presidential General Election coming up in less than two weeks, how about a quick summary of selected voting laws in the State of California for voters here in the Ventura County area. The following is a summary from the California Secretary of State's "Voting Law Compliance Handbook: A Voter's Guide to Safeguard California's Election Process" updated April 2016.

Voting at the Polls

Making the time to vote: The polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. If you work a long shift and are unable to get to the polls to vote in a statewide election, California state law provides up to two hours of paid time off to vote. These hours must be at the beginning or end of your normal shift and you must give your employer two working days notice. 

Rewards for voting: Can the local donut shop offer a free donut if you show them that you've voted in the Presidential Election? NO! Say what!? No free donut?? Nope. Federal law prohibits anything of value given in exchange for proof of voting if there is a federal office (e.g. President, U.S. House, U.S. Senate) on the ballot. In a state or local only election, the donut offering would be o.k., just as long as it wasn't given to bribe you to vote (or not vote) for a particular candidate or measure. Speaking of donuts, or doughnuts, as it were, the new Krispy Kreme in Oxnard opened last month.

Electioneering: It is illegal to promote a candidate or measure within 100 feet of a polling place. So if you see signs or other promotional materials in the parking lot at a polling place, that is illegal. And on a side note, California law makes it illegal to "photograph, video record, or otherwise record a voter entering or exiting a polling place." So you best not be selfie-ing at a crowded polling place. 

Voting by Mail

Death and Voting:  Hypothetically, let's just say my spouse passed away two weeks ago but I received her absentee ballot in the mail. I knew who she planned to vote for, so I turned in her ballot along with mine. This is o.k., right? WRONG! You cannot vote for your deceased spouse, nor anyone else that is deceased for that matter. That said, if your spouse had completed the ballot and signed the envelope before passing, that would a legitimate ballot, as the vote-by-mail voting period opens 29 days before the election.

Returning Vote by Mail Ballots (from the Ventura County Clerk/Recorder): If you mail your absentee ballot in, allow for seven days' delivery if you can; that said, the ballot must be postmarked by Election Day and received no later than November 14, 2016. Otherwise, you can return your ballot to any of the 10 City Clerk offices in Ventura County, to the Ventura County Government Center in Ventura or at the Thousand Oaks Library. Or, you can bring them to any polling place by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Counting the Ballots

Can I Watch? Yes, you can watch the entire process, from opening of the vote-by-mail ballot envelopes to the counting of ballots on election night, by law.  But perhaps contact the Ventura County Clerk/Recorder first.

Campaign Do's and Don'ts

Use of State Seal: It is considered election fraud to use an official government seal in campaign literature. This should be reported to the Election Fraud Investigation Unit at 916.657.2166 or call the Ventura County Clerk/Recorder.

Paycheck Inserts: It is illegal in California to attempt to influence employees to vote for or against something by inserting something in your paycheck envelope.

These are just some of the elections laws in the State of California. For more complete information, visit www.sos.ca.gov/elections.

Aerial Photographs of Conejo Grade in 1957

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The four mile stretch of Highway 101 that connects the Conejo Valley with Pleasant Valley is the Conejo Grade.  Originally constructed in 1915 with no less than 49 twists and turns, the Conejo Grade has been straightened and widened over the years to accommodate growing population needs.

The shot above was taken in 1957 by aerial photographer Walt Dibblee. You can clearly see remnants of prior iterations of the Conejo Grade from above. You also may notice the lack of, well, much of anything, at the top of the grade in Newbury Park.

Below is another shot, a bit closer up. As you can see, the Grade was not quite as wide in those days.

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Thanks to Walt's son Steve Dibblee of VenturaViews.com. 

A Visit to the New ALDI Store in Simi Valley

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We live in the Conejo Valley and like most folks, most of our grocery shopping is done at nearby stores...Albertsons, Trader Joe's, Costco, Ralphs, Sprouts, Smart & Final, and so on. But German grocery store ALDI opened in Simi Valley in June and we wanted to check it out.

ALDI is an abbreviation for Albrecht Diskont, or Albrecht Discount, named after founders Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946. You may already know that ALDI is the parent company to both the Trader Joe's chain (purchased in 1979) and the ALDI store chain. That said, this ALDI store looks and feels nothing like a Trader Joe's store (to me at least). ALDI is one of the world's largest privately-owned companies.

The Simi Valley ALDI store is located at 425 Cochran Street in Simi at the Plaza, next to PetSmart and Party City and sandwiched between nearby Walmart and Home Depot.

The first thing you'll notice is that you'll need a quarter as a deposit to get a shopping cart. Place the quarter in the slot and the cart is yours; the quarter will be returned when you return the cart. If you don't have a quarter handy, not to worry; the folks working at the store were happy to lend a quarter for a cart when I was there.

I found the store to be on the "spartan" side, to some degree like the Fresh & Easy stores that are long gone, but lighter and brighter and the shelves were not as high. To keep costs low, the chain does not carry anywhere near the number of items that a typical grocery store carries. This does seem to pay off in that pricing is quite low.

This particular visit I was not planning to do my complete grocery shopping, including refrigerated items, etc. This visit was mainly to acquire snacks for the household. The first aisle as you walk into the store has quite a large selection of items, most of which are ALDI brands. We enjoyed exploring the snacks and piled our cart with reasonably priced items.

As you can see in the image to the right, ALDI brands like Millville look quite a bit like well known brands. "Fruit Rounds" at only $1.19/box looks good to me. And "Crispy Oats" looks a bit like, ahem, Cheerios.

The snack and wine aisle. My favorite aisle.

The snack and wine aisle. My favorite aisle.

As you can see above, the aisles are fairly wide and easy to navigate. We found a lot of great snacks and interesting items throughout the store, then went to pay.

ALDI does not provide paper or plastic bags, so do bring your own reusable bags or you can buy them at checkout. And when you check out, they do not bag your items for you. They scan the items off of the belt and place them back into your cart. From there, roll your cart a few feet away to the self-bagging area. 

To learn more, visit www.aldi.us. The Simi Valley location is the only ALDI in Ventura County at this time. The next closest store is in Inglewood at 3330. W. Century Blvd. (about 6 miles from LAX).

Bag your items here and you're on your way.

Bag your items here and you're on your way.

"The Roots of our Lives" Living Time Capsule at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza

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The Roots of our Lives "Living Time Capsule" located at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza

The Roots of our Lives "Living Time Capsule" located at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza

The City of Thousand Oaks was incorporated in 1964 after a majority vote on September 29, 1964. Thirty years later, City leaders decided to do something very special by creating a "Living Time Capsule" designed to grow over the years.

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In the front of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, on the east side behind the large Mary and Richard Carpenter Plaza Park sign, is "The Roots of our Lives," an area that contains the living time capsule.  A geocache led us here. Learn more about geocaching at this link.

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Here is the inscription on a sign next to the "Living Time Capsule" bench:

"A time capsule is encased within the bench below the specially designed oak tree and mountainscape relief with the time capsule theme, "The Roots of our Lives." It is filled with documents and artifacts reflective of the City of Thousand Oaks' rich historical heritage, and current public and private activities.

It is called "A Living Time Capsule" for it was designed to grow as our City grows, with each succeeding generation contributing to the contents of four time capsule containers. This is accomplished through a unique program, whereby:

  • A group of fifty ten year-old children were designated "Guardians of the Time Capsule" at the dedication on October 9, 1994. They will be back for the next opening of the time capsule when a new generation of "Guardians" will be chosen. This process will continue for the next three openings of the time capsule.

  • At its dedication on October 9, 1994, two of the four time capsule containers were filled and sealed.

  • The third container will be filled and sealed at the time capsule's opening on the City's 50th Anniversary, in the year 2014. This process will be repeated with the fourth container, on the City's 75th Anniversary, in the year 2039.

  • A final opening of all four containers will take place on the City's 100th Anniversary, in the year 2064."

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Time Capsule created by the Greater Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce was buried on November 20, 1989 and will be opened on November 20, 2039. Makes one ponder....will I be around to witness this?

Listen To or Read Thousands of Free Public Domain Audio Books, eBooks at LoyalBooks.com

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There are thousands of books, music and other works that are in the public domain of the United States, meaning, they are available to anyone for free as they their copyright no long applies. 

Copyright laws have changed frequently over the years; here are some examples. Works created prior to 1923 are in the public domain. Works copyrighted between 1923 through 1963 expire 95 years after publication date of the copyright was renewed. For works created after 2002, they become part of the public domain 70 years after the death of the author. More details at copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm.

That said loyalbooks.com provides over 7,000 books free to the public that have become part of the public domain, both in eBook and audio book format. Books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Moby Dick, Great Expectations, Treasure Island, The Odyssey, Gulliver's Travels, War and Peace, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Bill Nye's Comic History of the United States and so many more.

The site also has books in foreign languages, including Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese and others. Visit www.loyalbooks.com to access books immediately and without registration requirements.

Aerial View of Central Thousand Oaks, Including Tarantula Hill, in 1957

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Walt Dibblee opened his commercial studio in Ventura in 1949 and as Ventura County grew, the demand for aerial photography expanded. Walt bought a plane, learned to fly and for the next three decades photographed the cities of Ventura County from above.

The 1957 aerial shot above took place on a foggy day and captured Tarantula Hill on the right and what is now Conejo Community Park and the prominent Conejo Valley Botanic Garden hill in the foreground.

While we don't have an aerial shot of this scene from today, here's a look from the Los Robles Trail.

More recent view of Tarantula Hill from the Los Robles Trail East; The Oaks Mall in the foreground.

More recent view of Tarantula Hill from the Los Robles Trail East; The Oaks Mall in the foreground.

Walt's son Steve continues the tradition today with over 30 years of professional experience. Steve has shared some of Walt's work from the mid 1950s to the late 1960s at VenturaViews.com.

See other scenes from the smaller hill near Lynn Road and Gainsborough Road southwest of Tarantula Hill looking east and looking west.