SIMI VALLEY SCHOOL BOARD: MODERATION MAKES DIFFERENCE IN RACES.

SIMI VALLEY - Voters chose educational experience and moderate voices in the heated school board race that put two challengers and an incumbent in office.

School counselor Steven P. Gould, former school board member Debbie Sandland and incumbent Janice DiFatta beat seven others, including incumbent Diane Collins, for three seats.

``It got pretty nasty,'' said Sandland, who returns to the board after narrowly losing her seat in 1996. ``There was just a big to-do about getting rid of the incumbents.''

Moorpark City Council: New leaders given chance by voters

MOORPARK - A city planning activist and a youth sports supporter won the nod from voters who ousted City Council incumbents in favor of new leadership.

Activist Roseann Mikos took 23.1 percent in a campaign that focused on her efforts to stop the big Hidden Creek development and bring a slow- growth Save Open-space and Agricultural Resources initiative to Moorpark. Former Planning Commissioner Keith Millhouse won 22.3 percent.

``People realize it is better and more efficient to have development inside the cities than sprawling outside the city,'' Mikos said. ``I have been trying to articulate that for a long time. People like that I didn't give up.''

In a separate race, Mayor Patrick Hunter - who had supported Mikos and Millhouse - easily won re-election.

SOAR measures: Voters give the boot to ballot's J and K

FILLMORE - Voters defeated Measure J, a SOAR initiative, along with a competing Measure K, Vision 20/20, that had been sponsored by the city.

Measure J would have shrunk the city's sphere of influence, halting preliminary plans for a 1,000-home development and golf course just outside the city limits.

Measure K, placed on the ballot by the City Council, would have expanded the sphere of influence by 830 acres north of the city and 630 acres southeast of downtown.