PROFILES | By Sarah Howery Hart

Randy Haney — “Dreaming the Dream”

Ojai resident Randy Haney wears many hats, including owning Haney Landscaping, serving as a City of Ojai council member, and serving as the past Chairman of the Ojai Parks and Recreation Committee. And two other significant hats: father and grandfather.

For all of this and more, he applies an underlying philosophy stated on his website: “Dream the Dream.” There, he advises potential clients to explore their immediate needs, short-term goals, and long-term visions for their property, and to share their thoughts, ideas and concerns related to their outdoor spaces.

Although these may seem solely like business-related questions, to Haney, they’re so much more. Along with dreaming the dream, Haney’s life has included a bit of serendipity as well, including his relocation from the San Fernando Valley to Ojai 25 years ago.
“I had come up to Lake Casitas. I grew up camping and fishing here,” he explains. Ironically, he never ventured into Ojai, until one day when he and wife Dara Marks were heading back from Santa Barbara. “On the way home, my wife said ‘Why don’t we drive though Ojai?’ We did and had sherbet ice cream, and we fell in love with the area. Our life changed from that moment on.”

Part of the impetus to move was that his young son from an earlier marriage had come to live with them, and Ojai seemed like a good place to bring up a family, which now includes not only his wife and son Justin Haney, a Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department Corrections Officer, but also daughter-in-law, Liz, a registered nurse, and their children, Piper and Page.

It was from his own upbringing that Haney learned the landscaping business. “My father worked for Green Thumb. I’m the only son out of three that followed in dad’s footsteps.” Haney says he has spent his entire life in the landscape field, did attend junior college, but is essentially self-taught. “You learn the hard way,” he adds.

He says there are many rewards inherent in the work. “It’s exciting to be able to create things and to see them through, then to be rewarded from the accomplishment of seeing it through from start finish. I saw my dad work hard, so working hard came naturally to me.”

Today, that work, throughout his company’s Central Coast territory, is especially sensitive to the use of water. From his landscaping business to his participation in local government, his top priority is water efficiency and conservation. When he first moved to Ojai 25 years ago he had been trained in area irritation, but he quickly saw that this community benefited far more by the use of drip irrigation. “We are always aimed at growing and learning the newest technologies for lowering our water usage.”

He adds, “We have to look at our plant palette and think about making choices that utilize water-wise plant materials and concepts. This doesn’t limit us to xeriscaping and rock gardens, it can also include South African, Mediterranean, Australian and California native varieties that will add color and vibrancy, while still maintaining low water use.”

Another influence in his life is his father-in-law. “He was a visionary man, he was a Flying Tiger, a World War II ace, an aeronautical engineer, and he built his own custom homes. He instilled in me about ‘dreaming the dream,’ that there are so many times we run into obstacles in life and we allow them to be obstacles.”

Haney uses his philosophy under all of his hats, including how he has won over 30 awards for landscaping excellence. “It all comes back to dreaming the dream, that concept has allowed us to create some incredible landscaping and to work with some incredible people. I used the same concept when I was with Parks and Recreation. When my son was in sports, I dreamed that one day we’d have a rec center that would be for all the community. That’s community center has always been a dream of mine.

“I apply this to everything I do. My work on the City Council is dedicated to a vision of Ojai as a community that fits everybody, where every citizen has the opportunity to live their best life — where we can all dream the dream and help each other make our dreams come true.”

But he almost missed Ojai entirely. “If my wife had not said, ‘Let’s go into Ojai,” I would never have come here. It’s an enchanted village.”