Bob Engler, incumbent, bobengler.com
I am running for re-election as a 32-year resident to ensure that Thousand Oaks remains one of the safest cities in California and a premiere place to live, work and raise a family.
As your City Councilmember, I have a proven record of balancing the budget and ensuring fiscal responsibility while delivering award-winning services that our community expects. While on the City Council, I have continued the tradition of preserving and adding to our Ring of Green. The City is in a better financial position than when it entered the COVID-19 crisis two years ago with an AA+ S&P rating. However, there is still much to do:
– The T.O. Community Attitude Study ranks Public Safety as a top priority for our residents. I am committed to responsive, proactive public safety policies alongside solving our homeless crisis. Both the Ventura County Professional Firefighters Association and the Ventura County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association have endorsed my re-election campaign.
– Supporting our business community (and our biotech hub) is crucial as it is the backbone of tens of thousands of local jobs — crucial to the City’s longevity and success.
– Our business community has highlighted the need for a Downtown destination complete with restaurants, cafes and shops. I intend to make this a reality.
Homelessness is a multifaceted issue that will require a multi-leveled approach. Waiting to address the issue is no longer a viable approach. Prior to being part of the council, the city enabled the sheriff to assign two special population officers who interact with members of our homeless population on a daily basis. This approach has continued for the past four years.
Since being on the City Council, we have taken a two-pronged approach. We continue to support the non-profit sector financially in their mission to assist those experiencing homelessness. We embraced the Project Room Key that stepped in to provide shelter when our traditional faith-based winter shelter was no longer an option due to COVID-19. We continued to be a part of Ventura County’s Continuum of Care that is using a global approach to identifying and placing people willing to accept assistance. Our second approach has been direct action on several levels of engagement. We developed an income stream after aggressive negotiations with Caruso Company that will provide $13-15 million over the next 30 years toward providing affordable housing. We secured a $28 million State grant for conversion of a local motel into a permanent supportive housing project that will house the homeless while providing programs to redirect their lives. We are actively looking for a temporary housing location for those individuals not yet ready for a permanent solution. We purchased a property to provide a for-sale affordable housing project for individuals looking to take the next step toward building equity.
A second area of urgency needs to be addressing the need for housing. The City Council needs to see the big picture. Thousand Oaks is in competition with areas all over the country for established biotech and start-up companies. Areas such as Austin, Raleigh-Durham, Boston, and San Diego are cities with similar goals of attracting biotech.
To be competitive, the most important assistance we can provide as a city is creating the conditions to encourage housing for the emerging biotech hub and other employers in our city. The lack of appropriate housing is consistently presented as a factor that limits the recruitment of new talent to our town. As a Council, we must respond favorably to opportunities to approve conversion of excess office and commercial properties to needed residential.
The Council needs to be aware of regulatory impediments to conversion of existing properties in the Rancho Conejo area that restricts the addition of biotech. Recently I voted to eliminate a restriction that would have prevented the conversion of a utilitarian vacant building. We now have a newly remodeled Alexandria building housing two of our emerging biotech companies.
The current city council has identified that not taking action on pressing issues has its own consequences. Inaction on addressing housing has led to a two percent vacancy rate that limits the ability of our employers to attract the best talent to our area. Not taking action addressing homelessness has led to an increasing number of individuals living unhoused. These are unacceptable outcomes.
Inaction at other levels of government has also resulted in problems. What this most recent drought has underscored is the City’s over-reliance on imported state water. The City needs to recognize that a regional approach is our best way of addressing not only the current water shortages but future ones as well. It is by regional approaches that the most cost-effective results can be achieved. Short term, we are currently in partnership with water districts downstream from the City that purchase our reclaimed wastewater for recharging groundwater on the Oxnard plain. This reduces their water needs, freeing up water resources for other cities such as ours. Long term, we are approaching neighboring water districts to purify our brackish local groundwater that we have recently begun to access through reactivated wells. We are costing out the possibilities of direct reuse of our own reclaimed water. Finally, we will continue our lobbying efforts to encourage State agencies to build more water storage to make their system more reliable.
Being able to approach issues calmly and with focus served me well during my 30-year career in public safety as a firefighter. I have found that listening to all parties and evaluating other points of view are the foundation of good decisions. It is in the best interest of all voters that they select someone with an open mind to provide for public safety, protect our quality of life, and ensure a future that matches our past.
