|
|
| Employer Profile - City of Thousand Oaks |
| The City of Thousand Oaks, located in beautiful Ventura County, 12 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, is nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains and surrounded by more than 14,800 acres of natural publicly owned open space. This open space contains 75 miles of trails for hiking, biking, or just leisurely walking. While this natural acreage gives our community the best of nature, another source of pride in our community is the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. Opened in 1994, this jewel of cultural arts has become a beacon for our region featuring world-class entertainment, musicals, concerts, children’s shows, ballets, and much more. Thousand Oaks, a family-oriented community of 128,000, is home to excellent schools, outstanding parks, and myriad shopping opportunities, including the largest auto mall in the nation, according to J.D. Powers and Associates.
Incorporated in 1964, Thousand Oaks is a master planned community at its best. City services which other communities only dream about such as a city-owned library, teen center, senior center, cultural center, quality infrastructure, and natural open space is due to thorough planning by the City’s past councils and leaders.
The City has been fortunate to have had a balanced budget throughout its history due to conservative management. To keep the balanced budget in place in the face of state budget cuts, City leaders have enacted a selective hiring freeze with approximately thirty positions frozen (not being filled). Even though Thousand Oaks is still growing, the City is not adding any new positions while maintaining current programs and services. City leaders have not added any new programs or positions for several years; cutbacks have been made in a variety of areas where possible.
Thousand Oaks remains the economic engine of Ventura County in the areas of job creation, property tax generation, sales tax generation, and economic diversity.
With a very involved community, the City has more than 30 commissions, boards, and committees that provide citizen input to the City Council. Among these are the Resident’s Roundtable, Business Roundtable, Arts Commission, Council on Aging, and Youth Commission. The Youth Commission is in the middle of implementation of the Youth Master Plan that the City Council adopted last year. The City is helping generate interest in civic careers by participating in Groundhog Job Shadow Day and internships with our local school district and colleges. City leaders also support staff memberships in organizations such as MMASC, CAPIO, LCC, CSFMO, GFOA, etc.
Thousand Oaks staff is highly professional and knowledgeable in their areas of expertise and Human Resources provides training classes both professional and personal in nature to educate employees. The City’s Information Technology Division offers computer training classes monthly for employees to learn a new program or take a refresher course.
Because of our involved community, the City of Thousand Oaks takes communicating with residents seriously. Customer service is emphasized from helping at public counters to answering phones. Our residents are our customers. Any avenue of communication is used to let residents know about services available, public hearings, etc. Everything from press releases to the City website to ads to town hall meetings are used to “get the word out” to the community. The City also has its own government cable access channel, TOTV, to air City Council and commission meetings for residents live and as repeats throughout the week.
In Thousand Oaks we have much to be thankful for – a premiere Southern California community with family-friendly amenities that are envied by other cities in the region. More than 40 years of achievements have made Thousand Oaks one of the most sought after places in California to live, work, and play. |
|
|
