TELLING IT LIKE IT IS––Thousand Oaks Mayor Thomas Glancy speaks at the Thousand Oaks State of the City address and luncheon. Tuesday’s event was held at the Los Robles Greens Banquet Center. The mayor for next year is Dennis Gillette, left. (See related story on page 11.) The State of the City was hosted by the Thousand Oaks-Westlake Village Regional Chamber of Commerce. WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers At his State of the City address on Tuesday, Mayor Tom Glancy said 97 percent of those asked in a city survey rated the quality of life in Thousand Oaks very high, but the city has challenges ahead.

“Make no mistake here, folks, we are in an extremely critical time: The economy is awful at the federal level and unspeakable at the state level; our developmentrelated dollars are drying up; we cannot predict the extent of the state’s dysfunction and thus their raiding of local coffers to balance their budget,” Glancy said.

The state budget raids of local coffers will be more than $9.8 million over the next two years, he said.

There have been “significant sales tax reductions. . . . We’re at year 2000 levels with $22 million in sales tax collected,” the mayor said.

That’s $7 million less than in 2006-07, he said.

Development revenue collected by the city has also declined significantly, he said.In 2001 the city collected $6 million; in 2004 development revenue went down to $4.6 million. In 2009 it decreased to $3.2 million, Glancy said.

“Fortunately for the residents and businesses of the community, a long history of solid fiscal city management has insulated us from the crippling service reductions facing many of our fellow municipalities,” he said.

Still, cuts of 35 city staff positions over the past year through attrition have affected libraries, landscaping and maintenance, and efforts to redevelop Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

“We operate today at critically low staffing levels,” Glancy said.

City staff continues to work hard, he said. Four city staff members have become Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified technicians. LEED is a rating system that provides standards for building green structures. The city’s waste-water treatment plant now generates 70 percent of the electricity it needs through renewable energy sources.

“Through our combination of alternative fuel, conservation measures and energy production, the city is emitting 38 percent fewer greenhouse gases today than in the year 2001,” Glancy said.

The mayor’s address brought 280 people to the Los Robles Greens Banquet Center. Among those attending were state, county and city officials and staff members, including Assemblymember Audra Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks), Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks and all City Council members except Claudia Bill-de la Peña.The event, presented by the Thousand Oaks-Westlake Village Regional Chamber of Commerce, had sold out days before. Chamber officials had to turn away dozens who wanted to be there, according to Jill Lederer, the group’s president.

“It’s such a wonderful and important opportunity for us to learn about what the city of Thousand Oaks has been doing,” Lederer said.

Glancy praised the city for its efforts in being environmentally responsible, meeting economic challenges in a tough economy, protecting open space and building a safe, sound community through good planning. Challenges face the city as water rates increase due to drought as well as to court actions in Northern California that curtail water transportation out of concern for a small species of fish, he said.

This year California Lutheran University celebrated its 50th anniversary. Amgen, a local biotech company, may soon receive preliminary approval for a drug to treat osteoporosis. Also, a $6.5million federal stimulus grant will fund design improvements to the 101/23 Freeway interchange.

T.O. was also selected as the final leg of a cycling event expected to bring more than 100,000 spectators to the city in May.