Six candidates for three Thousand Oaks City Council seats have laid out their priorities in a questionnaire published by the Ventura County Star.

Ballots began mailing to voters Oct. 5 ahead of Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3. This is the first election in which Districts 1, 2 and 3 are decided by district voters rather than citywide.

District 1: Taylor vs. Arreola

Mayor Mikey Taylor, 44, a small business owner first elected in 2022, is seeking a second term. He said in the questionnaire that crime fell 7% during his first term, the city built two microgrids, invested $9 million in water and fire readiness and reduced homeless counts by 46%. Those figures are Taylor's own claims and were not independently verified.

Taylor pointed to Amgen's planned $600 million science and innovation center at its Thousand Oaks headquarters as evidence the city's economy is strong. Amgen confirmed that investment in a May 2026 announcement.

Challenger Karen Arreola, 64, a retired biotech executive who worked at Amgen starting in 1989 and later led manufacturing at Thermo Fisher Scientific before retiring in 2024, wants to review the Civic Arts Plaza redevelopment.

The council approved the downtown project 5-0 on June 23, with an estimated city investment of roughly $150 million and at least $200 million in expected private investment.

"We should reassess the project's scope and look for opportunities to scale it back while finding a responsible balance between development and preserving what makes Thousand Oaks special …" Arreola wrote in the questionnaire. She also backs a "biotech first" economic development strategy.

District 2: Gougas vs. Rohrbach

With Council member Bob Engler not seeking reelection, business owner Gus Gougas, 61, and executive producer Kyle Rohrbach, 39, are competing for the open seat.

Gougas, a partner and director at the Pickleball Athletic Club who chaired the city's Community Funding Review Committee from 2015 to 2018, proposed forming a Ventura County Housing Coalition. The coalition would unite local governments to push back on state-mandated housing numbers, timelines and environmental impacts. He also called for "plug-and-play" zoning that would pre-assess vacant corporate areas for modular manufacturing.

Rohrbach, who currently chairs the Community Funding Review Committee and serves on the TOArts board, said his top priority is a streamlined permitting process with clear timelines and a single point of contact for businesses. At the Sept. 17 candidate forum at California Lutheran University, reported by the Thousand Oaks Acorn, Rohrbach described housing costs in personal terms: "I just went back to my old apartment that I first moved to here. It was $1,400 a month 14 years ago. Now it's $3,100 a month."

District 3: Newman vs. Hayek

Incumbent David Newman, 67, who served on the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission from 2014 to 2022 before joining the council, said he helped attract "nearly $800 million in new biotech research and development investment" to the city. The confirmed Amgen investment totals $600 million; Newman's higher figure may include other biotech commitments not detailed in the questionnaire.

Newman also said he voted for permitting reforms to support film and TV production and voted yes on affordable housing units.

Challenger Victor Hayek, 55, the deputy superintendent of business services for the Conejo Valley Unified School District, brings a background as a former police officer in Wayne, New Jersey. He holds a doctorate in education and an MBA in finance. Hayek said he has managed public budgets of up to $250 million and would streamline city permitting to attract employers.

Hayek said in the questionnaire that he has been endorsed by fire and police officials. That claim was not independently verified.

Ventura County vote centers open Saturday, Oct. 24, at 9 a.m.