Castor Valley MAC Meeting - October 21, 2025

The Castor Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) met to receive a 2025 update from the Alameda County Code Enforcement team, discuss persistent community issues like street vending and permitting, and participate in an initial exercise for a new unincorporated area budget input process. The meeting was dominated by expressions of frustration from MAC members regarding a lack of accountability, responsiveness, and local control from county departments.

Public Comments & Testimony

• Traffic Safety: Resident Terry DeVoi reiterated a two-month-old request for "no turn on red" signage and a left-turn arrow at a problematic intersection, stating the current situation was "unacceptable."
• CHP Report: Officer Jen Paps provided statistical updates on traffic enforcement, crashes, and upcoming safety events, including increased patrols for Halloween.
• Road Design & MAC Role: Resident Cheryl Eighthoven questioned the design of a recent road conversion that increased congestion and asked if it was a conflict of interest for a MAC member to endorse cityhood for Castro Valley.
• Technical Issue: An online caller, Aren Gonzalez, noted the absence of a video stream for the meeting.

Discussion Items

• Code Enforcement 2025 Report (Edward, Holly, John):
  • Presented data on case types and volumes in Castro Valley, highlighting proactive work on tobacco retail compliance (including a major multi-agency bust), illegal cannabis grows, and rental inspections.
  • Detailed a significant case on Crow Canyon Road requiring the department's first-ever inspection warrant for alleged construction and environmental violations.
  • Discussed ongoing challenges with unpermitted sidewalk food vending, noting enforcement limitations and reliance on partner agencies like Environmental Health for confiscations.
• MAC Member Questions to Code Enforcement:
  • Members expressed strong frustration over the lack of effective, ongoing enforcement against unpermitted street vendors, citing negative impacts on licensed businesses.
  • Questions were raised about the consistency of tobacco decoy operations and underage vaping enforcement.
  • The team acknowledged resource constraints and stated a new vending ordinance would be enforced starting in the new year with an emphasis on education first.
• Unincorporated Budget Input Process (Claudia Albano):
  • MAC members participated in a facilitated exercise to identify macro-level issues affecting the community (e.g., cost of living, bureaucratic inefficiency, political polarization) and micro-level desired improvements to county services.
  • The dominant themes from MAC members were profound frustration with a lack of departmental accountability, disrespect for MAC recommendations, an overly complex and slow permitting process that discourages business, and a desire for greater local control and input on projects like public works improvements.

Key Outcomes

• Approval of Minutes: The minutes from the September 15th meeting were unanimously approved (Roll call: Davis-Aye, Devini-Aye, Fiebig-Aye, Mota-Aye, Thomas-Aye, Mulgrew-Aye, Moore-Aye).
• Budget Process Motion: The MAC voted to endorse all the concerns, ideas, and recommendations generated during the budget input exercise and forward them to the joint MAC meeting scheduled for December 3rd (Motion by Davis, seconded, approved unanimously).
• Directives & Next Steps:
  • The Chair directed that MAC member Dan Devini's traffic safety notes for the Redwood/James intersection be sent to Public Works for review.
  • A future agenda item was requested to discuss formalizing greater MAC and community involvement in Public Works decisions affecting Castro Valley.
  • The MAC requested a future agendized discussion with AC Transit and relevant parties regarding maintenance and issues at public bus stops.