The Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) held a meeting on April 21, 2026, at 2:00 PM. The meeting featured extensive public comment regarding the controversial Mosaic outdoor school/camp project approved by the Board of Supervisors, an update on new fire station construction, and a detailed presentation on the Sheriff's Office license plate reader (Flock Safety) program with a call to action for the Board of Supervisors vote the following day.
(Additional public comments on Flock Safety item are noted below under that discussion.)
Fire Station Construction Update (Deputy Chief Eric): Reported that three fire stations are under construction (Station 7 in Palomares Hills, Station 25 in Castro Valley, Station 22 in San Lorenzo). Station 7 slab poured, framing to start June; Station 25 interim station active, demolition complete, permit process finishing; Station 7 on track for January 2027 completion, Station 25 14 months out. Remainder of Measure X bond ($25M) will fund two more stations (Lake Chabot and Ashland). Council expressed appreciation for on-schedule progress.
Sheriff's Real-Time Information Center and Flock Safety Presentation (Sergeant Fenton Carly): Presented overview of the license plate reader (LPR) program, real-time information center, community cameras, and drone program. Emphasized crime reduction (auto theft cut in half), solved homicides, human trafficking, missing persons cases. Stated data is not shared with ICE or federal authorities. Guardrails in place. Noted that the Board of Supervisors is voting tomorrow on a retroactive contract to continue Flock. If vote no, unincorporated areas would lose coverage. Council members expressed strong support, with some technical questions deferred. Multiple public speakers in favor of retaining Flock; one speaker opposed citing privacy concerns.
Mosaic Project (general discussion): While not an agenda item for new action, the entire first half of the meeting was dedicated to public comments and council comments on the Board of Supervisors' approval of the Mosaic outdoor school/camp on Cole Canyon Road. Council members expressed frustration that their unanimous 7-0 vote against the project was ignored, as was the West County BZA's 3-0 vote. They criticized staff and the three supervisors who voted for approval (Bass, Marquez, Tam) and praised Supervisor Miley. Chair Moore noted the lack of representation for unincorporated areas and suggested either incorporation or supporting pro-agriculture supervisors in elections.
The council comments just below the public comments tonight. I think it's important while everybody's here to hear with the council, some feedback. And I am also after attending a supervisor's meeting last week and getting a minute and a half to speak and getting through about one paragraph of the idea. I kind of felt uh slatted. So tonight um public comment will be five minutes instead of three. So I will give everybody an opportunity in this room and online an opportunity to speak. And um if you don't need to use the five, that'll be great. But if you have the time. Um so um let's um get the speaker cards. How many um folks do we have online? We have nine attendees online. We have no speakers online at this time. Okay. I am gonna leave the online open for people to sign up until probably say 6 30 or so, and um, or until public comment is done. So um do you would you like to start with um do you have the cards? Robert Brahm. Yep. Hello, the better. Just stoop over here. I'm basically the arburist for Castor Valley. 51 years of studying the plant kingdom, professional botanist. This is all I've ever done. And I mostly want to speak about the California Bay leaves. 50% of the trees out there on the eastern, or I'm sorry, the western side of the creek. 50% of them are California Bay, the most flammable or combustible leaf in California that's native. It excludes all your eucalyptus, of course. You can readily light them on fire with a cigarette lighter green, and they'll self-sustain the flame. I've I'm an old mountain man, I've climbed mountains for my entire life in the Bay Area. I always burn bay leaves. So get to my point. If a fire were to start anywhere and be on that side, you wouldn't be able to put it out. The fire trucks can't shoot of a water hose 300, 400 feet over to the mountainside from the road. And there's a few places they can pull into dirt, but you wouldn't get it out. It would burn the whole canyon unless you have air support, of course. Drop dropping that red fire retardant. Um at the beginning of the canyon, the bays are equally on both sides. It's narrow. Um the bay trees prefer a little bit of eastern uh shade and deep canyons where there's better soil, and they choke out the oak trees, so there's actually more bays than oaks out there. Oaks aren't flammable at all. You set them on fire, take the fire away, they go out. That's the way they're constructed. Um, you do have some silver silver dollar eucalyptus out there, iron bark eucalyptus, and perhaps a couple other species besides bluegum, the big one. But uh, this place is a fire trap. There's no other way out unless you have a helicopter, you're not getting out. Nobody gets in, nobody gets out. And that's what if it's a fire storm with 40, 60 mile an hour winds. Um that's about all I got to say on that. I've got a long track record. If anybody has questions, can I ask questions? All right.