It started.

Good evening, and welcome to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Unincorporated Services Committee meeting.

May I have roll call, please, Tisa?

Supervisor Miley, excuse Supervisor Tan.

Present Supervisor Miley will be joining shortly.

He is tied up at an A-bag meeting.

Um Tisa, do you want to go over instructions on Spanish interpretation?

Vanessa.

Yes.

Thank you.

Buenas tardes, damas y caballeros.

In esta reunion, ustedes tendrán la opportunidad de tener acceso a la interpretación al Espanyol.

Solo necesita presionar el símbolo terracchio in su pantalla, orebuscar los thres puntitos para seleccionar el idioma al Spaniel.

Estamos asus.

Gracias por unirse a nosotros.

Thank you, and back to you.

Vanessa.

Yes.

Okay.

And that's it for the Spanish instructions.

Yes.

Thank you.

And for in-person participation, the meeting site is open to the public.

If you speak on an item, you can fill out a speaker's card and hand it to me.

And for remote participation, follow the teleconferencing guidelines posted at www.acav.org and use the raise your hand function.

Thank you.

Uh we will start with the first item, which is an information item on the Meekland Avenue Bridge construction and road closure.

We have Almay County Public Works and also AC Transit.

Hi, quick question.

This is the Spanish interpreter, the second interpreter.

May I please be assigned as well as my uh colleague interpreter?

Okay.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Daniel Desabeth Public Works Director.

This is about the Meekland Avenue Corridor Improvement Project that uh we have started construction.

The primary focus will be on the bridge construction that would be requiring a long-term closure of uh of the bridge area.

Uh next slide, please.

So the project uh limits is between the welling and blossom way, that's the overall project, and the project will next slide.

The project will provide uh multiple values, uh walking opportunities, continuous sidewalk, high visibility, crosswalk, and ADA compliant uh facilities all throughout the project limits.

Uh the pavements will be repaved, and uh all the uh you know the cracks and the bad riding condition will be improved to a smooth riding environment.

The biking will be provided a continuous bike lane all throughout the project limit, and there will be uh consistent locations of uh safe transit connections.

Uh next.

In addition to that, it will provide uh street trees and landscaping.

There you go.

Uh street trees and landscaping, green infrastructure which is capturing runoff from the street and treating it before releasing it into eventually to the bay, and improvements for uh the drainage facilities along the roadway.

That just gives you the broader uh scope of the various items that we will be doing throughout the project limit.

Uh like I said, today's meeting next slide will be regarding the Mickland Avenue bridge construction and the issue of road closure.

Uh next the bridge will be fully closed during the construction period, and you know, if you ask why full closure, as you can see, it is safer.

Full closure allows construction crews to work more safely and effectively and efficiently, and reducing the overall time it takes to uh put the bridge back together.

And it also is safer for uh access wise in terms of uh pedestrians and residents throughout the community.

Uh the south access point will be basically local access remain from uh Paseo Grande on to the south side.

On the north side, it will be coming from uh East Lowelling to the north side of the closure.

There will be no through traffic uh while the bridge has been dismantled or deconstructed and being reconstructed.

Uh and advanced notices will be provided continuously uh to inform the community.

Next uh we have provided.

There you go.

We provided notices of the closure in advance.

Um we've mailed out a couple of times some of these notices throughout uh the area uh in multiple languages and clearly explain with the drawing the attached drawing as you can see where the closure will be and uh why uh we have to have a full closure throughout the project limit.

Now we've uh we've also held a community meeting recently, as I believe about two weeks ago, uh to inform the community about this upcoming closure.

We've had previous community meetings to inform people about the overall project and provide people what the project entails.

This last meeting was more focused in terms of what I'm sharing there today with you about the closure of the the bridge area due to construction.

So access to homes and businesses and detours.

Access to homes and businesses will be uh, you know, if you have a home between the closure uh the bridge and south or east, north or south side, you will be able to access your home at all times.

There will be occasional detours if somebody if there's work being done right in front of the driveway or some you know uh activity going on for safety purposes.

There might be occasional delays, but otherwise you will we will retain full access to homes and businesses during this construction period.

Basically, we are really taking the bridge itself out.

So all the way to the bridge on either end, you'll be able to get there if your home is adjacent to that area.

Uh so like I said, to expect just occasional short delays uh while uh people are or the crews are working uh on the project.

In terms of detours and emergency access, like I said, we'll maintain emergency access at all times uh to throughout that area.

There will be marked detour uh so that people know which way to go and uh direct people traffic around wherever they're going, but from away from the closure area, traffic control signs will mark the routes around the bridge.

Pedestrian and bicycle access uh affected alternate routes will be marked and detour information will be available uh on the project website as well.

Next in terms of project timeline, we started the project on the other end uh sometime early in March.

Uh and the crews have been mobilizing and working on putting the sidewalk in and some of the improvement I mentioned earlier.

Uh the pedestrian improvements are also begun in March.

Uh they will go all the way through August 2026.

Uh we anticipate to begin the the bridge actual work uh sometime in early June, and that will go all the way to April 2027.

So the detours will be active during that period.

And we believe sometime between April 27 to September, we will finalize the whole project and complete uh the improvements that's uh that's I I uh mentioned earlier throughout the sidewalk, the ADA ramps, the crosswalks, all of those things and drainage improvements, as well as the bridge will be completed by then.

Next work hours during construction will be generally from 7 a.m.

to 4 p.m.

uh on weekdays.

Uh occasionally there will be some times that the crews might be required to finish up or make sure the area is safely buttoned up so it might go a little bit beyond four advanced notices will be provided whenever feasible any changes to these hours uh during construction.

Next so uh how will public works agency keep you all informed?

Uh we have we will be mailing notices just like we did.

Uh, we have door-to-door and on-site notices.

Uh, we'll have construction signage and detours out on the project site.

The project website and email will continuously be updated, and social media and digital updates will be provided on ongoing basis throughout the construction period.

And you can actually access our website uh and the project website, will be available to provide you immediate status update uh at all times.

And the next slide will provide you how to contact us or how to connect the project website uh or if you need email updates, the info at a cpwa.org is the most popular one that everybody uses.

You can always send us an email, and there is a project hotline for construction, uh, the number 6705591, and you can actually contact us in any one of these modes, as well as you could uh uh just go on the website and learn about the project uh at your leisure and convenience.

That's uh all what I have today to present, and I'd be happy to answer any question, uh supervisor.

Thank you for that presentation.

I just had a couple questions.

Um this is a multi-agency uh funded effort.

Uh the county um Transportation Commission and the Bay Area Air District.

Do you do you know the the rationale the Bay Area Air District is having for the funding?

The Bay Area, yeah.

Usually they support any effort that we do towards advancing bike and alternative active transportation, so that's a very small amount, but that's their contribution.

Okay.

Uh on the community meetings that you've had so far.

What kind of feedback have you been getting?

Well, we have not gotten any uh significant feedback.

Unfortunately, despite uh significant outreach last time when we held a community meeting at the Cherry Land Community Center, the participation was less than what we expected.

Uh so we take that as a positive sign that maybe the bridge closure is not inconveniencing too many people.

Silence doesn't always mean consent.

Uh uh in terms of um the closure, uh obviously uh most of the traffic will spill into the detour uh residential streets.

Are there noticing on those streets?

There will be adequate signage showing people which way to go.

And and after a while, as you know, most people who are especially who reside in their area will develop a route so they would know where to go.

But in case any traffic that comes into here without knowing about the project, for example, will be directed through the detour site.

So when you um go on your GPS, typically it tells you when there are construction areas.

Is that tied somehow to the social media or digital um outreach?

We we uh we will contact Waze, usually we contact Waze, but Google Maps and those guys they somehow figure out how to through the social media or somehow, but they always uh know whenever we have a closure to dig to direct people.

But we try to communicate to the social media the these uh mapping entities about closure.

Okay, it's right.

I was informed that AC Transit is also online.

Yes, AC Transit.

I think there was questions about their uh their uh routing of their bus, so they will be able to answer the question uh if they have uh if anybody has any questions.

Diane.

Hi, this is Diane Cassegray, and I apologize I'm not there in person, but actually Owen Christofferson is um in the room.

Owen, are you there?

And I apologize that I um not there in person.

He um brought um two slides to talk about proposed AC transit temporary bus um detours during the construction.

Um that our understanding it starts June 8th and will last approximately 300 days, um, close to a year.

Um so perhaps if Owen can take a moment, um, there are two bus lines that are that will be affected um by this construction, and so would like Owen to be able to speak to that.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh good evening uh chair, supervisor, and uh community members.

My name is Owen Christofferson.

I am the transportation planner for AC Transit covering this area.

And um I should have, if we can get up on the screen, uh a couple slides detailing uh AC Transit's detour plans for routes ninety-three and thirty-two, which will be affected by the Meekland Bridge closure closure, excuse me.

Okay, wonderful.

All right, uh I'm gonna start with uh line ninety-three.

Um so if you look at this map here, you can see uh in the uh red dashed line, that's the uh existing non-doured route.

Um so it does uh traverse uh across the Meekland bridge, which will be closed.

So uh what the line 93 will do uh instead uh is use the uh uh auto detour route, uh which is Via Granada.

Um so instead of coming down the Meekland Bridge and uh turning on Paseo Grande, instead uh the line 93 will use uh East Llewelling Boulevard, uh, then uh kind of jog over to Via Granada, uh, which is the detour route, uh, go on via Granada uh and then turn right back on Paseo Grande.

Um so uh if you look at the map here, you can see uh all of those uh stops along that dashed line with the red X's in it, are stops that will be temporarily closed for the duration of this detour for line 93.

Um and uh we are on uh East Lewelling, the those uh two stops there uh in light green are uh current stops for the other line, route uh line 34, uh which will be uh repurposed for uh line 93 for the duration of this detour.

So it'll be the same stops uh as stops um for line 34 uh and uh instead they will uh you'll be able to use them for line 93.

Now we uh unfortunately there is a little bit of a gap uh between those two stops in uh light green up there on Llewelling and the next uh stops southbound for Route 93, which is on Hesperian.

Um I and others from our operations uh have been going up and down via Granada to try to find uh spots that are operationally feasible for uh our vehicles and we can't just stop anywhere, and especially since this is a longer detour, we do want to make sure that we are intentional uh and cognizant of community disruptions with these temporary stops.

Um we are considering adding a temporary stop at Paseo Grande and uh Via Granada, so that would be at the very at that lower end of Via Granada right there, the northbound stop, uh, and then the southbound stop um would be in front of the uh the small park there where the where the curb uh curves.

Um, so uh I'm you know, if you all are would love to hear from you all if this is an important stop and we can work to make this happen.

Um, it is operationally challenging for us.

Um, but uh as I said, um, you know, we want to make sure that folks here, since as you can see we are closing a lot of stops here, that there is um, you know, as much access as uh possible uh that we can get here.

So uh I'm very curious um for and eager to hear any feedback uh that you all might have about that.

Um next slide, please.

So this is uh line 34.

Uh so this is going to be the line 34 temporary detour again um in the dashed uh red line there you can see the uh existing normal route um which uh goes along Llewellyn and turns on Meekland where the bridge closure will take place.

Similarly to uh line 93, you can see uh there will be a number of stops uh that will be closed, the ones on Meekland, the corner of Meekland Lewelling, and then of course those um other stops uh there will be repurposed um to uh line nine the nine line 93 detour.

Um so uh instead uh the route will uh also use via Granada.

Um so it will stop at the corner of Via Granada and Llewelling, travel south uh down there, and then turn on Paseo Grande.

Um we also have existing stops from the line 93 that we will uh use here.

Those are those stops highlighted in light green.

And then we are also going to be adding a uh since we are closing all those stops on Meekland, we are going to be adding a uh pair of temporary stops at uh Meekland and Paseo Grande.

So uh the uh southbound stop there will be um right at the intersection where the turn is and the um northbound stop uh will be on the other side of the road um by uh Meekland and Hampton.

Uh so those will be the new uh new stops uh for being able to catch the uh line 34.

And like I said, you know, um with this with this other stop that we're considering on Via Granada, um, if uh we do decide to go ahead with that stop, uh, route line 34 would also stop there.

Um, but uh as you can see, line 34 does have quite a quite a bit more um temporary stops than line 93.

Um so it's pretty well uh pretty well served and well spaced.

Um so those are the two routes.

Uh I'm happy to take any questions, uh, answer any uh clarifying questions that you all may have, and I will also say if you go to the AC Transit website, you're gonna see two banners on top of the website.

One is service alerts and the other one says subscribe.

Uh service alerts.

We will be publishing through both of those channels uh information on this detour.

Uh we will be issuing service alerts that will um, you know, uh talk about the the um stops that will no longer be uh in service, the temporary stops and the detour routing.

Uh and then if you uh click on the subscribe button, you can subscribe to what's called AC Transit uh e news.

And uh if you as long as you specify uh subscription for this region, uh you will get um in your email inbox um a more uh comprehensive um uh um notice of this of this detours with the stops with the maps, all of that.

Um the uh stops that are no longer in service will be uh what we call bagged.

So they will have uh they will have a bag, they'll be very clearly marked, uh not in service.

And at those uh stops, we will provide information uh maps and wayfinding information on how to get to the temporary stops for the detour routing.

Um since this is a quite a long-term detour, uh it will be reflected uh starting in AC for AC Transit's August service changes uh in our kind of permanent scheduling.

So uh starting in August.

Uh if you use trip planning apps like Transit App, Google Maps, um, they will uh they will reflect this detour information, the stops that are no longer service uh in service and the uh alternative uh temporary stops.

Uh yeah, that's it for me.

I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you.

Um, do you have a sense of the ridership?

Like how many uh regular riders typically use the lines 34 and do they often rely on the app or how do they determine.

Yeah, we we these aren't our uh, you know, these aren't our higher highest ridership lines certainly, but we do see very consistent riderships at uh in this area and at these stops, um, which is why like I said, I'm you know really um interested in potentially this extra uh pair of stops on Via Granada.

Um and uh these are uh my sense is that these are folks who um are likely um you know kind of more um less technologically adept and um do need uh kind of that more of that um old school communication, yeah.

And how do you plan on providing that old school record?

So you can yeah, like I said, we'll be we'll be sending out service alerts, we'll be putting things um on the stops uh in advance and um once those stops uh will be closed, there'll be there'll be wayfinding information.

There'll be information about the detour on those stops um and uh we will also be uh letting the property owners know um for the stops that will be in front of their house um for uh for that uh outreach um and uh coming to these events, um things like that.

Uh and we will be publishing uh the the you know the map and the route information on our website as well.

Thank you.

I have no other questions.

Supervisor Miley, you have any questions?

Let's go to public comment.

Are there any public comments on item one, the Meeklin Avenue Bridge Construction Road Closure?

I have online speakers.

Caller, you're on the line, you have two minutes, Bruce?

Hi, this is Bruce King with this is Bruce King with Friends of San Lorenzo Creek.

Uh thank you for uh for working on this project.

Um I do have do have a question about how the community can find out when these public meetings are.

I can see on the project website that it says click here to receive email updates.

Is that that I guess my question is, is that does the community only get informed if we click on that to get an email update?

Because a couple of some of us were asked kept asking over the last three weeks if there was gonna be a public meeting.

Because we heard rumor of one, but we couldn't figure out when it was.

So how did how does the community that wants to know?

Thank you.

Caller, you're on the line.

You have two minutes.

Keith.

Unmute your microphone.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Yeah, okay.

Just just two things.

I was wondering the uh the I'm I'm not really uh close enough to that to really be affected by it.

So I don't know that I received a message uh about it.

Um which is that's that's fine.

Uh I was just wondering how far uh what kind of uh what kind of distance from uh from the bridge and the affected and the affected street uh how far the the outreach went out as far as the as far as the mailers are concerned.

That's my first question.

Um, you know, did it go all the way to the railroad tracks or past that or to the freeway, you know, just what the boundaries of the uh of the mail notifications were.

And my second question is is the uh is the bottom of the bridge when it's rebuilt or whatever, is it is it is the uh the bottom of the bridge going to be like higher than it is currently, or is that gonna remain the same the clearance underneath that's all I got?

Caller, you're on the line, you have two minutes.

Diane.

Yes, this is um Diane.

I live in San Lorenzo, and I'm on the San Lorenzo Um Homes Association board and also on the EMAC, and this is the first that I've heard about this.

Um, and I'm just well, I'm just concerned that I think people who live further up Paseo Grandi that would normally go down Paseo Grandy and get to Meekland and then go right or left.

I I'm afraid that I'm hoping that they'll be told way before they get to that point because if they can't go left, everyone's gonna go right, which is gonna create quite a backup, I think, especially during school.

So the Colonial Acres is right on that corner, and just on a normal school day, that area backs up so much that because they have the traffic guards that stop traffic so kids can cross, so cars can't go anyway, and um just on normal days, people on Paseo Grandy sometimes will turn around and go back up and and cut over on to Via Granada or via Toledo or a different direction, but um, I I just hope that people get some advanced warning that they shouldn't really uh depend on going all the way to down Paso Granny to Meeklin too, um, to keep on their normal route and especially when school starts up again in August.

I think it will be really a big mess.

Thank you.

Caller, you're on the line, you have two minutes.

Mimi?

Hi, my name is Mimi Dean, and um I'm here speaking as a citizen from San Lorenzo.

I am just a little bit concerned about definitely the traffic issues that this is gonna create around Colonial Acres and as an access to Lowelling.

And um I'm really wondering how this project is going to integrate with all the work that's still not done on the welling um from this intersection down to East 14th.

So that's just a big concern of mine, and I hope that we're gonna be able to address that concern.

Thank you.

No more speakers for this item.

Thank you.

Oh, and or Daniel, would you like to?

I'm sorry, I do have another speaker.

I have two more speakers.

Anne.

Unmute your microphone, Ann.

Hello, this is Cindy Torres.

Um I understand the um I I haven't been able to hear the presentation.

I am uh on the phone out of town, and um I'm hearing the comments about the traffic around Clona Lakers.

I understand that, however, not having a bus go through there for a person, people who do not ride the bus to know how we need that bus to go down Meekland and to go through Meekland is very important.

Um, it's already an inconvenience having to go up to Granada to get the 93.

So we at least need to have the 34 to come through Meek Low.

And I will send in my other comments.

I'm it's hard to hear here.

Thank you.

Bye.

Hi, good evening.

Uh this is Michael Freed from uh Hampton Road in Cherryland.

Um, past uh supervisors uh advisory council member, and just listening to all these comments.

I'm realizing that the Charity Land Community Association and others were involved with a realignment survey that AC transit put out a couple years ago.

And I'm just wondering if some of that, maybe Owen can speak to that information that was garnered from all those surveys to find out what the community wants or expects or would like to have.

Uh just that's just one comment to look back to some of the uh dynamics you can actually count on to tell people how they feel about it, and to uh Miss Ham's uh comment about you know whether we can rely on the uh people who show up from the community at different meetings as being justified where they really don't care or not.

Uh you really can't count on that.

You can't assume it.

Um, anyway, just a suggestion, I think we should move as a community move uh very quickly in terms of getting in touch with the school district, but their own uh bus transportation people and the uh San Lorenzo School District.

I don't know if you've been in touch with them, either planning or AC Transit to let them know this is coming, because when uh, you know, Diane Weiler just said I didn't know anything about it until now, that's kind of confusing.

And I think um in terms of the mailers going out, they should just expand their um, you know, communications with that, and to rely on the members of the community to come forward and look up everything that's on the website is next to impossible, I think.

Not because it isn't functional, it's just you have to realize that people work every day, other people have jobs too.

And I don't know.

I'm just trying to get everybody to get on on board with this.

We really do need a new bridge, but um, just in the process and all the detours and things, I think we really have to be very careful about the the kids' safety and transportation and making this or continuing to make this a walkable neighborhood as I know uh supervisor has wanted to.

Caller, you're on the line, you have two minutes.

Samsung, unmute your microphone.

Got it.

Hello, this is Christine Bruner.

I live on Hampton, and I am a senior and I am disabled.

So I am very dependent upon the 93 and the 34, as well as just being able to walk from Hampton to East Welling.

Has anybody considered having hardkeep Meek Park open later so that people could access the pedestrian bridge that's at the end of Meat Park that meets up with East Welling that would at least help people who were pedestrians as far as what's going on with AC transit, I'm afraid I don't think that they're doing very well with this rerouting and stuff, as well as nobody knows anything.

You call one place, you call another place, somebody knows something.

There's gonna be a meeting.

No, there isn't a meeting, and it's impacting everybody in this community.

Especially I'm concerned about the population here that are Hispanic and don't speak English nor read English.

They know nothing about this.

They haven't been informed.

The little card that was sent out was in English only.

I was surprised that nobody did any demographic study.

It's a Hispanic neighborhood.

Thank you.

That's all.

I have no speaker, no additional speakers for this item.

Thank you to all the speakers.

Um, Owen and Daniel.

Uh, can you address some of the questions and comments that came up during public comment?

Yeah, absolutely.

Um I just wanted to address uh one of the speakers regarding uh the uh Route 34 stops on Meekland.

Um, so uh, you know, because of course the closure will start right at the intersection of uh Meekland and Paseo Grande.

Um, we are, you know, we and this is you know, this is a confirmed temporary stop, uh, this will uh be in effect.

Uh there will be stops for the 34 uh at Meekland and Paseo Grande, uh, which is of course is really the closest we can we can get um to the affected area.

Um the northbound uh will be on Meekland um north side, uh rather excuse me, the south south side that intersection, um, Meekland and Hampton uh and the southbound Route 34 uh will be on Paseo Grande.

Um so those stops will uh be in service for the duration of the detour for access to the 34 um uh at that point.

So in terms of detours, uh, you know, there's no doubt there's gonna inconvenience a lot of people when we do, I mean, we're taking out an entire bridge out, we're closing the road for uh an extended period of time.

There's going to be a lot of inconveniences.

We've worked with the schools, uh, we try to time things in such a way that we can do most of the work during the summertime, but uh one year closure will bring us back into the school year, and we're gonna continue to work to make sure that there is enough signage out there in terms of detours, directional and and you know, changeable signs to guide people to uh uh to drive around in a safe manner.

So hopefully within, you know, there will be a little bit of chaos for the first two, three months, and after that, most people will get familiarized with, you know, kind of routine uh directional way, whatever they're going on a on a regular basis.

So we're hoping that the detours will be uh helpful for most people.

And if there are any necessary changes, we have continuously staff regular, you know, you know, studying, looking at managing the construction.

So any changes that are necessary will be done, and we will have, like I said, people uh available for people to talk to.

You can use any of the the tools that are mentioned earlier to kind of communicate with us, and we will be able to accommodate most requests as soon as uh you know practical in terms of integrating lowelling.

Is about 80% done uh once we go through that one.

By the time I think we have a full-blown construction of the bridge, Llewelling will be substantially uh completed.

However, like I said, you don't you won't be able to access the welling from Meekland, so that that inconvenience will remain until we open the bridge.

Uh so I think those are the questions I will raise the Diane, Diane Castleberry.

Uh unmute your microphone.

Oh, I'm sorry, I was pushing earlier.

Um yeah, I just wanted to um make a comment.

So um, and Owen has only been here for a couple of weeks, and he's amazing.

And I'm I apologize that I'm not there in person.

Um, I just wanted to clarify a couple things, just for the AC Transit portion that is supporting um this project in terms of um temporary detours for lines 34 and 93 on the communications front.

Um, as Owen outlined, in addition to the service works that will go out.

What we're doing, that's in addition to what we normally do, is um our communications team.

As soon as they um have that announcement go out, um, then I will be getting that information.

Uh, I will be sending it out to um our distribution to the county supervisors offices as well as to um our different um community partners, particularly like the CBOs and some of the neighborhood groups, um, so that they'll get the information in terms of AC Transit bus uh temporary bus to uh detours.

So I just wanted to make sure, and then just as that standard protocol, um all of our communications that go out are um in English, Spanish, and simple Chinese.

Um so I just wanted to uh make that statement.

The other thing that I wanted to kind of mention is when school starts, the one good thing.

I know for some of the students, they typically would probably take their bike or ride across Meekland Bridge.

If they need to take the bus, um Alameda Um County Transportation Commission um has um changed the um student transit pass program for the school districts of San Lorenzo Unified as well as Hayward Unified um to be universal passes, which means that they get the right students get to ride the bus for free.

Um, so if they do not have that pass, they should reach out to their individual schools, the school office, to be able to get that ready for the next school year.

I know school ends for most, I think June 5th, and so um they should start working on that this summer um so that they'll have be ready for when the school starts um in August.

Um, thank you very much.

Thank you for your responses.

Um Daniel, it sounds like you heard the most comment in all your public input from tonight, right?

Yes.

I mean, we we really like to get feedback.

Uh, we we like I say we did multilingual outreach.

We stuffed the mailboxes, we have our consultants even walk door to door in some areas, and uh uh you know, wanted to see uh folks to join us uh last time was it was not a very uh you know robust participation, but uh uh I think most people uh understand and appreciate the fact that this kind of construction will have inconveniences, but we'll make every effort to make sure we have adequate signage to guide people throughout the construction uh area.

Okay, thank you both for your presentations.

Um I'm I'm hoping that some of the speakers, especially the ones that are part of different community groups, including the San Lorenzo Village Home Association, they can help us get the word out on these um detours.

And if there are forums that you think that um either Daniel or Owen or uh or AC Transit can participate in, uh please let us know.

Let them know.

Okay, I will turn the chair back to you for item two.

All right.

Okay.

So let's go to item two.

Good evening, Supervisor Miley Tam.

Just interested.

Okay.

My name is Ronald Broader.

I'm the director for the Department of Environmental Health, rather the environmental health department.

I have to keep reminding myself that we were rebranding that too long ago.

Um, today uh myself and Antonio Golar, who is the chief of the environmental Protection Division, would handles the food safety aspect of our department.

Uh quick overview.

Uh next slide, please, Tisa.

Uh the environmental health department and the uh the division that handles food safety is the environmental protection division.

Uh we have food safety programs, temporary and mobile food facilities and operations.

This is just another uh name for our environment and protection division.

That includes community events and temporary food facilities, mobile food facilities, sidewalk food vending.

Enforcement efforts would be discussed by Antonio from May, and we had a 60-day enforcement action plan for two parts of unincorporated county.

Next slide.

Next slide.

So as a part of Alameda County Health Agency, the Environmental Health Department protects and enhances people's health and quality of life by ensuring food and recreational safety, reducing exposure to toxins and diseases, and protecting the quality of our water, air, and environment.

We are environmental protection specialists, food and recreation facility inspectors, certified hazardous materials and waste specialists, recreation and water quality technicians, land and water protection regulators, and vector control biologists.

Next slide.

Anika Caldry is our director of the health agency.

I'm the director for environmental health.

And as you can see, environmental protection is the division that handles what we're talking about tonight, food vending.

Next slide, please.

So what is the role of the environmental protection division?

We provide oversight of food and recreation programs to ensure compliance with the California Health and Safety Code, those safety standards, and we protect the public health in that way.

We permit inspect and deal with complaints and service requests for restaurants, markets, and mobile food facilities.

We have a water quality program, recreation and potable water safety.

The portable water safety is a USDA requirement where we have to take a sample of their water supply and make sure that it's meeting standards and bacteria free.

Temporary events program, temporary food facilities, and community events.

Community events is the big issue that we're dealing with for the most part because you have to have a community event in order to create sales for food out on the streets.

Recreational health program, public pools, spas, seasonal camps, and recreational facilities.

Liquid waste program deals with the proper handling and disposing of liquid waste.

As far as this program is concerned, we're talking about waste cooking oil and wastewater that comes from a food facility.

Housing and institution program, housing facilities and institutional sanitation compliance.

We will be making or we do uh conduct inspections on some facilities.

For the most part, each city is uh responsible for their housing programs, but in our in our unincorporated county, excuse me, we uh assist with uh some of those issues, including inspections.

Uh core responsibilities.

We conduct routine inspections, respond to citizen complaints and requests for services, educate business operators and the public on applicable laws and regulations, pursue enforcement actions for violations when we need to.

Next slide, please.

Okay.

Community events and temporary food facilities.

If there is a community event with food vendors, both the community event sponsor and the food vendors are required by California Health and Safety Code to obtain an environmental health permit to operate.

Whether you're selling or giving food away or even a beverage, a permit is required.

Environmental health ensures organized safe and compliant food operations during approved public events.

Now defining a community event.

It's an event conducted for not more than 25 consecutive or non-consecutive days within a 90 day period.

And that is of a civic, political, public, or educational nature, including state and county fairs, city festivals, circuses, and other public gatherings events approved by local enforcement agency.

So we have to have an event in order to be able to vend food on the street.

A temporary food facility, a TFF, is a food facility approved by the enforcement officer that operates at fixed location for a duration of an approved community event or the SWAT meet as part of the community event or the SWAT meet.

Next slide, please.

So the process to participate in the community event.

The event sponsor submits a community event sponsor application that includes the name of the sponsor and the event organizer, name and location of the event, number of food booths and mobile food trucks, including carts if there are going to be any.

So there is a process, and we do have an occasional, I think it's once a month now.

Used to be more often than that, where you can come in and meet with others who have the same types of questions, and we can answer those questions.

Okay, next slide, please.

Temporary food facilities, as you can see, this is a picture of a booth.

For temporary food facility operators, it must submit the following documentation.

A completed TFF permit application, TTF, excuse me, TF, self-inspection checklist.

This is where the operator himself or herself are going through all the things that they know they need to have and make sure they have them there so that when the inspector comes by, we're gonna be looking for those items.

Booth site plan and layout, commissary commercial kitchen agreement, and completed food safety quiz.

So you do have to have some food safety knowledge, and you need to be working out of a permitted facility, whether it's a commissary or commercial kitchen.

And if everything is in order, we will issue the TFF permit.

Next slide.

So a mobile food facility is any vehicle used in conjunction with a commissary or other permanent food facility about which food is sold or distributed at retail.

A mobile food facility does not include a transport or use to transport packaged food from a food facility or other approved sources to the consumer.

So it's direct to the consumer.

A single operating site mobile food facility is at least one but not more than four unenclosed mobile food facilities and their auxiliary units that operate adjacent to each other at a single location.

A combat compact mobile food operation is a mobile food facility that operates from an individual.

That means a person could have a backpack with some prepackaged food, and then if they're properly permitted, or from a pushcart, a stand, a display, pedal driven cart, a wagon, a showcase, a rack, or other non-motorized conveyance.

So there are a lot of different ways that you can qualify to deal compact mobile food operator, and pictures give you some ideas of what those look like.

That's okay.

Go ahead, Tisa.

So mobile food facility permit process for new construction or remodel units.

The operator must submit a mobile food facility application and plans.

We will review those plans and make sure that the unit will be outfitted with everything that's necessary.

So you provide a detailed plan of the cart, the trailer of the truck, including the equipment, the layout, where everything is located on that piece of equipment, and the food handling procedures and menu.

A menu is very important because we need to know what you're trying to prepare, whether you're going to need temperature control, if things are pre-packaged, and so on.

Ensure compliance with the California retail food code requirements, including construction standards, safe food storage, hand washing facilities, sanitation waste management, and food temperature control.

So all those things come into play.

Upon plan approval and submission of a completed application, a final inspection is scheduled with environment health staff.

A permit and decal, decal for mobile units, are issued upon passing scheduled inspections and completing payment for application fees, application and annual permit.

The permit for these types of facilities are renewed annually.

Next slide.

So our role is technical expertise and regulatory oversight, enforcement of the California Retail Food Code or what we call Cal Code, and the California Sidewalk Vending Laws, SB 946, SB 972, and SB 635, which had a significant effect on how we handle our food safety program.

Verification of valid health permits.

You will need to keep your permit with you and display it among requests.

Valuation of safe and sanitary food operations.

This is what we do.

We do an evaluation and it's consistent and constant.

Coordinated field operations and agencies working together to uh excuse me.

In cities, work collaboratively with city code enforcement, law enforcement, and public works departments.

In unincorporated areas, we work collaboratively with code enforcement and law enforcement, basically the sheriff.

Establish coordination of inspections and enforcement schedules.

Conduct vendor education and outreach.

Each time we approach a vendor, we want to make sure they understand how to operate legally and with a permit.

So we make sure that we do that outreach.

Provide compliance guidance regarding permit requirements and address ongoing non-compliance issues.

Enforcement actions do happen.

When vendors continue operating without the required permits or creating immediate public health concern, enforcement actions may include removal of unsafe food products and even up to confiscation of unapproved equipment.

Next slide.

SB 946 sidewalk vendors basically legalize sidewalk vendors across the state of California.

The local authority has limited limited local authority to regulate the vendors focusing on health safety and welfare.

Prohibited criminal penalties for vending violations, shifted to administrative enforcement.

Allowed cities and counties to require permits but restricted overly burdensome regulation regulations.

So it's created a challenge for enforcement.

SB 972 expanded allowable food options for sidewalk vendors with the CMFO, the compact mobile food operations, and so on.

And then as far as the most recent one, the SB 635, further refines and clarifies regulation for sidewalk food vending, focusing on aligning local enforcement with state law and improving consistency, which is key.

Addresses operational challenges such as permitted enforcement tools and compliance pathways.

And that's what the education is all about to make sure there's a pathway to operate legally.

Next slide.

So there was an Alameda County Sideware vending ordinance approved November of last year for the unincorporated parts of Alameda County.

Established an annual permit fee of 273 for sidewalk vending permit being issued by the community development agency, the planning department within that agency.

Requires vendors to obtain a sidewalk vending permit before they can perform any sidewalk vending activities in the unincorporated area of the county, including on the right-of-way or other street, sidewalk, alley, walkway, pedestrian path that are available to the public.

So vendors selling food must obtain a health permit from environmental health prior to applying for a sidewalk vendor permit as required by the Health and Safety Code.

In fact, the health and safety code requires operators to be in compliance with all, be in compliance with all other laws and regulations.

Next slide.

Excuse me, 2024, 2025, and 2026.

And as you can see from the totals on the end, that in 2025, we had a significant number of complaints.

So our hope is through these efforts that the number of complaints will go down because we have more legally operating vendors out on the streets.

Next slide.

So some of the challenges that we've encountered, enforcement, rapidly growing number of unpermitted vendors operating throughout the county with environmental health enforcement countywide.

So our responsibility is not just an unincorporated county.

Lack of responsible parties or accountable operators on site, which makes it difficult to enforce compliance.

As we indicated in those laws, there is no requirement to provide identification like it had been before, or anything that would lead to seeing that we're collecting information that may be used in a negative way.

Recurring non-compliant operators who continue to violate laws even after citation and confiscations.

And that is the crust of the situation right now.

So and this I need to let you know that in talking with directors from other counties, we are having the same issues.

Staff safety.

Safety concerns for environment health staff doing enforcement activities highlighting the need for partnership with law enforcement, which required advanced coordination.

Yeah, we have to get our schedules together in order to do enforcement on the field.

So we work with the sheriff department and with code enforcement.

We try to coordinate so that we can be effective.

We have to juggle our approaches, time when we do our enforcement.

If you keep doing it at the same time, you're not gonna uh find some of the guys who are unpermitted.

So we have to uh do more after hours, weekend, and nighttime enforcement.

Uh budget and capacity, staff events that take place after hours require overtime pay.

We have to pay staff for the weekend and nights.

Limited ability to impound, remove, and store large equipment, cars, and grills, and generators.

We actually had to increase the size of our dumpsters at the office in order to accommodate uh items that we've confiscated, which uh increase our costs, and then we have to buy these special plastic bags to put the food in, which are very expensive, and so uh our cost has gone up.

Uh, we didn't take in consideration budget for this amount of enforcement, so that's something we're gonna have to consider for the next fiscal year.

Uh if we can't haul away larger equipment, we try to neutralize it by breaking it down uh so it so it can be uh put into the dumpster.

Next slide, please.

So continue with those of challenges, impact on permitted food operators.

Um there is that issue.

Uh illegal or unpermitted vendors are taking customers away from those who are permitted.

And it's understandable that permitted operators would be uh discouraged by seeing more and more uh illegal and unpermitted vendors out on the streets.

Uh environmentally, uh we're collecting and disposing the additional solid waste streams, food waste packaging, grease, and equipment, but uh we can't get it all.

And so uh and we depend on uh the public to let us know where we see when you see these types of situations where illegally dumping and so on, uh, so that we can schedule and make sure that we address those items uh and basically just public help, uh increase the contamination.

We don't know where this food is coming from, how it's prepared, so there is a risk to the public to eat from these unpermitted operations.

Um this part of the uh slide, Antonio is going to uh speak with you about.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Um Antonio Golo with Alameda County Environmental Health Department.

I actually oversee the food and recreational programs.

I will be providing updates for the Royal Ranch Rodeo Parade, which took place on May the night this year.

Uh we uh environmental health actually met with uh Alameda County Code Enforcement, Alameda County Sheriff, uh CV Mac members, also the Castro Valley Parade sponsor, it's Mel Steve prior to the event to identify all the roles and responsibilities of all the local agencies.

Uh environmental help scheduled to have three inspectors from five to from three uh from from three to five p.m.

on that day of the event to just inspect the actual permitted food facilities, which were the boots and the one uh actual truck that showed up.

We had six inspectors that actually stayed to participate in the surveillance from 6 to 8 p.m.

where they walked the actual length of the parade to survey for unapproved vendors.

Um the actual sponsor, uh event sponsor Mel Reed uh supplied the department with radio so we could actually communicate with the actual sheriff department because the sheriff department at the time didn't have the capacity to have staff to walk around with us when we were doing our surveillance and enforcement activities, so we had access to them if we needed their uh support, their civil support.

Uh, next slide, please.

Here's an actual list of the permitted food vendors that were actually scheduled to be at the uh sponsored event.

Parade.

Um, the staff that went out between the between three and five uh did routine inspection of each one of the facilities.

Uh there were no issues except for the beer and wine mixed drinks booth.

And I didn't have an actual hand sink at the time to properly wash their hands so uh staff had to assist the operator with proper setup.

Next slide, please.

Uh from 6 to 8 p.m., there are the inspectors split up in two groups.

Uh we started at Castle Valley Boulevard and uh cross street uh Lake Shabot Road, and then we started at Castro Valley Boulevard and the Cross Street uh Redwood Road.

We split the inspectors up into three, they did their surveillance during that period of time.

Uh we did see two unapproved vendors.

One was a table or food table, and the other was actually a food court.

Um, we educated them as much as possible.

We gave them handouts and we informed them that they had deceased and assist and leave, and they actually complied.

Next slide, please.

Uh that concluded the actual uh rodeo parade.

So now we're moving on to the actual code enforcement pilot plan that we put in place for Castro Valley and San Lorenzo and unincorporated Alameda County areas.

Uh the purpose of the actual pilot plans was just to work with the different agencies and coordinate our efforts to what to ensure that the public the to protect the public health and to ensure food safety, uh to ensure compliance with the state law and county regulations, to educate vendors on permitting and obtaining the pathway to achieving a permit and knowing the rules and regulations associated with the permitting process and also to when needed to to remove any unsafe food or unapproved equipment from the operations.

Next slide, please.

So the event actually started on February the 25th, and it ended April the 24th.

Again, it was in Castro Valley in San Lorenzo.

We were focused more on in Castro Valley on Castro Valley Boulevard in Redwood.

And in San Lorenzo, we were focused more on Paseo Grande and Hesperian Boulevard.

We had inspectors go out Wednesday through Friday and some Saturdays.

We had four inspectors per shift specifically for their safety.

There were times where we went out just in the morning, times we went out in the afternoon, and there were days where we actually went out both in the morning and afternoons.

We went out doing normal hours and we went out doing after hours on nights and weekends.

Again, with the pilot plan, we partnered with code enforcement who really addressed any violations with the sidewalk vending ordinance.

We coordinated the efforts with the Sheriff Department who was just there to protect our overall safety and be civil standby doing these inspections and enforcement activities.

Next slide, please.

A big portion of what we did with the agencies were we actually met weekly.

We shared our advice, we communicated with one another.

We coordinated the event for the previous days, scheduled, and when you start doing these routine inspections, the vendors actually kind of get in a pattern, try to identify our pattern of when you're coming out.

So we had to mix things up.

So we would mix our timeframe.

So if we go out in the morning instead of going out at 10 to 12, we would go out from 12 to 1.

So we had to coordinate and talk and communicate with one another.

One of the big components of this whole meeting weekly was just the safety and the concerns of the staff.

We did have situations where when we were out there doing our enforcement stuff or get into, you know, some vendors would actually try to prevent staff from confiscating some of the equipment and taking the equipment, and we had one situation where the actual uh sheriff uh officer that was on site was actually in the car.

So the staff was reluctant to actually take the equipment because of fear at that point.

So when we got back to, when they got back to the office, they brought it to my attention, and at the next meeting, we discussed uh having the officers actually be standing with the inspectors when they're doing the enforcement activities, and they did.

And again, we partnered with Alameda County uh Code Enforcement and uh Alameda County Sheriff Office.

Next place.

Next slide, please.

So the enforcement procedures, the main goal of the enforcement procedures is actually just to achieve compliance and educate as many vendors as possible on the pathway of obtaining a permit and just promoting promoting proper food food handling safe handling practices.

Okay.

So the first part of our procedures is observation and identifying the unapproval vendor, identifying the non-compliant of vendor, and really assessing the situation and to ensure public help uh risk when it comes to uh food handling safety practices and sanitation.

We try to educate the vendors as much as possible.

Uh, we issue handouts in multiple languages, English and Spanish.

Uh, we try to invite them to our free info sessions that we have every first month.

Uh, and we just try to make them aware of the rules and the regulations when it comes to uh obtaining the permit.

We document everything on our official inspection reports.

Uh staff has um been trained to actually take photos and document everything.

We typically ask for ID, but uh 10 out of 10 times we don't get it.

But we do note that we encourage the vendors to uh cease and desist the operations and reach out to us to find a pathway to achieving a permit.

So we follow up after we document everything.

This is typically on a different day.

We go out and do a follow-up or reinspections or do a surveillance of an area and we find out that the same vendor is there, uh, that we've already educated and made aware of the pathway to getting the permit.

That's when we take the next step, which is progressive enforcement.

Uh progressive enforcement is really uh just confiscating food and equipment.

And when I say food and equipment, we take everything that we can fit on back of our uh assigned vehicles and that will fit in our actual dumpsters back at our headquarters at in Alameda.

We take chairs, cups, knives, small grills, we take coolers, we take generators, we take uh grease cooking oil.

I mean, we take it all.

Like the director said earlier, uh, we actually can't we don't have the means to take the larger equipment, but we do break them down into pieces and actually take the grill.

The grapes and the metal parts and the piping, plumbing to it.

On a slide later in the presentation, you'll see what I mean.

Next slide, please.

So during the poly plan, we had actually eight uh environmental health specialists assigned to this daily.

Um we also had other staff available if needed, but we never needed as many.

Again, we have four inspectors per shift.

We had two county vehicles that were assigned to actually just support each uh the environmental inspectors when it comes to the confiscation and of the food and equipment.

We always go back to the California Retail Code.

We we call Calco and the Alameda County ordinance.

Uh again, we are for his resources.

We had our official inspection report where we documented everything.

We never got to the point where we we uh created uh notice of violations because you know, we couldn't get any IDs or information to of who to draft for you know week two.

So that was never we never got it never escalated to that point.

Um, we had our handouts in both, like I said, in both English and Spanish that we always issue out and try to educate the operator as unpermitted operators as much as possible.

We always always uh refer them to our free info sessions that we have.

Um one of the resources was just the ability to be able to coordinate between agencies, uh, took a lot of stress off the department, it ensured our safeties and it just made everything seem seamless when we were doing this pilot plan here.

Um we had our county dumpsters that Mr.

Brother alluded to earlier in his slide where we we brought all the food back to the facilities and uh dispose of it in our dumpsters.

Uh we also had access to household has its waste facility uh for special waste streams like generators.

I mean, you can't throw a generator in the trash, you can't stay store it.

I mean, discard electric waste in the trash.

Can't just dump the cooking oil into the organic waste bin.

So we have to take these things back to the house OAS waste facility and dispose of them properly.

Next slide, please.

All right, some of the highlights, like I said earlier, is just quite being able to coordinate with uh other local agency and partnering with one another to make sure that we uh are all safe, make sure we're educating the unapproved vendors and making sure we're trying to put them on the right path to compliance and just being able to um focus on education, that was key.

A lot of times it's hard to actually take food from these individuals that are unpermitted vendors on site.

So one of the most important things environmental help do is we really try to educate and try to find a pathway for them if possible.

Some of the operations you see on site are out on the sidewalks or in alleys or public right-of-ways.

There's probably no means to permitting them, but we try to come in and uh have them to come in and try to talk to the department about finding a pathway.

And uh one of the highlights also were just increasing awareness.

I do know the unpermitted vendors are aware that they need a permit.

They're aware that we're out there doing what we're supposed to be doing, but I can't say that they've came in and followed our uh directions and and actually achieved the actual permit.

But I know they're aware.

We've been out there, we've handed out flyers, we we always encourage in the info section, free info session again.

Um, so the next steps is just to evaluate our plan a little more, see what we can do more, uh, continue coordinating our efforts with enforcement, um, try to strengthen our compliance strategies with just trying to get other agencies involved.

Um, there's other agencies that out there that have the means to confiscate the largest pieces of equipment that you'll see on the slot showing in a few.

If we can get them to join this alliance that we already have with code enforcement and the sheriff department, it it would help and ease uh uh help with actually compliance and enforcement.

Next slide, please.

So the outcome of the pilot plan.

We went out 16 days and did uh field investigations.

We had eight days that were not that were that were canceled due to weather, two were due to weather, and I think code enforcement has some staff emergencies that they were dealing with.

So we didn't go out on eight scheduled days.

We drafted um, we cut we conducted 29 official inspection inspections, and they all resulted in an impoundment of food.

Everybody that we visited were repeat offenders.

Um before the pilot plan, we had three complaints that the department had to receive for these uh unincorporated areas, uh San Lorenzo, I mean Cashell Valley and San Lorenzo.

After the pilot plan, I think we've received warrants so far.

Um we devoted 224 hours of field work to this pilot plan.

Um, we on a good note, we did receive three uh calls from the public identifying and appreciating our efforts when we were out educating and enforcement doing our enforcement activities.

Next slide, please.

Um estimated garbage.

We we probably estimated about 5,400 pounds of garbage were collected, eight eight thousand pounds of organic waste, thousand uh 350 pounds of recyclables.

Um, many of the actual small stands and carts during this particular time when we were doing the pilot, they didn't come back.

They didn't show up.

We actually had some of our uh weekly meetings.

Um several of the other uh local agencies brought that up and mentioned that hey, it doing the pilot plan, it really decreased the amount of vendors that were out there.

But I hate to say it, the larger tents, the more organized vendors they did uh resume operations.

So it's gonna be continued enforcement and education and for these uh vendors, unfortunately.

Uh next slide, please.

This is actually the schedule of enforcement days.

If you as you if you look, you can see we we did some in the morning, we did some in the afternoons, and there's days where we did both in morning and after afternoon.

And again, we focus on Castle Valley Boulevard and Redwood Road and Basel Grande and Hisparian and San Lorenzo.

Next slide, please.

These are some of the the pictures of the more organized vendor that uh are a little more persistent than the smaller carts and the actual stand that continue to come back no matter how much food we take.

If you look at this picture right here, everything you see except the, I call it a large urn, it's the stick the stick cooking or griddle or steam tables on the next slide.

Everything you see we confiscated, we take.

Next slide, please.

Except this.

We don't have the means to take this.

So what we do is if you see to the right, we're actually uh break it up and cut it up in parts, so in smaller parts and pieces that we can so that we can take and load it on our truck and dispose of it uh in our dumpsters back at the office.

So next slide, please.

This is actually a picture of the same vendors uh from the first two pictures, if I'm not mistaken.

The brawler we take, the cups we take, the chopping board we take, the lids we take, the food containers we take, pretty much everything.

Next slide, please.

Same vendor, same thing.

Next slide, please.

This is uh unapproved vendors on Paso Grande, Hisparian Boulevard.

Again, you see our staff educating and trying to try to direct them in the right pathway to achieving and obtaining a permit.

Next slide, please.

If you see the actual grill right there, we don't have the means to take that, but again, if you notice the grills and the compartments of it are missing, the gentleman here in the picture has cut it up in many pieces and tuck as much as we could.

Uh, we take everything but except that grill, and also it shows you a good picture of actual the sheriff department being there providing that simple civil standby and the protect protection that is so needed.

Next slide, please.

Um, this is one of the more persistent vendors on Paso Grande, right here.

Um, again, you see the staff out trying to educate and and lead them on the path to obtaining the permit.

Next slide, please.

This is staff again with the sheriff department and code enforcement on this day.

Those are the vehicles we use to confiscate the food.

Those are the containers that we put the food in.

Those are the bags that we have to put the food in to discard of.

So this is uh this was actually every local agency involved at this particular site.

Uh coordinated effort here.

Uh next slide, please.

This is some night activity.

We went out at nighttime.

Just showing if you see the metals in the tough skid, that's from that broiler that have the euro with the meat on it.

So that just uh goes to show you that we're taking everything we possibly can uh to encourage the individuals to um take the right path of achieving a permit.

Uh next slide, please.

More night activity, more food waste, more equipment.

Next slide, please.

Uh this is actually where we do we did a couple days of surveillance doing a pilot plan.

Actually, on the right, that's Paseo Grande and uh Hisparian Boulevard.

If you notice there's no one there, there are several days that we went out doing this pilot plan because they knew we were coming out and there was no activity.

But if you look at the picture on the left on uh Redwood Road and Castro Vullivat, that one vendor with the red tent is persistent.

He no matter how many times we're taking the food and the waste, they still show up.

Next slide, please.

This is back at our facility.

This is where we uh discard all the waste and the food.

Um if you look at the blue bin, that's our recycled bin.

Actually, you can't tell it from here.

Actually, that's a small grill on the other side of that tub.

If you see the red uh units, those are actually generators that we can't throw in the trash that we have to haul to our household hazardous waste facility.

And then you'll see the uh like a five-gallon grease container, which also has to be um taken to the household hazardous waste facilities.

In the bottom and top, you see coolers to the right, you see trash can.

So we're taking um, we're doing everything in our power to educate, but we're also having to take the equipment to uh we have to escalate things to enforcement activities, which is confiscating the equipment.

So with that said, we had to actually, like Mr.

Browder stated earlier, we actually had to upgrade all our bins to accommodate this waste.

Um, there were days we went out to do confiscation on the days that we were doing tour days.

Um we had no space in some of these bins.

I wish I had those pictures at that point.

So we would actually have to bag the waste up and keep it in the trailers, the beds of the truck until the uh the bins were picked up on the scheduled day.

Then we would take the waste out of the truck and dumping into the empty bin at that point.

Um, next slide, please.

Permitting application process.

If you want to achieve a mobile food permit, uh community event sponsor permit or a TFF permit, these are the linked.

If you go to these links, we have step-by-step process.

We have images that you saw on the earlier slide of push carts, trailers, uh MFF trucks, uh stands.

So if you go to these websites, you can find the pathway to obtaining a permit.

Um, also, we have the complaint link here and the number to call if you have a complaint.

So if you see unapproval vendors out there, feel free to call the health department.

Uh, our policies is we have to address all complaints within 24 to 48 hours.

So somebody is going to go out and first do what?

Educate if they're not, they haven't uh been educated.

And if they've been educated, we it's it's escalated to progressive enforcement, which is taking their food and their equipment.

And then if you have a foodborne illness or you think someone had food one partners pausing, or you see improper hand washing or improper food practices, call the environmental health department.

We we have to go out.

All those complaints you saw on the chart from 2024, all of them have to be addressed in the bait.

Okay, thank you.

Next slide, please.

All right.

Questions.

Okay.

Thanks for the uh comprehensive presentation.

Yeah, I know um I have uh questions and comments, but I'm gonna start with supervisor um uh Lena Tam, um, so she can answer questions and comments, because I have I have quite a few, because I was taking notes as you went through the report.

Then we'll go to the um public.

Um thank you for the presentation.

Uh I know our office worked uh for over almost two years with uh one of the residents, um, I think Keith Barrels is here on the sidewalk vendor ordinance.

So uh the in the situation with Paseo Grande and this parent and I understand each each situation is unique or situational, but you said that was a multi-agency enforcement effort.

Can you kind of describe, did it start with a complaint from a resident and and then there was an inspection, or was it like repeat progressive enforcement that was needed to a point before you confiscated all the equipment and uh ma'am?

It was everything you just uh identified uh prior to the pilot plan, the reason for the pilot plan was a continuous uh enforcement that was needed in those areas because of the unapproved vendors.

So we had went out probably for months prior to the pilot plan and try to educate uh as many of the unapproved vendors as possible.

So during the pilot plan, that's why every uh enforcement activity led to the impounding of food.

We had already did education multiple times at this point.

So yes, you were right.

And we do receive complaints, so I I think it triggered with complaints from that were received by code enforcement, complaints that were received by the sheriff office, complaints that were received by environmental health.

So we saw the severity of the issue, and so we we tried to uh coordinate our efforts and see what we could do in that those particular areas.

Um, at some point is there a way to like impound uh some of the equipment instead of trying to destroy it or put it on like you know, like toe a zones, you tow what car, you have to pay a certain amount to get it back.

Is there some way in which you could do that?

Because some of the equipment I know uh we have a hard time disposing of it because as you said, with generators, it's hazardous materials, but it seems like if it's a working generator, um putting that to waste is not necessarily always the better.

We don't have the capacity, we don't have a storage facility.

Uh so that's something we may have to entertain in the future.

I have to speak to the director about that, but right now we're not set up to store anything, we all have office spaces.

I I wasn't thinking about uh your agency specifically.

Uh-huh.

Cause like public works often contracts with tow away agencies or the sheriff and then they bring it to a vendor and you have to once you get towed, you get cited and you go to the location to retrieve your car.

Yes, I I can't speak for public works, but I welcome the opportunity to coordinate with public works.

If we could take our full regulatory authority and they can take their means and capacity with their uh equipment and storage facility, hey, we can get together and that would be a great.

But I can't speak on their behalf, um, unfortunately.

So I'm gonna go through the report.

I'm gonna have um notations, ask questions because I'm confused.

First of all, why do we have these laws?

Why do we have these laws?

Why don't we just have them null and void?

Why do we have these laws?

Which was can you be specific about which law you're talking about?

There are a lot of laws.

Well, why do we have them?

Why is environmental health have laws that you're enforcing when it comes to food?

For the safety of the public.

For the safety of the public.

That's right.

And if the public's not safe, what happens?

It's not a leading question.

If the public is not safe because there's bad food, what happens?

Uh people get sick.

And if people get sick, what happens?

They go to the hospital.

And then what happens?

And everything gets expensive.

Can they die?

And die.

Okay, all right.

Okay.

So we need these laws, right?

Oh, that's for sure.

And do we need these laws enforced?

That's for sure.

Okay, all right.

And are you a public servant?

Yes, I am.

The taxpayers pay your salary.

We're a fee-based organization.

Okay, because the money comes into the county, right?

Okay.

Now, I've heard a lot about partner agencies, or all the partner agencies part of the county.

And are we county supervisors?

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

I just want to understand, because I'm a little confused.

We've got laws that need to be enforced.

Because if they are enforced, people can get sick.

If people get sick, they can go to the hospital, they go to the hospital, it gets costly, and people can die.

Okay, I just want to make sure we're clear on that.

And we are the county.

And we have are we responsible for these laws?

We're responsible for enforcing those laws that are in our jurisdiction.

Just want to make sure, because I'm I'm confused.

You know, don't mind me.

I'm just confused.

I'm a I'm a you know, I'm um I'm older adult, and I'm a little confused.

Now, do people who are out here they have to get two permits?

Because I think I I looked through here, and you were talking about if you're a sidewalk vendor, do you have to get both a food permit and a sidewalk vending permit, or just one permit?

Well, I can speak for the uh the health permit, which is which is issued by environmental health.

Most recently there was an ordinance that created the sidewalk vending ordinance.

Yeah, so created a vending permit.

So if they're out here vending on the sidewalks, then they typically need two permits.

And you start with environmental health, and then you can use that permit to go and apply for your sidewalk vending.

Um, and that's applicable in the unincorporated area, because other jurisdictions might not have a sidewalk vending permit.

True.

Right, okay, okay.

Um, just want to make sure I'm I'm clear on this because like I said, uh it's been a long day.

I was in San Francisco at the MTC meeting, then I had a reparations committee meeting, then an A-bag meeting.

So it's been a long day.

This is you know, my fourth public meeting around issues, so I'm a little dizzy this evening, so I just want to make sure I'm good on this stuff now.

You're telling me vendors can be out there disregarding the law, and nothing happens to them.

No, I didn't say that.

Otherwise, we'd be up.

We wouldn't be doing what we're doing.

As I thought in one slide, we heard about I don't know what slide number it is, outcome of the pilot.

That um it says all vendors inspected were repeat offenders, hmm, interesting.

So if they're repeat offenders, then you can just continue to repeat this, and there are no consequences because you're on you know me, and I don't like bad behavior.

It really bothers me.

Bad behavior.

You can't reward bad behavior.

So it's okay, just uh it's okay.

Just disregard the environmental health, disregard the community, disregard the law, it's okay.

Is it or isn't it?

It's not okay, okay.

And the reason uh, first of all, for the education is to make sure that we provide due process so they understand the next time that we come out, we're gonna be doing enforcement.

Oh they've been made aware of the next step, okay.

Okay, but are they still a repeat offenders?

There are defenders.

How many repeat offenders do we have?

Do you know?

No idea.

Okay, all right.

Now, we talk about storage, we talk about not enough resources, talking about all this stuff.

Have you come to the Board of Supervisors saying you need more money?

You need more this, that, and the other, so you can do your job.

Yes or no?

We haven't.

We try to uh use our own resources as well.

I want you to come to the board of supervisors and say you need more money so you can do your job.

Because people hold me accountable, they hold her accountable.

And if you can't do your job, then if if you can't do your job because you don't have enough resources, we need to know that.

Because I'm pretty upset about this, and maybe, maybe being upset is disum, what's the word?

Um, not necessary because I'm wrong.

I'm just totally wrong.

I'm confused, I'm off basis here with all this.

Because the report I saw you've given us today, it makes it seem like everything is pretty good.

And that's not what I hear from people now.

You're saying other jurisdictions are experiencing the same problems, other your colleagues in other counties, right?

Correct.

Okay, what are we doing to try to get those?

I gotta watch my language, those people up in Sacramento to understand the difficulties we have here in the communities and the local level to deal with these problems.

Are we doing anything?

I think those three laws pretty much tell the story.

But can we, you have an association, the county board of supervisors, we have CSAC, we have others.

Can we begin to use our associations to see if we can try to get some of these laws modified?

If they're really, if they're really if these laws are not uh impacting health and safety, then let's not worry about it.

But if they are, we've got to do something about it.

So I need I need to know are the laws uh impacting health and safety.

At this point, yes.

Okay.

That's on the record.

I hope I hope everybody heard that.

I hope um this is this is being recorded.

Because these laws are impacting health and safety, and that's important, because if if if you can't do your job, if you can't um deal with uh food that's contaminated or potentially contaminated, this that and the other, people can get sick, people can end up in a hospital, people can end up a society costing more money, and people can die.

I'm I'm really annoyed that environmental, is environmental health on the on the line.

Did Daniel go?

Public works, not environmental health, public works, because this because we are the county, and if public works isn't helping you out, I need to understand why.

And if code enforcement's not doing their job, I need to understand why.

And I know the sheriff's an elected official, but if they aren't doing their job, I need to understand why.

Because I do know your inspectors need protection, and I saw a lot of that, so that might not be the issue.

And we're not asking people to show their IDs, you're asking them, do you have a permit?

And if they don't have a permit, you educate them, and if they keep repeating, then we've got to be able to do something about it.

So, as I indicated, those three laws basically don't allow us to do much unless there's an issue with safety.

And because the food is not from an approved source and the equipment that is being prepared on is not approved by us, our enforcement duties are in play, okay.

Well, we gotta we've we've got to figure out uh using a strike team approach.

Um, so if people are blocking the sidewalks, that's not your job, but that's a job of somebody else.

Make sure they aren't blocking the sidewalks.

If they're in the street, that's somebody else's job.

If they're on private property, it's somebody else's job.

If the food is bad, then that's your job.

That's our job.

Yeah, or if they don't have all the necessary safety standards and equipment to deal with the food, um, that's your job.

If they don't have a permit, that's your job.

And you're offering education, and I know um economic and civic development through the community development agency will offer opportunities for people to get brick and mortar to get trained so you can get brick and mortar.

Because I'm we're not saying we don't want people to be gainfully employed to be entrepreneurs, this that and the other, but we do need people to obey the law.

Because if folks don't obey the law, there are consequences for the greater good, the greater society.

We can all end up sick and dead.

You've heard of the Ebola situation in Africa, right?

Yeah.

Environmental health.

If we had an outbreak of something here, it would be public health and environmental health that would be looking at situations like this.

Correct.

Yeah.

And we are the county, right?

Correct.

Okay.

I'm sorry to put you on the spot, but I'm I'm I'm I'm just trying to understand why we aren't doing our jobs.

And maybe you're doing the job to the best of your ability, and now you need to tell the supervisors you need more resources so you can do your job better.

And if the laws we have locally aren't sufficient enough, then we need to modify those laws locally if we can.

And if we can't, then we need to go up to Sacramento, maybe do both.

I need to ask County Council.

If the county's not doing it, um enforcing its laws, and this is a regulatory body, can we be sued?

Come on over here.

Come on over here.

I'm I'm trying to understand this because I'm confused.

I'm really confused.

This is a regulatory body, and if we aren't enforcing the laws and something happens, can we be sued?

Anyone can file a lawsuit.

Okay.

That's just the reality.

Whether the county could be liable for failing to enforce the law, it really depends.

Yeah.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Can.

Can somebody act as a private attorney general and force us to do something?

For a regulatory program like this?

Yes.

I get it's gonna depend.

I don't know the offset.

No, Andy, you're not gonna come out here and give a legal opinion.

But all I'm saying is if the county's not doing its job, people end up getting hurt and injured and and die or whatever, we can be liable for that.

And if the county's not doing its job, I would think the public could bring a private attorney general action against the county for not doing its job.

So whether it'd be successful, I I can't know.

I can't say up to it.

Um there was a you you can go back and sit down, Andy.

Um recurring noncompliant operators who continue to violate the law even after citations and confiscation.

I why is that?

It's in your slide here.

Under challenges with unpermitted sidewalk mobile vendors, recurring noncompliant operators who continue to violate laws even after citations and confiscating confiscations.

Well, I can tell you uh confiscation of the food and equipment, they've already factored into their business plan.

Okay.

Well, maybe I need to ask county council to look in.

Maybe we need to strengthen laws and see if we can arrest these people.

I'm I'm getting serious about this now, because if you've done everything you can do and they're still disregarding you, I need to see if we can bring penalties against them.

I'm in complete agreement with you because once we've established that they don't have a permit and that their processes and operations are unsafe, then yes.

Okay, and and I know environmental health has responsibility for all over the county, not just unincorporated area, everywhere.

And all we are focused on at this meeting is the unincorporated area, because we are the government in the unincorporated area.

It's not like you gotta run to a mayor or city council.

We are the government, so in that incorporate area, the buck stops with us, so in that corporate area, we try to establish the standards that we expect in that corporate area, and I'm saying it's only because I don't want to put a jurisdiction on on um blast, but I was walking the lake, Lake Merritt on Sunday, and I betcha all the food benefit vendors are out there, and there were a lot of them.

I betcha.

They were, they didn't have permits.

I betcha, I bet you, but I'm not concerned about Oakland.

Oh, I shouldn't have said that.

I live in Oakland, but I'm not concerned about Oakland.

Uh, we have uh some enforcement activities scheduled for Oakland cover.

And I do know you need you need law enforcement because you've had inspectors threatened.

I mean, I remember an inspector going to a food facility and being killed, being shot and killed.

So I know you need protection.

And people don't want to give up their food, uh, their products, their equipment, um, willingly.

But if they're not abiding the law, then they it's gotta be consequences and accountability.

Let's see if there's anything else.

Would it now on another slide?

You're talking about you haven't been able to issue any NOVs.

And why is that?

Explain that to me.

We don't have a name to issue them to.

You then why don't we have a name to issue them to?

You won't show us ID won't sign our inspection reports.

Okay.

So we need to figure out how to deal with that county council.

You heard this?

They go out and do their job, they confiscate stuff, they educate, they do everything, but people disregard it.

They can't issue an NOV because there's no ID, there's no name, there's no can you look.

If they have a truck or a vehicle, can we look at their license plate?

But you don't do that.

That would be up to the sheriff's department.

Okay, because we gotta figure out who these people are and hold them accountable, and like I said, we want to get people in brick and mortar, we want to get people trained, we won't have people do the right thing, because if they don't do the right thing, it could be consequences for all the rest of us, correct?

And if they don't do the right thing, then why should people obey the traffic laws?

Why should people um people should just illegally dump?

People should just do anything.

I mean, let's just have chaos.

Oh boy.

I told Ashley, I wasn't gonna get upset.

Done.

I'm done.

You have anything else to say at the moment because I'm gonna call the public and see what they gotta say.

Tomorrow we're actually asking their department to help us close a 91.5 million dollar budget deficit, which includes cuts to their department.

So asking them to ask for more while we're making cuts is a little hard.

Well, we gotta.

Well, maybe we should revisit that.

Yeah, because we know we we know where we can get some money.

We've also asked them to help contribute to the Alameda Health Systems problems.

Well, maybe we we just need to deal with that supervisor.

This is my favorite supervisor.

I'll stay out of this one.

So it's called fun.

Bill Mulgrew.

Thank you, supervisors.

Appreciate the report from environmental health.

I just um I don't think I can say anything that Supervisor Miley hasn't said.

Um, but I would say that uh as a Castro Valley resident, I hear more about this issue than pretty much any other uh civic issue.

And uh it's been heard for two years, it's long past time, as you were saying, to um disregard cants, can't do it because the bags are expensive, can't do it because we have dumpster issues, can't do it because we don't have enough people to patrol and and sight on weekends.

It's it's long past that for the reasons that you said people think we're a joke, uh, that we don't enforce our own laws.

So I'm I'm encouraging um the unincorporated services committee to ask for the information that will lead to eliminating the problem.

If if the dumpsters we have aren't sufficient, how many do you need?

If plastic bags are expensive, is there an alternative way?

Whatever the answers are to, I can't, you know, it can't be done, need to be figured out.

Um it's way past time to say, um, gee, we still need to think about this.

No, we need solutions.

We need an action plan that says this will eliminate the problem.

Thank you.

Keith Barrows.

First of all, I want to say that our that the situation, by the way, my name is Keith Barrows.

I'm here representing uh San Lorenzo Village, uh, also known as ground zero for this issue.

Um, I want to I'm very I'm very appreciative that uh the situation has gotten better than what it was.

We had as many of 19 vendors all at once out there in the Paseiro Grande uh area.

It has improved.

Um there is still room uh for improvement as uh supervisor supervisor, and I want to thank uh Lena Thames office for drafting this ordinance.

I want to thank um uh Supervisor Miley for in the very beginning, he and I had the same philosophy.

Is if we if it doesn't have any teeth, it's not gonna have any effect.

They've the people have known all this time that they need the permits, they just don't doing it, uh they're just not doing it.

We need uh we need teeth, and I'm very grateful that uh Supervisor Miley had three meetings before this.

So he's uh so his views were short.

Um I'm very grateful for that.

Anyway, we were told a long time ago as far as the number of complaints is concerned.

We were told a long time ago early on that it was no good to complain, and people stopped complaining.

Believe me, there are there are more people that are that are uh upset about this that call in and complain uh because they've thought that it was useless and they gave up a long time ago.

Uh but uh like Supervisor Miley, yeah, we've had three years of pussyfooting around with this thing, and it's uh and it's time to get strong.

Um, I heard something the one of the gentlemen said that uh you have to have a community event to have vending.

I can answer that later, please.

But I don't know how you cite somebody without with no ID.

I I don't understand how that's how do you determine their repeat offender?

Uh also you you're besides taking the food, the people have a barbecue out there.

I understand you're taking pieces of it.

I understand that your equipment consists of two pickup trucks, those are your vehicles, put a trailer hitch on the back of the damn thing, and you can you can you can literally drive the tow the barbecue away, bring a fire extinguisher too, because you probably shouldn't tow something that's on fire.

Um, probably not a good idea.

Um I would like I I would like the supervisors to direct uh Daniel uh at public works to work with these agencies, and and uh that could be your capacity.

And by the way, if you do tow the vehicle, and if you do tow the barbecue, also okay, also tow the also tow the vehicle.

If you tow their vehicle and it gets impounded, that's gonna make a change.

Diane?

Uh yes, this is Diane Weinler and San Lorenzo.

I just want to say thank you, Supervisor Miley for hitting the nail on the head.

I thought I was the only person who was confused.

Thank you.

Hi, good evening, everyone.

This is Michael Freed from uh Cherry Land from Hampton Road.

Um, yeah, I agree with a lot of the stuff that was been said, and the uh the venting that's going on with uh Mr.

Miley is warranted for sure.

Anyway, um just one question I have is has there been any interface or connectivity with uh waste management to see if they can uh offer some some of their big trucks to pick up stuff, kind of like on the uh bulky pickup situation, they could uh schedule it within minutes of you know, having that as a possibility, they could haul the stuff away and take it to the Davis uh facility and have it broken down or sorted out or and in uh also in agreement uh with uh supervisor TAM's uh concern about confiscating stuff which is operable, like generators.

We're gonna need to be self-sufficient pretty much when the next big one hits, and so there may be a yard which could impound those things indefinitely until the need arises where we really need to start generating our own uh electricity in case of an emergency.

So possibly there's a lot of possibilities for sorting this stuff out, not just throwing it at a dumpster.

Period, we're done.

That's that's too easy a fix, and I don't think that serves anybody.

Anyway, I'd appreciate all the work you folks are doing and hope we can come up with a safer environment.

Uh one of the thing I thought of was possibly taking some of the spot checking some of the products like the chicken and the meat and stuff that's being handled and spot checking it for uh for its inadequately you know cooked uh you know quality or whatever, in case that might actually even those people that are permitted might put them on notice they really have to be careful with their thermometers, make sure everything is in in compliance, just to make it doable.

We add too many restrictions, nobody's gonna be able to operate even a brick and mortar.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

Thank you very much for your time.

I have no additional speakers for this item.

Okay.

Um, you have anything else you want to say any questions?

All right.

So I know on one of the slides, it showed challenges with unpermitted food vendors, number of complaints received.

Um, the number of complaints have gone down, but you know, it's also curious that certain jurisdictions don't have any complaints.

Um, and that might, and you know, I don't know, it could be a reason for that.

And then we also heard that from some of our speakers here that some folks have just stopped complaining because uh they didn't think anything was gonna happen.

Um, and the reason this gets me so upset is because it's health and safety.

And when it comes to health and safety, um, I mean, I'm sorry, I just don't play.

When it comes to health and safety, I just don't play.

And I want our staff to be able to do their job.

If they can't do the job because they have the resources, then that falls on me.

If they can't do the job because of the jurisdictions that are within the county family are not helping them out, then that's on on us.

So we we've got to give them a better handle on this.

Um, because if uh people end up getting sick or whatever, dying or whatever, then that's on us.

And it's not like we're trying to penalize people for selling food.

Just get a permit.

Just get a permit, do it the right way.

That's all we're saying.

Go to the information sessions, go to a community development agency, and they they'll help you learn how to get into a brick and mortar.

We have resources to work with people on that.

We have training in two different departments that work on that.

Environmental health department and the economic and civic development department.

Just do the right thing.

That's what we're looking for.

Do the right thing so it saves us from other people having consequences that produce a public health issue.

We're looking for folks to do things for the public good.

Not because we want to be mean, evil, or whatever.

It's for the public good.

There's a reason it's called the public good.

So I don't I've been waiting for this report to come to this committee.

It's come, and um, I hopefully with Supervisor TAM's support, we'll be able to follow up on some of this and see what we can do to help um environmental health and the other allied county agencies do a better job.

The pilot showed results, but unless the community is pleased with the results and stop talking to me about it, I'm not pleased with the results.

That's it.

Okay, all right.

Let's go to our next item.

Once again, thank you, Environmental Health, for your thorough report this evening.

Okay.

Um recommendations, information report recommendations for an unincorporated community coordination pilot.

Okay.

All right.

Is this working?

Great, Tisa.

Thank you.

Okay, I think I'm ready.

Everyone's ready, yeah.

Um, hi supervisor.

Well, Supervisor Tam went, but Supervisor Riley, Supervisor Tam, members of the community.

Uh, thank you for the opportunity to be here today.

Um, and especially uh thank you for the opportunity to contribute to a project that I know is rooted in many years of community advocacy.

My name is Brianne Gala for those of you who I haven't had the chance to meet, and I've uh spent the last 15 years working at the intersection of community development, public policy, and affordable housing, with more than a decade of that here in Alameda County's unincorporated communities.

I'm here under contract uh with the Board of Supervisors through District 4 to present my research and recommendations for an unincorporated communities coordination pilot.

And I will talk more about the name change uh later.

Uh next slide, please.

Um here's just an overview of my presentation for the today.

I'll be going over some high-level kind of framing and context setting, the research and findings that I undertook.

I'll lay out the original proposal, which was the proposal that the community has uh saw before that went to the MAX, and then I'll give an updated set of recommendations before we have questions, and um there are a few uh issue areas that I'm hoping the supervisors can weigh in on.

Next slide, please.

Um, just to zoom out a little bit, and for those of you who didn't attend one of the MAC meetings, um, I just want to go over some of the project objectives.

Uh the first one was to research and evaluate the current gaps and challenges with how Alameda County governs its unincorporated communities.

The second um was to propose recommendations for improving Alameda County's coordination, how it manages its services and investments and programs, and then to propose an implementation strategy that is rooted in equity, government efficiency, and responsive to community voice.

This project is really an attempt to answer the call for Alameda County to step up to its role as the municipal government.

So just a bit of context setting.

Um this work builds on analysis and commitments that the Board of Supervisors has already made.

Uh, two prior actions are directly relevant.

The first is the Baker Tilly report, which uh the Board of Supervisors Commission to examine the county's development services and permitting review process, and that one of its kind of core main recommendations is that it found that someone really needs to be in charge of the whole process.

It called explicitly for a dedicated county role to convene agencies and track commitments across departments.

And then we also have the board adopted uh environmental justice element, which was adopted in late 2024, which has a specific priority action that explores that calls for exploring organizational changes within the county, such as potentially establishing an office of unincorporated services.

So, again, this project is in direct response to both of these directions and is really the implementation of the work the board has already initiated and adopted.

Next slide, please.

Here's a high-level overview of how I pursued the research, did a big organizational scan.

Again, this included looking at all the different neighborhood and district-specific plans, the EJ element, Vision 2036, Baker Tilly.

There's a lot, the unincorporated communities are large and uh very distinct.

So a large organizational scan.

I also interviewed over 40 staff at various levels of county government, um, different agencies, and I'll kind of show that in a minute.

Third, I directly participated in the unincorporated budget input process in the fall of 2025, which included a numerous different community workshops as well as presentations and engagements with all the MACs.

This was a great opportunity to hear from community members about their priorities and what they want to bring into this process as well.

And then also interviews with other counties across the state who have large unincorporated communities and are kind of a similar blend of kind of urban and rural.

Next slide, please.

Let's see.

I won't walk through all of this, but this just shows the breadth and depth of the different interviews that I conducted for this project.

All of you know the different board offices were engaged, the different countywide agencies that provide countywide services as well as municipal services, the Reach Ashland Youth Center, special districts like Hard, and then again the other counties that I'll walk through in a bit.

So really the interview process was intensive and and the consistent there was a lot of consistency across what I heard across all the interviews, which really gives me a lot of confidence in the findings.

Here is a oh things, sorry, TISA.

Here is a look at the other counties just to give a bit of context.

Again, tried to pick different counties that kind of tried different models but also our similar blend of urban and rural.

So first, we have just to kind of ground us in Alameda, Alameda County has 150,000 people living in its unincorporated communities.

That's about 8% of the county's population.

We have our advisory councils, but no dedicated coordination function.

If we look to Marin County, of course, a much smaller county, but we see 16%, so a quite a bit greater percentage of its population lives in its unincorporated communities.

And what they have done is create two positions within their executive office, one dedicated to their urban unincorporated communities and another to their rural areas.

We can look at LA, which of course is a much larger county, has about a million people living in its unincorporated communities, but a similar percentage.

And they too have added capacity in their executive branch in a policy alignment and implementation branch within their chief executive's office.

And Sacramento has is a really different situation, but has um 30% of its residents live in the unincorporated communities, and again, they probably took they were really the outlier in the research.

They created like a mega agency where they tried to break down silos by merging different agencies and creating more oversight at the executive level.

So, next slide, please.

The engagement with other counties really presented opportunities to learn from counties that have been doing this for five to ten years longer than Alameda County.

First, the top practice was really to create structures to improve interdepartmental coordination, to triage complex issues, to clarify responsibility, and to address gaps in service delivery.

One thing that all of these counties, which is the second bullet here emphasized, is that whatever model we pick needs to be flexible, it needs to be able to adjust as we go, as we learn.

And so I'm really recommending a model that is framed more as a pilot, as you saw in the title, that aims to be flexible and adaptive as we test and learn.

And lastly, finally, leadership from the Board of Supervisors is critical in every county that made real progress.

The board mandated that agency and department directors participate in the coordination structures that were created.

And that signal from the top is really what made these efforts work.

Next slide, please.

The longer report, which was provided, has uh many, many more findings and uh would take a long time to get through, but today I just want to lay out um three of the core findings, and they really all point to the same root cause.

The first finding is around um fragmented governance in the unincorporated communities.

There is no single entity that's responsible for setting vision for coordinating departments, for ensuring accountability across the unincorporated communities.

Often board offices get pulled into operational roles to resolve issues that should have been addressed earlier before they kind of erupt into these crises.

The second finding is that, and we heard this, you know, a bit in the previous presentation, is that there are these complex issues that cross departmental lines.

The most common ones mentioned, actually, the first one was the sidewalk vending ordinance, second was development and permitting review, third were issues like flooding, environmental issues, where really you have many different departments and agencies that need to work together, and they often stall without an identified and designated lead.

The third finding is what I'm calling a communication breakdown.

There is no centralized communication system.

And so residents often navigate a patchwork of different agency and department-specific outreach, or they get passed between agencies while trying to find the right contact.

There is not a central kind of hub for information.

And so, really, all of these findings point to the same root cause.

There isn't anybody or a function within the county government that's in charge of the whole picture.

Next slide, please.

Here are a couple more concrete examples of this government breakdown and areas for improvement.

One that was mentioned is that we adopted the county adopted the environmental justice element.

This was a really important piece of work for the community.

It requires you know five or six different departments within CDA, public works, public health, to really drive implementation forward, and we know that planning helped create the plan, but like isn't necessarily in charge of coordinating the coordinating the implementation.

So you see these gaps in implementation when we create plans that then need to move to implementation and there isn't anyone in charge.

We talked a little bit about development and permitting reform already and the Baker Tilly recommendations, but again, those really call on public works, planning, environmental health, and fire to be in better alignment and coordination.

Right now, there has been some progress made on that, but there are still gaps around who's really driving coordination.

And then we mentioned complex issues.

Here I'm identifying flooding and Synol, but there's a whole set of them that don't have an identified lead.

There isn't a single agency that really owns the solution.

And so things can kind of feel pretty painful on the community side when these issues don't get resolved.

And another one that kind of came up earlier is and it came up in a lot of the interviews is that too often we adopt policies in the unincorporated community without enough clarity on budgeting and staffing needs, and this leads to uh I think a lot of challenges in the community because we feel like wait, we advocated for certain policies, and then those don't get um maybe implemented as we were imagining, and so there was um a lot of there can be a lot of community frustration.

An example that really comes to mind for me.

I I put sidewalk vending up there, but the one that also jumps out is um code is code enforcement, like code enforcement has the same staffing levels as 10 years ago, but in that time we've adopted you know smoke-free housing, uh cannabis licensing, electronic smoke device ordinances, right?

There's all these new ordinances and not necessarily additional resources, and so there's this misalignment between policy making and budgeting that can be really challenging.

So, in summary, residents in uh Alameda County's unincorporated communities again don't have a single point of accountability in their government.

Unlike our neighboring cities, there isn't this city manager function.

We know, of course, Alameda County does play that role as the local government, but its systems were never set up to function uh like a city.

Um, so this slide, I just want to pause here because I've heard during the community engagement during some of the MAC meetings, kind of a real concern.

Why change a system that's been in place for so long?

And I think it's a fair question, and I and and like, especially when we're talking about concerns around budget and other things, um, I just want to say that, like, the status quo has a cost, the status quo isn't free.

Um, in the current system, issues that should have been addressed often spiral into these kind of what I'm calling small emergencies that the board of supervisors, your district offices are often then pulled into.

There's this kind of reactive crisis management that's more uh expensive than proactive coordination, and complex issues uh persist because no one is structurally accountable, and as we know, uh costs continually go up, so deferred problems often become more expensive problems.

Um, and then finally, I think on this point there's this equity gap, right?

Like our unincorporated residents pay county taxes, they receive county services, but often without the governance infrastructure that our unincorporated neighbors provide their residents, just as a matter of course.

So, next slide, please.

So I think again, central finding a lot of the challenges that I heard from community members, from staff, from leadership, really were not caused by a single agency or a single department.

Again, they stem from these structural gaps in governance in coordination and in alignment, and really the question that I was trying to answer is like how do we design a solution to address these gaps?

So the next slide, please.

Sorry, next one.

Here, so I just want to go over some of the original recommendations that I put out in the full report that was published.

The original recommendations were to establish an office of unincorporated communities as a three-year pilot.

This would be with a more comprehensive scope of work.

So I identified five uh key functions here.

Where's my own five key functions?

One really to represent the unincorporated communities in county tables internally within the county, similar to how cities um represent the interests of their city when talking about policy making, budgeting, resourcing, and to support fundraising from the state, from the federal government to bring more resources into the unincorporated community.

Uh, the second big function was to coordinate on these cross-agency initiatives, right?

Um, better implementing our ordinances, things like the EJ element or development review and permitting reform, flooding, on those kind of more complex cross-agency efforts, uh, really bringing more support and staffing to those and helping drive more agency coordination.

Uh, the third was to create a communications hub again to streamline communications across all of the different municipal serving agencies that provide services in the unincorporated community.

The fourth was to lead the coordination of the MACs and the Citizens Advisory Council and SUNOL.

So, again, staffing and recruitment and agenda setting, all of the coordination office that that's right now kind of spread across different district offices, and then to lead the community uh kind of budget input process.

Um, and so that was kind of the bigger scope of work, three-year pilot.

Um, my recommendation was to integrate the office into the county administrators' office, and to start with a three-person staff, a director, a project manager, and an analyst.

Um, can you go to the next slide?

I'm let's see.

Um, one of kind of the big areas of work was really thinking about where the office should live.

And the community had a lot of opinions on this, and I think um voted in different ways at the different MACs.

My recommendation in order to align with I think where we need uh the need for more authority, the need for this office to have the ability again to coordinate all these different agency and department heads, was really to put it in the county administrators' office.

But I did do some research into creating an independent office as well as placing the office within the community development agency.

And so I can talk more about this in the QA if there's like more questions and about the recommendation to place it in the CAO's office, but did just want to visually show that there were these different considerations.

Um, really looking again at time and implementation feasibility and authority as some of the three criteria that I used when trying to decide what the recommendation would be here.

If you go to the next slide after this, so that original proposal, again, with the the three person staff, the kind of slightly larger scope of work and um was taken on the roadshow to the advisory councils.

Um, here is how the different advisory councils uh voted.

It was an action item.

The Fairview MAC voted in support of uh, where am I here?

Um voted in support of the proposal with the following amendments.

Um they voted to uh they prefer that this office be independent with quarterly reporting and more of a direct line to the board of supervisors.

Um, there was also a call for a dedicated budget item and prioritizing hiring staff from the unincorporated communities.

Uh the Eden MAC voted in support of this proposal.

I think there was an understanding that we were at the beginning of uh we were at the beginning of phase one in the creation of this effort, and so it I think the EDAMAC knew that there would be more time to continue giving input and that this was an iterative process.

So there was um while there was a lot of dialogue and discussion at the MAC meeting, the formal vote was to vote in support.

Um SINOL voted in support with the following amendment, and again, lots of discussion about the value of the office and what it could do and provide, but they voted that the office focus on the urban unincorporated communities and that they would prefer to operate right now as they do in coordination with District One, and Castor Valley voted uh not to support the proposal.

If we go to the next slide, I'll go over some of the key themes.

So I took all of the hours of input from uh from the MAC meetings and will be showing um the updated uh my updated recommendations based on what I heard from the community, but before that, just some high level themes.

Um, there were kind of four kind of main ones I want to highlight.

First is that there was a common thread is that community members and leaders in the community uh were pretty frustrated with unimplemented plans or unresolved coordination issues.

So the proposal was was welcome for taking a systems view or a structural view.

Uh second, there was a range of opinions about how community members would engage with this office.

Right?

You had Eden Mac really wanting more of a physical presence where residents could come and navigate county services.

Whereas, let's say in Castor Valley, there was uh a preference for constituent affairs work staying in the district offices.

So again, kind of different ideas of what the role could be in the community, and I'll talk more about that in my updated uh recommendations.

Um the third one was around authorities.

Some community members really called for the board of supervisors to give uh the office enforceable standing with department heads, not just a coordinating role.

So again, this desire for more accountability, how do we get more accountability, how do we get the outcomes that we feel we deserve, right?

So a lot of the discussion centered on that.

And then finally, there were of course significant differences across the communities as evidenced by the voting.

Um, Sinol's amendment in Castor Valley's no vote, um, and the discussion there really, you know, they reflect real tensions about whether and how this proposal can really adequately uh like serve communities with very different needs and contexts, and so there was a lot of discussion at the Castor Valley Mac in particular about that.

So again, if we go to the next slide, um just want to kind of say that I took there was those were just four themes.

There was a lot to go through from the community meetings and the MAC meetings, um, and really uh just want to kind of highlight three factors that I really took seriously and as I went into the next phase of drafting.

Um, and I also met with the directors of uh like the CDA departments in that time as well and a few other community-based organizations, so right, really taking that all into consideration, and um the first kind of factor that weighed heavily on my updated proposal is that there was really strong agreement about across county staff and community members on about on the report's findings, and but the differences really existed in how and how to solve the chronic problems, right?

So the solutions that were proposed and at the community level were really um not were were really different in that way, but there wasn't really any disagreement about the problems in the research that I discovered through the interview process.

Um, some advisory uh council uh meetings really surfaced a push for hyper-local solutions that were tailored to each community, you know, questions posed like how is this gonna benefit Castor Valley or how is this gonna benefit Sunol?

And I understand that instinct, right, given the different social economic and historical makeups of each community, but again, really trying to stay focused more on the problems that are these problems are really structural, and so the solution that I'm proposing is also structural, it's a structural fix, and so really uh to really take that seriously as I move forward, right?

Like a solution that works better for one community without really improving the underlying system doesn't solve anything, and it really doesn't scale.

And then last item here is that you know many of us I think who are at all the MAC meetings, heard from the CIO's office about the extremely challenging fiscal year that the county is approaching, and so really again trying to think of updates to this proposal that were also realistic given all the federal funding cuts that are coming that are burning our social safety net.

So taking all that together, um, here are my updated set of recommendations.

Next slide, please.

Um, the first is uh to launch as a two-year pilot to test the proof of concept.

Uh the pilot would be focused on a limited set of initiatives with measurable outcomes.

Um, and we would oh wait, maybe we could actually let's just go to the next slide, sorry.

Okay, I think I'm going to okay, great.

Um, so again, starting with a limited set of initiatives with really concrete measurable outcomes to develop a proof of concept.

Um, my proposal is that we uh allocate the resources that are currently identified for an unincorporated services manager in the measure W allocation plan to funding the pilot period for this initiative, and we can talk more about that in the next slide.

Um, if we go to the next slide, here's um the updated scope of work.

I do want to highlight that the updated activities are really aimed at improving internal county operations and ensuring the unincorporated have a uh communities have a stronger voice in county decision making.

Um, so first again, uh improving representation for the unincorporated communities.

Um the staff hired here would really serve as a liaison between the unincorporated communities and kind of the broader county bureaucracy, right?

They would help to drive more alignment internally and they would focus on locating and raising state uh and philanthropic funding.

The second kind of major function would be again to support cross-agency implementation and coordination.

The two focus areas that I'm proposing, again, we could discuss this, is the implementation of the development review and permit reform.

So seeing through the recommendations in the Baker Tilly report, um, that would ideally result in more investment flowing to the unincorporated communities, more housing being built, um, and then also supporting the implementation of the EJ elements, 162 actions that again require this broader coordination across many different departments and agencies.

And the third bucket of work for this pilot would be around advancing the community's request for a more transparency in county budgeting and how county resources are directed to the unincorporated communities and how the community engages with the county budget, so supporting more community engagement in that space.

If we go to the next slide, um, so again, just to kind of highlight what changed from the original, the original proposal had the advisory councils moving and being managed by this proposed office, and what had a three-person team.

I'm now proposing that the management of the advisory councils stay in the district offices, and that we launch again with a two-person pilot team utilizing the measure W funds, again, given the county budget and county fiscal constraints.

And in order, I mean, knowing that it's gonna be a two-person team, again, tried to pick the the area, this it's like narrow the scope of work a little bit to really areas that are focused on internal improvements and higher impact issues that I think have long really been challenging at the community level.

Um, if we go to the third next slide, so again, um the recommendation placement in the CAO's office again to really align with and leverage executive decision-making authority.

The CIO's office plays this role now.

They are, as Supervisor Miley often says, the quarterback for the county.

So again, trying to think about how we use their office and their authority to drive more agency alignment.

The proposal is to hire again a two-person staff, so like an administrator and an analyst, you again utilizing Measure W resources.

So this again is a proposal.

And then next slide, please.

Okay, so just again to clarify something that's been on the top of my mind and was raised a lot in the community, the scope of authority.

So I do just want to say that the board of supervisors, you know, really having the board of supervisors really bless this effort and grant um this pilot uh the authority to bring agencies together to drive change on an incorporated area issues is really really critical.

Um, so just again emphasizing that point as in while I'm here in front of the board committee.

Um, and also just want to clarify a few things that I know continue to linger out there.

Um, this pilot would not again replace department functions, it wouldn't control department budget or replace service delivery.

Um, it wouldn't manage constituent engagement for the district offices.

You know, the community members would continue to have their relationships uh through the MACs and through to the district offices that I know is really important.

I know that was a major concern of at both Synol and Castor Valley, this kind of interest in staying connected to Supervisor Miley and Supervisor Tam and really feeling um like you both do a great job representing our communities.

So again, not replacing not taking over any of those relationships or the MAC or advisory council management, but again focus more on how do we improve these internal issues that continue to really bog down how we implement policies in the unincorporated area, how we problem solve and get long-standing issues resolved.

Okay, I'm basically done, I think.

Let's see.

Okay, here's some uh the part of the evaluation framework.

There's a much greater and longer list of evaluation metrics in the appendix of the report, but this did come up at the MAC meetings, so I want to make sure to mention it here.

Um so we would be looking at, and then here's just a sample of them, um whether we successfully implemented key plans such as the EJ element, whether there was a reduction in operational issues and escalation issues, whether we improved cross-agency coordination and raised additional resources for the unincorporated community, right?

So there could be these concrete metrics that we embed into the process, and after two years of piloting, could again make tweaks, consider ways to improve this, consider if it is solving some of the coordination issues, but again, um the idea being that we are very clear up front about what our goals are and how we're gonna measure them.

Uh in the next slide, please, Tisa, thank you.

Oh, go next slide, skip this for the sake of time.

Um, here is a rough timeline.

We're currently, you know, in phase one, the current phase, which research community engagement proposal drafting really concludes with board approval for approving the proposal, the resources in these new staff positions, and then if approved, phase two would begin in the next fiscal year with hiring these two staff as a top priority.

So, with that, I have a slide coming.

Let's see, about two areas that I think need further direction from the um the supervisors, and of course, happy to answer questions.

The first being, I think the reframing of this project as an unincorporated communities coordination pilot.

We could tweak the name, but the idea being again that this isn't um a new office, it's not a new agency, it's it's it's not um, it's uh gonna be a pilot with two staff people that's really focused on internal operations and coordination um within the county, and then um confirming really the location of the pilot within the CAO's office.

Uh, there was there have been a lot of different places suggested.

There's been the CAO's office, um, the Fairview Mac again wanted it to be independent.

There was discussion at the Castor Valley Mac about having it in Supervisor Miley's office in District 4, given how much of the unincorporated communities are in district four, and then talks about it being um in the community development agency as well, given how many of you know of the municipal serving departments are really within CDA.

So I think those are two areas that need um input.

Um, and of course uh I'm here in a because this is a discussion item.

So if there are other issues or areas or things that um the supervisors or the community um want to weigh in on as we're still wrapping up this design phase.

After this, I'm going to transportation and planning on Monday, um, and then um ideally to the full board when time allows.

Okay.

Thank you for this very uh thorough um presentation and all the work you've done leading up to this point, um talking to all of the various people and entities and your research and your thinking around all this.

It's uh very very impressive.

So uh thank you.

I'm glad that um uh Claudia Albano has retired, but might come back as retired and do it, and uh kind of helped to pave some of the path for this, and and I know we've worked with you in the past, uh Brianne, so I'm glad you're you're back here in the county and took on this assignment because very impressive.

Uh so I have some uh comments and maybe questions, but I'll initially start with Supervisor Lena Tam, because she's the brains, and I'm the bra.

Actually, on this issue, you are the brains, and I might have to be the braun.

Um Supervisor Miley has done so much work on this.

Um, he commissioned this study uh through the 40,000 allocation that came through the board through his office, and before that, he also did a study, a LAFCO study to look at the feasibility of incorporation because most of the feedback that I'm hearing that you're getting is the unincorporated area want to be incorporated, they just don't want to pay to be incorporated.

They don't want to have their own police department, their own fire department, their own planning department, you know, their own economic development department, they want to have that as part of the county because their tax base doesn't support that.

It's not a return to source, and based on the LAFCO study that you did, I think only Castro Valley was pretty close, and even then it wasn't a slam dunk in terms of their ability to finance all of what needs to be incorporated.

When I look at the um essentially, I think page 19.

When you look at the county administrators' office, the independent office or community development agency, and then you looked at the the counties that you mentioned, whether it was Marin County, Sacramento County.

The one thing that I I think being on the board of supervisors, I've noticed is the department heads all report to us, they don't report to the board the county administrator.

Um the public works director, we do their performance valuation, the health care director, all these other directors.

So it's it's kind of uh different than other counties, like Santa Clara County, for example, has a single centralized point of contact what where they can take direction, but just because it's in the county's administrator's office is not necessarily mean it's gonna these uh departments will take direction from the county administrator.

And the example that I'm trying to go through in my mind is what happened in District three.

Um, my predecessor's predecessor, Supervisor Wilma Chan, wanted the all-in project to be housed in the county administrator's office because her staff could have more direct contact.

But in the end, when you look at the components, because it they were trying to do exactly the same thing.

They're trying to go after philanthropic dollars, legislative dollars, look at ways in which you could help uh all the issues around ending poverty in the county.

And at the end of the day, when I got on board, what I was finding is all those functions happened within the social services department, even though we wanted it to be all encompassing within the county.

So that's the reason I've been working with my staff.

I know they met with you, and I think there's a way to do this through the community development agency, because they have the economic development function.

They do the land use, they did the EJ element.

They did uh, I mean, basically the funding that they need for a lot of the economic development has come through philanthropic or through um through the county's resources, and if we need to like modify their functions so that they could have more direct oversight uh or some way of convening the different departments in a way that is more coordinated, especially because I noticed public works is the main department that um helps the unincorporated that's not directly within CDA.

I think that would be a more practical approach and a more sustainable approach longer term.

Well, thank thank you, uh Supervisor Tam for um giving us your thinking around this.

The other thing is Casto Valley is you said 150,000, they have about 60,000, they're like 40 percent of the unincorporated incorporate, I mean urban areas.

And so uh the fact that their Castro Valley Mac, which keeps sending me text messages and emails saying we don't want this unincorporated office, tells me there must be a reason they don't want it, besides the fact that they feel they have uh they've been longer in existence and that they have a strong relationship with District 4.

Yeah, well, let me see here.

Um, so yeah, really appreciate the work you've done here, and just to kind of um follow up on some of Supervisor Tam's comments, um, you know, having been the the the good fortune to represent uh the unincorporated area for the last 25 uh years, um we've seen a lot of progress.

You know, this is not the same on the corporate area that I inherited in 2001 when I got sworn in.

There's been progress, but it's like what have you done for me lately?

Because I know at that point in time people were complaining about being second-class citizens.

Um there are people in the county that didn't even know the unincorporated area existed, they didn't lobby for the unincorporated area, they didn't do anything to support the unincorporated area.

Um, and people were pretty pissed off universally in the unincorporated area, and that's why the the very one of the very first things I did was support Castor Valley's efforts around incorporation, at least paying for the study.

That was over $100,000 to do that study because people have always looked at wanting to have more local control, more decision making uh ability.

So, at least take a look at that.

I didn't, you know, I didn't take a position on it, but paid for the study, and ultimately, you know, the citizen voted it down three to one.

Um, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute.

But in addition, and there are people in the room here is now, we launched the Edenary Livability Initiative to create uh a shared vision for the unincorporated area, the urban unincorporated area.

Um we weren't concerned about Synol or Unincorporated Pleasanton or Livermore.

It was the urban unincorporated area and out of Eli.

We came up with a number of recommendations, of which many of them ultimately were implemented in Eli Phase 1 and then Eli Phase 2 and Eli Phase 2 resulted in, you know, the Cherry Land Community Center, as well as REACH, etc.

Eli Phase 1, one of the things people were looking for was an unincorporated area manager.

And they and that was the person, and they thought if they had unincorporated area manager, it would make things better.

But the thing is, we said to them, the counties, if if the community hires an uncorporated area manager, they can do that, but that's not going to make that person any more successful because that person's not embedded in the county governmental structure and governmental system.

But additionally, what we decided was appoint folks from the unincorporated area to the planning commission, made that a commitment.

Also, whenever we make appointments to advertise those appointments for the MACs, we give some notice of that as well, so people would have a chance to weigh in if they'd like to be appointed.

So we made certain commitments to the unincorporated area, but once again, it was all about more local control, more governance.

We explored creating area planning commissions, and I know at the time when we thought about the big Mac, we didn't go ahead with a MAC for Fairview and Eden, because folks didn't think they were ready.

Cash Valley already had a Mac in place for a long time.

So it took a while for things to enough when to get under people's sails, enough experience to get there, enough of the journey, so we were at a place at some point down the road to create the Eden Area MAC, the Fairview Mac, of which brought more local decision making.

Um and we also created the BZA back in those days because some people in this room know folks didn't have control over the decisions that were being made through the uh planning department, because there was what they called uh um a czar who was a county staff who was making all those decisions and disregarding you know the will of the community, but making so we created a BZA and appointed people from the unincorporated area to the BZA so they can have the ability to make those decisions.

So we put in place a lot of things, but all this was iterative, and uh that's kind of how I explained to Claudia too.

It's all been building blocks.

So I'm pleased with where we are today with your analysis, because I can see I consider it part of the building blocks, and I'm glad you've kind of rethought your thinking around an office of unincorporated services.

Um, because as you pointed out in one of your slides, we're in a we're in a place fiscally in terms of resources where creating an office might not be prudent and uh prudently wise, but utilizing the $300,000 per year that's been dedicated through Measure W from an unincorporated area manager could help to move this agenda along.

It's not the end of the journey.

The journey is going to continue, but it moves it along.

And if we build in, like you said, proof of concept, if we build in deliverables, we build an evaluation, and we see how where that how that is and where that takes us after two years, then that advances um the ball down the field.

Some of you know, you know, uh think of football, you know, you're advancing the ball down the field and eventually score a touchdown.

So that's what we're trying to do, pass the ball down the field, score touchdown.

Um, yeah.

Yeah, nobody's nobody's laughing.

They don't get it.

They don't get it.

Okay.

They don't get it.

Um, and then, like Supervisor Tan pointed out, we have done the LAFCO study that was very thorough.

Um, looked at incorporating the entire unincorporated area.

We looked at segments of the unincorporated area, we looked at annexation, because ideally, what would be the best thing, and this is heresy, because some people never want it to happen, but to have areas in unincorporated area annexed into San Leandro and Hayward, for instance, um, that would be really good, but there are communities that are never gonna want that to happen.

Um in the county in the past, before either any of us were on the board, allowed certain portions of that incorporate area to be annexed, and that's why, for instance, Asherson and Triland don't have the the revenue base they could have had had Bayfair stayed in the unincorporated area, um, but the county allowed it to be annexed by San Leandro because you know they cherry picked the best party in the incorporate area and left the challenges to the county to have to deal with, and that's why, at least under my watch, I've said to the cities, you're not annexing anything unless you annex it all.

Yeah, no, it's just not gonna happen under my watch.

Um, and then we also explored community service districts so that instead of incorporating or annexing a community, an area could be a community service district and be responsible for certain types of uh services like police, fire, whatever, but like a community service district, we're going to be responsible for this, we're paying for this, we govern that.

Um, so there's been all sorts of models, and one of my favorite phrases is you know, let's not let's not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

So we're constantly trying to get better and better and better, and I think what you've laid out here puts us on a path to advance the ball down the field and get better.

Um I think you know, one of my big frustrations is because I represent mostly an unincorporated area.

The unincorporated area is 150,000 people, if you include urban and uh rural, and most of the folks who live in that incorporated area I represent.

I used to also represent unincorporated Pleasanton, but that's now in D1.

Um, I've always argued that I need more staff, but the board hasn't been willing to give me more staff.

Um, and I think some of the things that you've pointed out could be resolved with what you've um proposed, uh, because we don't more staff doesn't have to come to my office, but if we had more staff, depending on where it's located, could help with the coordination, could go to meetings that need to um are important to be covered uh for internal functions, um, and could also look at breaking down silos on matters that cut across a number of county agencies and departments, um, like we just did with the sidewalk vending ordinance, like we've done with um the EJ element, um, like we need to do on potentially other issues as well.

So that that would be helpful.

Um, I'm a little disappointed, quite frankly, because I'd love to unload the Macs, because that's a heavy lift for my my office to have to staff three Macs, um, coordinate three Macs.

The Cash Valley Mac meets three times a month, Fairview meets once, Eden meets once.

That's five meetings.

My office has to coordinate.

Um, it's a lot of work, but you know, I'm willing to um to give in on that just because I think once again, let's not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and this would be good.

But I don't think people are realize, and I'm just speaking from my perspective.

I don't think people realize I represent most of the unincorporated area.

I represent a healthy portion of Oakland that has challenges, for instance, East Oakland.

Um by representing unincorporate area, it's a city in and of itself.

Um, and then I've got you know uh most of Pleasanton.

And then, you know, I like today, I was at Metropolitan Transportation Commission for the whole nine nine Bay Area counties.

I was at A-Bag, Association of Bay Area Government for the whole nine Bay Area counties.

I'm on LAFCO, had a reparations committee meeting today.

I'm here on this committee.

I serve on the Translation Planning Committee, I serve on the Public Protection Committee, I serve on the Health Committee, I serve on the procurement and contract committee.

I'm on the joint powers that deals with the Coliseum, where the sports teams used to all.

So and that's just me.

Supervisor TAM has a lot of responsibilities as as all the supervisors do.

So to try to deal with the unincorporated area, being a city in and of itself is a real big undertaking.

But we have that responsibility.

That's our authority under the charter of the county.

So if there's a way of making it so that people feel they're getting better services and we're delivering, I think that's important that we constantly look at how we can do that.

And as I said, I think what you've laid out here is a good approach.

The only question is what's supervisor Dan was saying.

Yeah.

Where should it be located?

And maybe we'll have to have a tongue of war about that.

Because I think if it's in the CDA, the community development agency, their EJ element maybe cuts, you know.

But there's so many other issues that require collaboration across agencies.

I just don't know putting a manager in that agency if he or she would have the ability, an administrator in that agency have the ability to break down the sidos and bring everybody together to provide that coordination to ensure that we're advancing the ball down the field.

And maybe the county administrators' office isn't the best.

Maybe my office isn't the best.

And I'm not saying it is, I but I do think maybe the county administrators' office might be better than the community development agency.

So those are some of my thoughts at the moment.

So I need to chime in on that part.

Uh, you had reparations commission.

I met with the appointees for my reparations, I met the status and commission of women.

I met today with a number of other groups, and the Office of Immigration Affairs wants their director in the CAO's office.

The Reparations Commission wants the Office for Equity in the CAO's office to handle and take over.

The uh commission on status of women wants a staff in the CAO's office.

It's like the CAO's office doesn't handle programming.

They can't advocate for one group because they do the budgeting for all the departments.

And so uh it it seems unfair to to have to have them compete with the different measure W created positions.

Um, I guess I'll try to respond to all the different points a little bit.

But one, I'm glad you laid out the history, Supervisor Miley, of how this really uh is iterative and I think builds on a long history.

I was I originally had a slide that did that, but I felt like the presentation was already so long.

Um and again, I also I know for folks who are a bit in opposition to this, I just want to also say that like again, the county has already I think identified this as an issue and made a lot of commitments towards addressing some of these organizational changes.

So I'm really glad to hear kind of the recognition that you know, when I think I first met you, we were just starting to advocate for the Eden Area MAC, right?

And that this is part of like a broader improvement in the civic infrastructure and service delivery.

Um on the point about uh, yeah, I think there's two points.

There's where it should be in the Castor Valley sort of MAC point.

Um I uh the research as like the research identified issues are really not about driving, I mean there's probably a need to drive better alignment between the seven departments that are in CDA, but where I think the greatest frustration was expressed by county leadership, county staff, and community members was really in the issues that are cross-cutting.

So even even if we take the EJ element, even though it came out of planning, it has, you know, environmental health, AC Health, social many social services recommendations, fire, the sheriff's office, uh many public works recommendations.

So again, it was those issues where you needed seven different agencies across that big county org chart, it was those issues that were really the pain points, which is again, I think drew me more towards placing this within the CAO's office, which is not just uh putting it in one of those agencies, but again, an agency that's already set up as more cross-cutting um and has more of that executive coordinating uh function built into it.

So that's that's just, I mean, just to sort of I guess highlight a little bit more of how I came to that recommendation.

I think the community's requests again for the alignment and greater transparency on the budgeting, and again representing the county at these unincorporated tables, kind of suggested that people here in the unincorporated communities want access to more of those kinds of discussions, which would could be well facilitated by being in the CAO's office, where they are often doing a lot of that executive level policy making, resourcing discussions, budgeting discussions.

So I think for me that was a natural fit to put it there.

I think the CAO's office has expressed again, yeah, probably some of the same things they might have said earlier that there's a lot of people wanting them to play a more of a CEO type of role than they do right now, which is like more of a CAO role, but that and that they would need to build more infrastructure to do so.

And so I think that was part of the thinking around framing it as a pilot, that there could be this period where that infrastructure is developed within the CAO's office as they expand to clearly play this role for other programs and projects alongside this one.

Um I think there was one more point.

But yeah, I don't know if we want to keep discussing the location point.

Um, yeah, the um the analogy I'm I keep in mind is we serve on the planning uh board for the board of supervisors, and every time there's a project that comes to us, all the departments have to be consulted, whether it's the fire department, environmental health, and then you know, we look at uh the sheriff, we look at different ordinances, and so the fact that even though there's like seven different subdepartments, they have to coordinate and they heavily have to deal with public works because of the land use elements.

And that's why if you want to pilot it like all in uh in the CAO's office and then find out later that everything's gonna converge or collapse into the CDA office, we could do that, but I'm just trying to short circuit that part of it so that it's less painful.

You can have an established and more sustainable infrastructure that's more responsive.

Okay.

Well, I you said you're gonna be taken to the transformation planning committee.

All right.

Well, um, so I know this conversation will continue, but let's let's hear from the public on this.

Um, because this is still in a formative stage.

Oh, yeah, 40 speakers.

Well, we'll we'll give speakers anywhere from a minute to two minutes.

If it's 40 speakers, that's that's a good hour.

Um, do we have to be out of here by 10?

No, okay.

All right.

Well, this is important, and I don't want to rush people along.

So anywhere from a minute to two minutes.

Uh, and maybe we won't end up having 40 speakers, but I know it's important to people.

Uh, this um what we're trying to do here, so call the speakers.

Bill Mulgroup, Bob Britton, Daryl Ray.

Good evening, supervisors.

Um, and thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Um I am speaking tonight on behalf of the Castro Valley MAC who authorized me to be here.

Uh, first want to convey the council's appreciation to Brienne Gala and uh the hardworking district staff that uh conspired to make this a truly professional, awesome body of work.

So thank you.

Um we do believe that the problems as described in the key in the project in terms of impact of the community have been very accurately described.

We're not quite believing that the source of the problems has been uh framed and identified in a way that will lead to the uh significant lasting results that Supervisor Cam spoke about.

Alameda County incorporated in 1853, and here we are 170 years later, trying to address the issues of communication, advocacy, and coordination in the unincorporated areas.

That really to me speaks to problems and issues with an organizational culture that is rooted in a rigid shielded silos that avoids accountability and that penalizes initiative.

This is the issue that really needs to be examined before any kind of solutions, as proposed tonight are really implemented.

Presentation tonight described the problem as a structural gap.

Don't believe that's so, believe it's a it's a cultural gap, and that's um much, much, much larger than just uh structure.

Finally, the Castor Valley Mac does believe, as was mentioned, that we have fine and adequate and better than adequate representation from our supervisor and our uh district staff.

But we do believe that each of the unincorporated areas have unique challenges, communications needs, advocacy needs that would not necessarily be best served by a one-size-fits-all kind of solution.

So, well, $300,000 is not big finance uh for Alameda County.

We I think we would prefer that that funds, those funds be used for addressing the real problem here, which is an organizational culture that uh is not serving the customer or the community well.

Thank you.

I'm Bob Britton.

I've lived in Castro Valley for 33 years, and I'm in favor of the proposal.

Uh I think we need coordination.

As it's outlined in the new proposal for two-year pilot, emphasized pilot.

I guess the Castro Valley MAC opposes it.

Castor Valley Mac does not represent me.

I didn't vote for them, had nothing to do with their appointment.

But Castro Valley Mac can't ultimately decide anything.

That's a good thing.

Because if they could decide, we'd still have the abandoned right aid on the boulevard, a big fat eyesore.

Another eyesore that they wanted to leave as is the abandoned Caltrans Yard at the entrance to my neighborhood at the Boulevard and Center Street.

They even opposed the camp mosaic for children in our beautiful Cull Canyon.

Luckily, they have no authority, and we now have thriving businesses where the ISOR Ride Aid once stood.

A beautiful Castor Valley Sand headquarters where the ugly dusty old bungalows once stood, and soon to be use of our canyon lands for the benefit of Castor Valley families.

Has no real power.

And we should have the same kind of services and coordination.

I was struck, and let me go over like the previous speaker did.

I was struck by the uh comments that um Supervisor Miley made about the um environmental and health department oversight of the temporary food and mobile food facility operations, and how it was lacking coordination.

That's what this will do.

Add coordination.

Good evening, supervisors.

My name is Daryl Ray, and I'm a resident of Castor Valley for over 38 years.

And so I learned all about it.

So I was surprised that the Castor Valley Mac did not make any suggestions on how to improve the pilot plan, but they just voted against it.

And so uh Castle Valley Mac was the only Mac to vote no, and I was uh I just basically disagree with them on this issue, and I believe that the Board of Supervisors should approve the modified pilot plan.

Thank you.

Victoria Vivaldo, Miguel DeLeon, Leidua Salazar.

It has a translator, thank you, Vanessa.

Gracias.

Good evening.

My name is Vicky Vivaldo, and I live in the unincorporated area.

I'm speaking tonight because I care about my community, I care about the families, and I want them to be uh seen and valued uh by the county.

Our communities are diverse, they have different histories, different necessities, different resources.

An office like this would not erase those differences.

It would help uh to better respond to the needs in an effective matter.

This is something that the residents have been asking since the Eden area was established, an office uh of communities that for the office of the non-incorporated communities would create uh better coordination, higher level of communication, and higher level of accountability so that the residents can feel that they are truly valued by the county.

I ask you to please support this initiative.

Hi, my name is Miguel, and I'm asking for your support on this office.

Um, I live in Ashland and I think there's a need for a higher level of coordination for services.

I do understand that there's a difference in income and resources, but this would allow for resources to be better coordinated, better communication, and provide better resources for those who are most disadvantaged, and allow for the services to be uh guess um, if nothing.

So that all agencies can coordinate and provide better services for all the unincorporated areas.

Yeah.

Oh, and then I'm next.

Sorry.

Um, hi, my name is Lady La Salazar.

I'm speaking on behalf of my Eden Voice and our members to support the establishing of an Office of Unincorporated Services.

Too long the uncorp unincorporated communities in Alameda County have experienced systemic underinvestment, limited political representation, and inequitable access to resources and services.

Our residents contribute deeply to the county, yet too often feel disconnected from decision making process that directly impact their daily lives.

Establishing this office in an un is an important step uh towards increasing accountability, coordination, and meaningful investment in the unincorporated areas.

This office has the potential to strengthen communication between residents and county government, improve responsiveness to community needs, and ensure young incorporated communities are no longer treated as an afterthought.

We urge you to support the creation of the Office of Unincorporated Service Communities and invest in more equitable future for all Alameda County residents.

I'm uh co-director of my eating voice and representing our our members tonight.

I ask you to bring this proposal to the full board.

Um and we've, you know, have you as you've heard testimony or you'll hear more and even our earlier agenda items.

There's obviously a need for coordination across across agencies in our community of over 160,000 residents.

Um, in our work with CDA and different agencies, we find it hard to believe that an agency would feel entitled or empowered to sort of push things across agencies.

So definitely encourage you to place it in the CAO's office at least during this pilot.

Thank you.

Good evening, supervisors.

Uh thank you for uh the opportunity to speak.

Uh my name is Jessward Josena, and I serve as the community organizing manager at Alameda County Community Food Bank.

Um I want to tell you about the people who asked me to be here tonight.

Uh they are immigrant women and mothers uh from Cherry Lynn volunteers on the Alameda County Community Food Bank's food justice organizing task force.

Uh, and many are about to be graduates of our community organizing uh leadership academy, a bilingual 12-course uh program in policy and community organizing.

At the food bank, we believe addressing hunger also means helping communities build the power to shape the decisions that affect their lives.

That is what food justice looks like, not just access to food, but having a voice in the systems that shape health, housing, food, and other basic human rights.

Uh, they also showed up uh every week uh in two languages after long days of work, child care and caregiving responsibilities because they believe that their participation like tonight um could create uh help create change uh for their families and their neighbors.

And then they tried to engage with the county, and they kept running into walls, uh, not necessarily hostility or bad faith.

Uh just a system that wasn't exactly always designed for them to be in mind.

Uh, Cherry Lynn has uh one of the highest poverty rates in Alameda County.

Uh, this is not a small gap, it is a justice issue, and the people most affected by it have done everything right.

They organized, they showed up tonight, they learned the system, uh, and they continue to be here.

Uh, what they need now is a county that is actually structured to respond.

Uh so the Alameda County Community Food Bank supports this office of the unincorporated uh communities.

Uh, and um that means real coordination and real accountability uh and a county that can meet them with where they're at today.

Uh so please vote yes on that tonight.

Thank you so much for your time and appreciate you both.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Soraya Urutia.

I'm gonna concur and pretty much just left me with nothing to say, but I will say it.

I'm here to support to support uh of establishing at an office of an arc in a corporated um communities.

It is important that families like mine, yours, our neighbors, our friends stop feeling in a disadvantaged position.

We're here because we want to be recognized as part of the community.

We are here because we all deserve the same the same attention that any part of the county.

It is more important to create this office to help us navigate a system that seems to be disconnected with an unclear accountability to advocate for our neighborhoods.

I urge you to please support and move forward on what uh what else the community member have been asking for a long time.

Thank you so much and have a good night.

Sylvia Garcia Esperanza Campos, Jocelyn, Vera.

Matilda, Liliana Enriquez, and those means.

Sorry, we're a little confused.

Which was the first speaker?

Sylvia Garcia.

Okay, this is Cecilia.

But funciona necessita in la oficina del administrator del Condado.

Good afternoon, my name is Cecilia Vega, and I live in Ashland.

I support the recommendation to create the pro pilot program of the Office of Unincorporated Communities and that it is housed in the office of the administrator.

This report shows clearly that a lot of the problems that exist is because there is no coordination between departments.

A lot of times residents don't know who to call or who is responsible.

This causes a lot of delays and frustration for families.

This office can help us bet uh can help us have better communication and coordination between agencies in the county.

But for this to work, it has to be in the office of the administrator because they have the ability to work across departments.

Thank you and please support this pilot program.

Hi, my name is Sylvia Chavez.

Um I've been living here in Ashland s almost for 25 years.

For in uh I live in the area for incorporated support and the proposal to create central central centralized county government function to focus on unit corporation community.

Uncorporated community has offer a way to address the structure in across the cuttings and cut in the challenge affecting residents through the un corporate areas or uncorporated.

Thank you.

Hi, good night, um supervisor.

My name is Teresita and live in uh Ashland for twenty twenty-five years and support the proposal to create a centralized county government function focus on incorporated communities as is offered way to way to address structural and across carries.

Challenges affect residents throughout an incorporated area.

A cross country office could eliminate those differences, rather it could help the county respondents then to more effective by improving coordination communication and accountability among various various county departments and function.

Thank you.

Esperanza, Matilda, Liliana, Gloria Garcia, Keith Barrows.

Like the last man standing from Eli one and two and Charette number one and two.

Um I wanted to say that uh during uh Eli when we were deciding what form of governance we're gonna do, uh Supervisor Chen uh felt very strongly that a um um unincorporated uh manager or something of that effect.

Uh she advocated for that quite strongly.

And I I opposed it at the time because um I wanted us, I wanted us to have uh municipal advisory council here in the worst way, uh, so that we could all rise together.

Um a lot of folks contact trying to get things done through the county.

I'm sure they're they're at least their perception is that they're getting the runaround when in fact uh the system is kind of broken.

I'm not exactly sure why Castro Valley voted no, but I'm uh to to this idea.

Um my gut tells me it's uh it's a matter of trying to maintain control or independence.

And uh I don't know, maybe that's the right thing for them.

I'm I'm not gonna speak for them, but I do remember that the HOA here in San Lorenzo was opposed to having an emac at the time uh for that particular reason.

Uh they wanted to maintain control, even though they I had witnessed them come uh complaining about not having any control for 20 years prior to that.

Um, if Castor Valley is not a part of this, I don't know if it has to be all together or or not at all.

I don't know how that works.

I'm not smart enough to tell you, but uh if uh uh Castor Valley were not involved in it, perhaps, perhaps it would be a less expensive, a less expensive undertaking.

Um and I know that they would like to eventually become a city.

They've uh they've tried it, and uh I've let some people know in Castor Valley and the people that are listening from there right now.

I let them know that I was not going to stand in the way of uh of their cityhood this time around.

Um, you know, if they wanted to secede from the union.

I wanted to at the time I wanted to save our BZA.

Um by the way, the the zonings are quote came from the Valley Times.

That's that's those are the people who made that quote back in the day.

Uh at anyway, um uh I I fully support this.

I think that now with uh now that we have the BZA and the and the uh municipal advisory councils for Eden and uh Fairview, um, I think this would be a great enhancement for uh everyone uh in the uh in the unincorporated area.

Ashley Goodet, Santos Acosta, Ashley Acosta, Oscar Gonzalez.

Yeah, I have online speakers.

Okay.

That long, uh, online speaker Ann, you have two minutes.

Hello, this is Dr.

Ann Maris.

I'm a resident here of Southern Castor Valley.

Uh moved here in 1972, and I'm uh very involved in uh a lot of community improvement uh activities around here as a volunteer.

I'm absolutely against this idea.

This report is ridiculous.

I I am not gonna spend my time since I'm not getting paid to write it to explain all of the problems with it.

But there's just one thing after another.

There's no real data, it's completely biased.

I mean, you you didn't even put it out for an expert to take this contract.

Brianne Gala comes out of the housing industry.

I'm j I'm just really disappointed.

We have a lot of highly paid county employees, and you need to expect expect better of them.

You know, we have our our you know the CDA, uh not C D A D uh, Susan Moranici, a million dollars a year, you know, our uh public works directors and health directors.

You know, these are 600,000, 500,000, 300,000 a year.

You know, we need to expect them to perform.

So I'm I'm against this for many reasons.

We have the services already.

I enjoy being under the county.

Um, if you need to find services, we have Eden INR, we have 211.

This report has no real data.

It's confusing.

We use the word resident, constituent.

I can tell you I've walked around my neighborhood.

Not one person even knew about this.

This was not in the district four newsletter.

It was not in the district three newsletter, it was not in the district one newsletter.

I mean, we don't even know about it.

If why don't you start with something a little cheaper, like a uh bulletin board announcing when the meetings are right at the gateway property where all of these communities come together?

I I'm against this.

Thanks.

Hi.

Oh.

Oh shit.

Uh oh, I'm so sorry about that.

Hi, I'm Oscar.

I'm a slam youth leader and an unincorporated resident.

You know, I'm here to say the office of an incorporated communities is necessary because it would make it easy for someone to call for things like litter.

Now I know when you think of the general idea of litter, it doesn't seem like much.

I mean, it's just trash.

But when I was in seventh grade, I needed community service hours.

So I volunteered at Cherry Lan Elementary to clean up the exterior on a Saturday morning.

I remember looking at a pile of broken beer bottles and used condoms on the side of the road.

I mean, I was startled to say the least because no 13-year-old expects to see that in the morning.

Realizing I was alone, it was up to me to pick it all up.

So I did, and into my garbage bag they went.

The only thing worse than the side of use condoms and beer bottles is the weight they had on my arms as I hauled them back to school.

No kids should see those things, let alone have to pick them up.

Every now and then, couches and mattresses are littered in front of Key Academy Elementary School, and they stay there for so long.

They become familiar on my way home.

The point of this story is that unincorporated residents shouldn't have to navigate a maze of different county departments and school districts just to report a hazard.

The Office of Unincorporated Communities would give us a single confident place to turn to.

A place to call where residents can rest at ease and knowing who they're calling, will know what to do.

This office would ensure that careless adult messes are cleaned up by accountability and not by 13-year-old volunteers.

Thank you.

I'm a slam youth leader.

I support establish the Office of Unincorporated Communities as a pilot house in the county administrator's office.

Our communities deserve the same level of coordination and leadership that in incorporated cities received.

The report shows that residents are often bounced between departments with no clear accountability.

If this office is placed anywhere other than the CAO, it will like the authority to convene agencies and drive um implementation.

The CAO placement ensures this effort is connected to the budgeting county-wide planning and executive leadership.

That is the only way this pilot can succeed.

Thank you.

Hello, uh, my name is Ashley Acosta, and I strongly support the uh proposed pilot.

The report emphasizes that the status quo already has a cost.

Staff time is wasted on reactive coordination and residents experience delays and frustration.

Creating this pilot without within the CAO is a smart investment in government efficiency.

The CAO is uniquely positioned to oversee interdeperimental coordination and online implementation with policy goals.

This structure gives the pilot the best chance to produce measurable outcomes during the two-year period.

Thank you.

This office needs executive authority and institutional bagging to improve coordination and accountability.

If we want to move from fragmented governance to intentional governance, the county administrator's office is the right place for this pilot.

Thank you.

Andrew Chavez.

Good night.

My name's uh Edgar Chavez.

I'm a uh lifelong Cheryl and Ashland resident.

I'm here.

Uh I grew up uh here.

My grandfather's uh parents were farm workers who brought their family to the Eden area uh when I was an infant.

Uh I grew up as an undocumented child navigating the system for my parents, often translating in a very hostile 90s environment with Prop 187.

Um growing up in the 90s uh in early 2000 ones, I remember the the sidewalks not having sidewalks, all the visible infrastructure that we now see today, but I'm also speaking about the invisible infrastructure, the navigation, the coordination, the things that really support um uh life outcomes, and we continue to see educational outcomes and child poverty rates continue to be the lowest in this county, and I see that data uh every week.

Uh in my own work, I lead the Hayward Promise Neighborhood Initiative next door uh with the strong city um and community coordination, cross-agency, across uh school city partnerships.

I've seen her firsthand how new investments can come into these neighborhoods when we have strong government and strong coordination at the local level at the neighborhood level.

Uh that's the office I hope to see where tenants, homeowners, businesses, and families are working together to improve outcomes for our community.

So I do hope that we do establish an office of unincorporated communities and um see a pilot starting at the CAO.

Thank you.

Hello, board members.

My name is Raymond Chaleta from Cal Shavali, and I'm here representing SLAM.

I support creating the unincorporated communities coordination pilot with the CAO.

Our communities have waited years for structural change, not just temporary fixes.

The reports highlights that count the counties like Los Angeles and Marin place their unincorporated coordinates efforts within leadership structures because that is where cross department authority exists.

This pilot should follow those best practices.

Placing it in the CAO ensures they can coordinate departments effectively and advocate for unincorporated communities at the highest level of county government.

Thank you for your time.

Uh is this thing on?

Uh, okay, got this.

Wow.

My name is Isabel.

I am a youth leader from SLAM.

I support the office of you know, accorporated communities.

It will make life better for all of us.

And it'll make us equal to other citizens.

We just deserve to be to be equal.

Thank you.

Hello.

Um, I am a Castor Valley resident.

My name's Sandra.

Um I concur with some of my neighbors, um, that the Castro Valley Mac does not represent me, you know.

I think it doesn't represent a lot of us.

Um I think that they see themselves as like, you know, their own opinions, which is something that is an issue with a lot of the Macs, but particularly in Castro Valley.

So I would say that I've talked to a lot of residents, a lot of my neighbors, they think this is a great opportunity.

So I did want to point that out.

Um I do agree that this pilot is a great idea.

I think it should be housed at the CAO's office.

I think that that would give it the best chance to have an executive function to work well.

Um I think that we've been doing this work for a long time.

I personally have been doing this work for around 10 years, and it really boils down to like every issue that we really have thought about that we've worked on for the past decade really boils down to there's nobody kind of like looking at everything, right?

This gentleman mentioned the CV sounds uh project, the Castro or the Ride Aid project.

And I think that they're great.

I live right off the center, but you know, one of the things that happened is like a few months before those things were built, they redid all the roads.

And they took months, lots of traffic, but then, like a few months later, they tore up those roads to build the CV Sand Center.

And it's a really high traffic area, right?

I drive there every morning because my daughter goes to school right there at Creekside.

And so we had this beautiful road, but then it got torn up because nobody's thinking that hey, maybe we should have built the road after the CV sand center.

And these are the types of things that could really be avoided.

And as far as the money goes, I do believe that yes, it's $300,000 that's expensive, but we're operating under emergency structures that make things expensive.

So in the long run, this is a more cost-effective way to do it.

So I support the pilot, and thank you.

Anthony, Carlos, Julius, Nancy, Nancy, Matthias.

Supervisor TM has to leave in a minute.

So I want to see if she has any other comments to make before she has to go.

Do you have anything else to say?

All right.

And I'll continue to listen to the speakers.

And uh, Celine's gonna stay, right?

Okay, so you're all supervisor TM staff is here.

Hello, board members.

My name is Mathias.

I support the two-year pilot because our communities need structural solutions to long-standing coordination failures.

The report clearly states that the office should not replace services but instead improve alignment and accountability across departments.

That mission only works if the office is embedded in the county's administrator's office, where it can influence countywide priorities and coordinate executive action.

Placing it anywhere else would weaken its ability to create meaningful change.

Thank you for your time.

Good evening, supervisor.

My name is Nancy Respaldiza, a community member.

I support establishing the office of unincorporated community as a pilot program house within the county administrator office.

Our communities deserve the same level of coordination and leadership that incorporated city receive.

The report shows that residents are often redirected between departments with no clear accountability.

If this office is placed anywhere other than a the CAO, it will lack the authority of convening agency and drive implementation, housing it within the CAO ensures it is connected to budgeting, countywide planning and executive leadership.

That alignment is essential for the pilot to succeed.

Thank you.

Anna Rasquisa and uh Juliana Weiser-Leon.

Good evening, Supervisor Miley.

This is honorascuzo with resources for community development.

Um, I wanted to thank you and Supervisor TM this evening for funding this report.

Um, particularly, want to celebrate every time you name the annexation of Bayfair Bart.

I think it gets at some of the root causes that are driving the issues in these communities.

Um, and I wanted to thank Brianne for the report, the strong analysis, integration of feedback across the diverse communities.

We know that um Brianne took this report on a tour and integrated the conversations and the feedback that she heard into the final recommendations.

Um we know this is something the community has been talking about for a long time, at least since the ELI process.

Um, and I think that the approach of focusing on structural issues, particularly in such diverse communities, uh, really is the right approach, right?

We know that these communities are facing uh different issues, but the emphasis on coordination is gonna serve all of these communities when we focus on um coordination across um functions of the county.

Um, ultimately, I think that the function where we can improve our focus on these communities, like a county function where we can focus on um strategy and vision and having a strategy and vision for the unincorporated communities is what is gonna serve these communities for whom the county is our local government.

Thank you, my name's not just Supervisor Miley, and good evening.

I'm Juliana Weiser Leon, I work at Eden United Church of Christ.

My children attend uh school in Castro Valley, and I spent most of my time in Cherryland and the unincorporated communities.

One thing that I know from experience, and we know from the LAFCO study is that not all unincorporated communities are equal, and our needs uh and the needs of our communities are so uh unique.

Uh and in that we know that not everyone's voice is heard, and Eden Church and so many of our partners that I'm really proud to uh stand here tonight.

We've been working really hard um to bring more voices to the table.

We've been working really, really hard around advocacy, and uh I remember Claudia Albano when I started working in this community, she said uh if you're not at the table, you're on the menu.

And we many of us have taken that to heart, and and that's why we show up.

And tonight feels like one of those uh family reunions where you know we show up because we care, but we also we show up because we understand that this is life or death for many of our uh community members.

Um, that being an unincorporated resident means having less access to many things that would make us healthier, wealthier, etc.

etc.

So I'm really I'm really proud that we've gotten to this point.

Really grateful for this report.

Really grateful for the vision that we're holding for the future.

Uh, we're only here for that time, and we pass it along to the next generation.

Glad to see them here too.

Um, but continue to advocate.

This is not new.

We're the squeaky wheels that will keep showing up.

Uh, but we'll continue to advocate for this because we need it.

The unincorporated residents, we need it, and we won't be on the menu.

We'll keep showing up.

Thank you for your support.

Charles, you're on the line, you have two minutes.

We're on it and three.

Hello, Charles Pesano, uh San Lorenzo.

You've heard uh a lot of uh support for this measure tonight.

I'm gonna throw my support in there.

I've heard a few uh objections or comments on it.

The one that struck me the most was the first one, the gentleman who referred to the need for systemic change and none of this other stuff would matter.

I disagree with that.

I think that real change needs to be that uh the unincorporated urban area of Ashland, Trailand, San Lorenzo, etc.

Hayward Acres is still there too.

Needs to be recognized, it's not just about Castro Valley, the Castro Valley Mac, the Castro Valley Mac power, as Keith pointed out.

I believe that uh we need to move on.

Except this report is actually clear and concise work, unlike uh another objection I heard.

I think it's going to provide better access for people who don't understand how to navigate the system, better coordination among the agencies, and I'm full support and thank you for your time.

Rosemary for an item two, three.

Uh, yes, good evening.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Rosemary Vasquez, and I'm here this evening to speak in support of establishing an office on incorporated communities for a better understanding of who I am and why I'm here.

I live in Ashland for the last 30 years.

Work and advocate in Sheryland, and I'm a member at large of Maiden Voice, and that's why I'm here.

I respectfully disagree with uh supervisor time uh comment that we're here because we are we want to be uh incorporated.

That's not the reason why we're here.

We're here because we are experiencing poor communication from the county and equitable conditions in my community, lack of county accountability, and poor coordination between county departments.

Case in point is an example, the construction of East Lowelling Boulevard.

I live on East Lowelling Boulevard, and I will tell you that I've never received notice.

Um right now they are demolishing parts of the concrete that is being done.

Because PGE is coming now with things that are good.

I'm not saying that they shouldn't be, but if it was coordination, and if somebody's there looking after us, this in things that happened in the past, um, like the explosion would never happen.

I really believe so.

I also believe, as another example, um, a few months ago I went there to thank you, thank Supervisor Miley and others.

Um, we was they invested about 50 million dollars for mental health.

I even made the comment that it was wonderful to have a board that cares.

None, no one was in charge of advocating or even oversee where the money went.

And if you went to the people that it was intended for, so coordination again, and very specific.

So is your money?

That was our money, and it was not going to where it's supposed to.

Creating this office will help ensure unincorporated communities are no longer overlooked, but supported with the coordination, attention, and partnership we all deserve.

I believe um the communities will help county departments work better together in service of our community, improve communication and engagement with residents, and support a shared vision with the future of the unincorporated area.

I do agree with Supervisor that this evening office.

Thank you.

Your time, sir.

Mike, we're on item three.

Uh hello.

Uh, hello.

My name is Mike Corada.

Mike, I uh I am a Cherryland resident, and support.

I I am very impressed with you.

Um, um presentation.

So I have a reverse going here.

Um the the county is very good.

But I have work with most of the agencies and uh supervisor miling and supervisor jam both pointed out.

They're very busy.

The agencies are very busy, and they are reactive to county to to community.

Um it would be nice to have one person, two people, two people, keep the eye on what's going on, keep an eye on the promises, keep an eye on the timetables, keep an eye on the budget and the budget, keep an eye on the needs of the community.

And I think this agency, this is um um, this program, we do that, I support, thank you.

Barisha, we're on item three.

I am a resident of Ashton for 32 years and an original founding member of my invoice and a past member of in Livability Initiative governance leadership team.

I have seen firsthand how difficult it can be for residents to get issues addressed through the county system, which is why the proposed Office of Unincorporated Communities is a step in the right direction.

Too often, residents in unincorporated communities faces challenges, they face challenges getting basic issues addressed from infrastructure repairs, safety concerns, housing transportation, and community development projects.

Even one year ago, the uh a fair share for in families, um report found that Alameda County had significantly underspent in the unincorporated communities, um, compared to incorporated cities.

Um, we had limited access to reliable budget data um showing how our dollars are spent.

So residents of unincorporated Alameda County deserve their fair share, greater transparency, cross departmental communication, and the office of the unincorporated communities to help create stronger accountability and more equitable investment into our neighborhoods.

Please place it uh please place it in the county administrator's office and support this initiative.

We need this to provide social justice for our unincorporated communities.

Muchas gracias por su tiempo y gracias por escucharnos a todas las habla hispana.

Gracias.

Maria, we're on item three.

Hola, buenas noches.

Mi nombre es María González y soy residente de Cherry Land.

Estoy aquí para expresar mi preocupación que tenemos in la comunidad.

Ocupamos una solución para la tiradera de basura in la Western Boulevard y Sunset.

Okay.

Les perjudica.

Este tiran la basura.

Y pues por eso también sería important que tengamos una oficina de administración del condado in nuestra area no incorporado para que la comunidad pueda tener acceso más fácil para comunicarse.

Esperamos apoyo.

Muchas gracias.

Carl, we're on item three.

You have two minutes.

Toku.

Do you wish to speak?

I have no additional speakers for the setting.

So that everybody get to speak.

So Brienne, you have any um reaction, concluding, because I know you've been taking notes anything.

Yeah.

30 six speakers, with two people in opposition and the rest in support.

So I guess just in conclusion, and I'm sure because everyone wants to get home.

Just to recap, I will be taking the feedback I heard today.

I'll be following up with your office and with Supervisor Tam's office.

I think there's this outstanding issue about where we place the pilot project.

So hopefully we can convene the three of us on different, you know, around that and make a call.

And as I said earlier, I'll be at transportation and planning on Monday.

That will give um Supervisor Hauber a chance given that he represents the rural unincorporated communities to weigh in as well.

And then we can and and that's Monday, and then Tuesday is the Measure W allocation meeting that for the at the board level.

So in the next week we should have greater clarity about what some of the different issues are that each of the each of the supervisors has on their mind.

Um and I'll take into account some of the community feedback today as we move into the next iteration.

But uh thank you.

I don't know if there's anything else you want me to answer, but I think that's the timeline and process, and um, you know, we can be back.

I can be back here uh what with a final proposal if that's something of interest to you.

Yeah, I think you got good feedback this evening and seems like you're on track based on what I've heard.

So I'm kind of glad you um modified, you know, your your thinking around it.

So yeah, great.

Because like I said, I think it's iterative based on where we are and our efforts at um moving forward with something that best serves us services the other corporate area, and I do think it's important that uh we secure that 300,000 per year for two years from Measure W.

Yeah, I think that's very important.

Yeah, I think without that, we're gonna struggle on the funding end.

So I'm with you on that.

Um, and yeah, really thank you to everybody who came out.

There was a lot of community input, and I also know for a lot of our Spanish speakers.

I didn't say this earlier, but we did have a um I did do a community meeting in with Spanish translation so folks could um have access to that ahead of time as well since the materials were were not translated, um, and I'll work on that moving ahead.

Um, so yeah, thank you to everybody.

Thanks for all the input, and thank you for Supervisor Miley and Supervisor Tam for all the support through this process.

Okay, well, thank you.

Thank you.

So let's see, do we have any speakers on non-agendized items?

Aaron and Aaron Panfilio.

Good evening.

I just wanted to introduce myself, Aaron Pentilio with Alameda County Fire.

I'll be the liaison fire rep for this meeting.

Glad to be here.

Thank you.

Oh well, thank you for showing up.

Okay.

Yeah.

Do you want to do this?

I actually wanted to um just say two things.

One, we need someone here that translates for people that are here.

I don't mind doing it.

I'm totally fine.

I'm not always here.

So I think that like the Zoom option just doesn't really work for in person.

That's just something I just I think we all know, but I want to reiterate.

The second thing is I really want to um thank the board of supervisors for um denying a new liquor store opening in Ashland.

I wanna, yes.

Um, I want to really thank all the community members that came out.

Um it was such a strong show of force from the community, and I think it was great.

I thought it was really beautiful to see everybody come together, and um it was a right thing for the community, and I really appreciated that the board listened to us, and um also just I was very happy with it.

I talked to the kids about it.

They weren't able to be at the meeting because it was during school hours, but they were really excited to hear that their efforts were not in vain when they went to the Mac and that they were heard.

And I would just say that reducing access really does work.

We have seen it with the tobacco retail ordinance.

We have closed, I think at this point, six tobacco retailers.

And when you look at the healthy kids survey in San Lorenzo, the numbers are down for like 30-day use, use in school, all the metrics.

It's down to like I don't know, 10%, which is like a 10 to 12% decrease across the board.

And so these policies really do work.

It is good for our community.

And again, I just really want to congratulate us as a community from the supervisors to the community members down to say that we did something really good.

And so thank you to everybody that was a part of that.

Yeah, thank Tyler.

Thank Tyler for filing the appeal.

Because any of filed the appeal, it wouldn't even have gotten to the board of supervisors.

Yeah, I want to I want to piggyback on what you just said there.

And you said it at the hearing, the BZA got it wrong.

The BZA got it wrong, and I was upset with them.

Uh, their next meeting was canceled because I plan on going to the next meeting and reprimanding them for that decision because damn it, the BZA was put in place to prevent things like that from happening, not to lubricate the way for it to slip into our community.

Um, and I'm I'm looking forward to maybe uh possibly us uh uh establishing another ordinance to uh um to piggyback on to the uh tobacco uh the tobacco outlets of making it a thousand feet uh that has there has to be a minimum of a thousand feet between establishments for liquor establishments as there is for the uh for the smoke uh the smoke shop establishments.

Anyway, again, thank you for pointing out that they got it wrong.

I really did get it wrong on our and jewel and jewel, I think Jules Spaulding was Jules Balding was a part of the team that we you know when we put the BZA together.

I think she on yeah, I'm gonna give her the most help.

I apologize for making it mic go a little bit longer.

Um I don't have a speaker card up there because there wasn't one on the table, and they told me to come up here.

So um, good evening, um, Supervisor Miley.

Um, my name is Diane Castlebrand with AC Transit, and I just wanted to provide a public service announcement.

I have a little bit of good news at the end, but I may not have time, so I can just email um your staff.

But on Wednesday um June 10th at 5 p.m.

the AC Transit Board of Directors will consider reducing service due to significant budget shortfalls.

Um we are really grateful to the state for a loan that has stabilized new next year's budget, but AC Transit still faces a four-year 200 million dollar deficit beginning in 2028.

Um, without new sustainable revenue, um, by the end of um identified by the end of this calendar year, we are facing the possibility of service reductions of over 16% across our network and a loss of up to 300 jobs.

Um AC Transit has started to prepare for this worst-case scenario.

So, if no new funding is uh secured, service reductions will likely take effect as early as June 2027.

I do want to be clear that um no decision has been made yet.

Um, but June 10th, the actual uh draft plan will post on our ACTransit.org website on June 5th, and then the board will hear hear a report and have a conversation about that and um choose whether they will accept that report um and then set a public hearing at a later date.

Um while our priority is to preserve current service levels, we also want to be transparent about the challenges we face.

So, once again, we will have um this meeting introducing um our consideration of worst case scenario to reduce do service at our June 10th meeting prior to that meeting at our downtown offices at 1600 Franklin Street and downtown Oakland.

We'll also have an open house where planning staff will be meeting with people to answer questions.

We'll also um I'm working with your uh staff to see if we can come back to this body and the other Macs to be able to provide like a 10 minute presentation on what's being proposed in this draft plan.

So um thank you very much.

And the last thing I just wanted to share on the good news is year over year, the last um February, March, and April, we've seen a ridership increase of by about four percent, and that represents about sixty-three thousand new riders per month.

So um that concludes my comments.

Thank you.

Yeah, th thanks, Diane.

And I just would um maybe Diane doesn't know.

Since I'm on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, uh we voted $55 million to AC Transit, you know, for that loan.

It's a loan.

You have to pay it back, but it is $55 million.

Thank you very much.

So it's still a loan, yeah.

Bruce, we're in public comment.

Uh hello, Supervisor Miley, Bruce Doogie here.

Um I wanted to bring up a uh health and safety concern.

Uh you you seemed uh concerned about health and safety earlier.

Uh on Somerset.

First of all, thank you so much for the uh gorgeous sidewalks and the new asphalt.

Um, but I am concerned about the safety of the uh students uh riding to uh to the high school and to the middle schools and anywhere else they need to to go for for school on Somerset.

So if we could get those uh commute hour bike lanes, um I I made a presentation to uh the BPAC and uh Director Wall Dessenbet uh was pretty adversarial on that topic, and so I get the impression that he's not necessarily planning to uh follow your directive, which is to um you know install these uh commute hour bike lanes.

Um, but anyway, I I have a I've sent you an email and um uh it has the details of my presentation, um, and so uh we would appreciate very much if we could get um these uh commute hour bike lanes, super important.

There was a student that was riding on the sidewalk, actually.

Uh somebody that we know um was and and a car had backed up into them.

I have the video of that collision.

The student was uh fortunate enough to to walk away.

The bicycle actually got crushed under the car.

Um, so so we know that you know, riding on the sidewalk isn't really a great solution.

So, um, so we would like to have bike lanes, uh, you know.

Thank you.

I have no more speakers for public comment.

Okay, so tonight's unincorporated services meeting for May 27th is adjourned.

We'll see everyone in June.