Cityhood for Castro Valley

By Vince Reyes

Castro Valley requires local governance so that residents have full representation and input into their own local affairs.

I would work with residents to craft a process so that they can decide for themselves if incorporation is an appropriate course of action for the community.

What needs to be determined is how much incorporation would cost per each household and would it be worth it to the residents to incur such costs.

I am personally in favor of incorporation since it gives more local control over decision-making in city policies and in particular, development projects. Services such as public works and law enforcement could then be negotiated as under city control or still be contracted out to the County. But these are decision that could best be decided by residents.

The Board of Supervisors should put resources into developing an outreach process (townhall meetings, resident surveys, etc.) to receive input, recommendations, and utimately a ballot measure if necessary.