Alexandra Matteucci, The Joseph Matteucci Foundation for Youth Non Violence
Dennis Waespi, Sanitary District
Doris Shaw, Retired Office Supervisor
Irwin Lazarus, Retired Teacher
June Wallace, Retired CV Teacher
Joellen Oslund, Capt. USNR, Retired
Mary Drag, CV Community Activist
Marty Hoag, Communication Consultant/Teacher
Pat Burke, Baywood District Activist
Professor and Mrs. Mark Van Aken
Roberta Rivet, Municipal Advisory Committee
Ron Meissner, Financial Consultant
Sam Bagby, Programming Consultant
Suzanne Barba, Member Eden Township Healthcare District

Dear Editor:

Many of us who have endorsed the idea of cityhood for Castro Valley never did so thinking that we wanted to transform the town. We want to preserve it; revitalize it. You can't do that by letting others who don't live or work here make all the decisions for you. That is what being incorporated is all about.

Some say that this is all very nice but we just can't afford to become a town. It's because we have no industry, no big shopping centers or strings of auto dealerships to generate a lot of tax dollars. If that were really true, how would you explain the number of small towns that exist in California that don't have these things? Within an hour's driving time of Castro Valley alone there are  a number of small towns with little or no industry and no major shopping malls: Albany, Hercules, Pinole, Orinda, Moraga, Oakley,  Brentwood and many more.

What you need to become a town  is enough revenue to pay for police, street maintenance and local planning and zoning. That is all that is being considered for Castro Valley . The agency that is behind the Castro Valley study is called LAFCO, Local Agency Formation Commision.  It is not a special interest group, as it is made up diversely of County Supervisors, City Council members and Special Districts members within the County. LAFCO has the responsibility of deciding whether Castro Valley can afford to provide these services with the existing property and sales taxes, utility fees, plus what added funds it gets from the State.

So far, LAFCO has determined that Castro Valley can incorporate simply by adding the TOT, or Total Transient Occupancy Tax, a hotel room tax paid by hotel guests, not local residents. This is something that is pretty common in every town in the bay area and would not affect local residents at all. The UUT, or Utility Users Tax, is already in place. Although these sources of revenue were not taken into account in the first draft of the study (which prematurely heralded infeasibility), when they are included (along with the Dublin model for the Sheriff 's budget) there is no problem with Castro Valley cityhood affordability. The idea has always been to have the County continue providing police and street services under a contract so that we could keep costs to a minimum.

Castro Valley can govern itself at no added cost to its taxpayers. It will work to protect what is left of our hillsides and improve our business district without asking anyone to do it for us. The decision makers will be local people that Castro Valley residents choose for themselves.

 We want to preserve the good things we have but have the power to control changes we don't want.  Cityhood will allow us to do just that.
 

"Local self-government is one of our most precious possessions. It is the greatest contributing factor to the stability, strength, liberty, and progress of the nation." --Calvin Coolidge: Third Annual Message to Congress, pp. 9514-9515