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In addition to Fairview, Alameda County
Supervisor Nate Miley represents the
unincorporated areas of Ashland, Cherryland
and Castro Valley.
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ALAMEDA COUNTY
The tiny 10,000-person hamlet of Fairview, an unincorporated area between Hayward and Castro Valley, received approval from the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Tuesday to create its own quasi-government body, the first in the county in more than three decades.
The Fairview Municipal Advisory Council establishes a five-member board for the unincorporated area. Alameda County last approved a MAC in 1981 for Castro Valley, for which the Fairview MAC is modeled on.
Supervisor Nate Miley, who represents Fairview, said the newly-formed MAC will give residents the ability to better participate in the area’s decision-making process. Fairview’s location brings unique land-use issues to the table since it straddles urban and somewhat rural areas of Alameda County. In addition, the area is, in many cases, economically-depressed.
Several proponents of the Fairview MAC’s establishment called it “democracy in action,” during Tuesday morning’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
Fairview residents, though, will not receive full representation. Like in Castro Valley, the Fairview MAC members will be appointed solely by Miley. In addition, decisions made by the Fairview MAC are only recommendations to Miley. Other unincorporated areas in Alameda County have pushed for their own MAC in recent years, such as Cherryland, Ashland and San Lorenzo.
Approval for the Fairview MAC and the positive connection made to Castro Valley’s MAC comes at a curious moment. Over the past two years, a grassroots movement in Castro Valley has routinely called for their MAC to be elected by voters and not appointed by Miley.
Their proposal was rebuffed by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors last year, but the group has continued its advocacy for greater representation. Miley has repeatedly said he does not have a position on the elected MAC issue. “There are pluses and minuses,” he said last year. “Let’s let the voters decide.” But, the cost of a special election would be costly, roughly $160,000, said the Alameda County Registar Tim Dupuis.
The Fairview MAC’s first official could occur in early October, Miley said, and the composition of the five-member MAC could be in place by September. Miley’s office will footed the roughly $20,000 bill for hosting the MAC’s meetings and assigning county staff to facilitate them.
ebcitizen.com 
By MW:
I believe San Lorenzo is also considering getting a MAC, and I believe Nate Miley has cooked up a lot of supposedly “good reasons” why the members of San Lorenzo's proposed MAC should be appointed by the AC Board of Supervisors, and rather than be voted on by San Lorenzo residents.
For instance, supposedly selecting the members of a San Lorenzo MAC by a vote of San Lorenzo residents would cost approx 160K, and I believe Miley thinks such an expenditure would be excessive, and even though the entire AC budget is approx. three billion dollars per year.
In fact Susan Muranishi, and who is AC's Administrator, has a total annual compensation of approx 770K per year, and which almost certainly makes her the most highly paid County Administrator in the entire state of California, and perhaps even in the entire United States, and her annual compensation probably also exceeds that of every single city manager in the entire state of California, and perhaps even in the entire United States. But supposedly AC cannot find a measly 160K to select a MAC for San Lorenzo by vote.
Or if AC does not want to reduce Muranishi's outrageously high pay, it could layoff one of the useless drunks in the County's Fire Department so as to save over 160K, AND IN FACT EVERY SINGLE YEAR, and Bay area fire departments are loaded with totally useless drunks.
And in fact let's save even more money by getting rid of elections entirely in Alameda County, and instead have all public officials be selected and appointed by Nate Miley, and including since Miley “knows” that he is a man of the very highest intelligence, ethics, and integrity, and just an extremely wonderful all around and totally trustworthy person.
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By MW:
According to what I have read, in the Soviet Union they had so called unions that pretended to represent workers, in other words “unions” that were set up by and run by management and the government to “represent” the workers.
And in Alameda County we have Municipal Advisory Councils set up and appointed by that great “liberal” Nate Miley to “represent” us.
And isn't it wonderful and neat that Fairview's MAC will be modeled on Castro Valley's MAC!!!
In other words, I hope Fairview's MAC does as great a job of being totally useless and a stooge and puppet on a string for Miley as Castro Valley's has been.
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