I’m Bryan Parker and I’m here to ask for your vote for Supervisor this June 7^th.

Over the last several months, I’ve met many Castro Valley residents who are frustrated by the status quo. Castro Valley’s demographics and needs have changed. Its governance has not. For Castro Valley to take its next step as a community, leadership must change. Castro Valley needs leaders with vision, urgency, and a willingness to innovate.

Castro Valley residents are rightly asking questions. Where are our tax dollars going? Why can’t that information be presented to us in a transparent way? Why does the Supervisor, our de facto mayor, get to appoint his friends and donors to our Municipal Advisory Council (MAC)? Why don’t we have a voice?

I have heard many explanations for why things should be the way they are throughout this campaign. None are satisfactory. It has been suggested that because competitive races for the MAC would require campaign donations, a fact that is true throughout our democracy, they would unfairly limit the pool of candidates and potentially expose candidates to corruption. It has been suggested that competitive elections for the MAC would open a pandora’s box leading to all appointed positions becoming subject to elections.

These are arguments for the status quo are raised repeatedly and with conviction by beneficiaries of the status quo.

I don’t believe that an elected MAC is a panacea for Castro Valley. I do believe it’s an important step towards identifying leaders who are supported by the community and ready to leverage their talents and networks to define a vision for what Castro Valley should do next. Castro Valley needs a long-term vision through which it can filter individual planning decisions and start to define its identity and landscape. That vision should incorporate Castro Valley’s heritage with its modern needs and it would, through a democratic process.

As Supervisor, I pledge to be a facilitator and a leader, not a dictator. My job will be to work with you to identify the public and private resources required to actualize your vision. I will be frank with you and I’ll work to ensure that every public meeting is conducted with clarity and purpose.

Castro Valley is not all that it could be because its problems are not being met with the urgency they demand. Many roads lack sidewalks, street signs, and markings that would ensure a safe trip to school for children. I’ve spoken with residents who have been hit by a car thanks to a problem they identified months or years prior. The safety of residents should be our first concern, and to address safety, we need to fix the process for identifying and elevating problems.

I’ve heard great ideas, like extending the Castro Valley streetscape towards Lake Chabot and updating the downtown specific plan, which is now more than 20 years old. I can work to streamline approvals and to promote Castro Valley to attract investment in a business district. If we act with urgency and purpose, and if we gain legitimacy for the MAC’s objectives through democratic elections, these initiatives can come to fruition.

At the end of four years I expect to have developed a much better process for making decisions, one that emphasizes and enforces accountability through elections. Many concepts, such as a downtown public space or town square, would take more than four years to complete and may not be feasible without incorporation. Ultimately Castro Valley’s fate is in the hands of Castro Valley residents. As Supervisor, it’s my responsibility to facilitate a decision-making process that gives residents the ability to choose their local representatives, to support their representatives, and to hold them accountable for achieving the progress they commit themselves to.

Throughout my career in the private and public sector, I’ve demonstrated an ability to respond to problems with urgency and get results. As a healthcare executive at DaVita, a Fortune 500 company providing kidney dialysis, I turned a division that was making $400 million in revenue and losing money into a division making over $1 billion in revenue and generating profits. I led a redesign of DaVita’s clinics that reduced costs by 20% by improving workflow efficiency and I drove efforts that improved access for dialysis patients.

I have experience managing large budgets proactively, identifying inefficiencies, and redirecting funds to their best possible use.

As a Commissioner of the Port of Oakland, I led efforts at fiscal reforms and reduced the Port’s debt, saving between $30-$50 million a year. I also led the revitalization of the Oakland Army Base site and proposed innovative solutions to reduce traffic and air pollution.

As Supervisor, I’ll improve the County’s oversight of contracts and ensure that expenditures and results are reported in a transparent way.

I’ve been an active member of our community, raising funds for Alameda County’s Meals on Wheels program and serving as a trustee at Holy Names University. I’m a volunteer football coach at Oakland’s Castlemont High School, where I mentor young men to provide the same hand up that was given to me so that they achieve their own education and a bright future.

I was raised by a single mom who worked tirelessly to provide opportunities for me and my sister. My mom was raised in the segregated South and worked to integrate her high school in rural Georgia. She taught me that hard work, integrity, respect for others, and education are the path to a better life, and that those who are blessed in this life have a responsibility to give back.

I am honored to have received the endorsements of Congressman Eric Swalwell, Trustee Dot Theodore, EBMUD Director Frank Mellon, Castro Valley Sanitation District President Melody Appleton, the former Superintendent of Castro Valley’s schools Jim Negri, the East Bay Times, and many Castro Valley residents.

I would be honored to earn your vote.