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The BART board will get a much-needed overhaul this yr. Unfortunately, the change of 5 of the nine elected directors is unlikely to tip the political balance toward responsible fiscal behavior.
Of the 4 seats with latest directors within the East Bay, just one could have a competitive election on Nov. 5. That's the District 7 race where Dana Lang, a BART Police Citizen Review Board member and former traffic analyst, is the highest selection.
It's disappointing that there isn't a bigger election campaign, a more serious debate about BART's troubled funds, and a greater likelihood of much-needed change.
Rejection by the board
The BART board consists of representatives from San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The county also provides service to Santa Clara County under a contract with the Valley Transportation Authority.
For two years, monthly BART ridership has hovered around 40-43% of pre-pandemic levels. In fact, the shift might be everlasting as employees' commuting habits, particularly to downtown San Francisco, have radically modified and population growth within the region is leveling off.
But while BART management and most district directors say the transportation system is heading toward a “fiscal cliff.” Refuse to hit the brakes. Instead, they’ve recklessly continued to extend spending while pushing for approval from lawmakers to place a tax increase before voters in 2026.
“Rather than taking practical steps to address its enormous operating deficits, BART prefers to simply beg taxpayers locally and across America for billions more in funding to continue expanding the system far beyond ridership demand,” wrote Director Debora Allen last month in a scathing – and accurate – criticism of her fellow board members and district leadership.
Allen, a trained accountant who has been a refreshing and almost lone voice on the board for fiscal responsibility for nearly eight years, has had enough and has decided to not run for re-election. Her seat is one among 4 East Bay seats opening up this yr.
District 1
Allen might be replaced by Matt Rinn, who’s completing his second four-year term on the Pleasant Hill City Council. Rinn is unopposed in BART District 1, which stretches from Orinda northeast to a part of Concord and southeast to a part of San Ramon.
Rinn agrees with Allen that the district has been mismanaged for years. He says he’ll subject county operations to the same review, but perhaps with a unique style that he hopes can create a fiscally responsible coalition on the board.
District 3
Director Rebecca Saltzman announced last yr that she wouldn’t seek re-election in a district that stretches from Berkeley to Hercules and Rodeo. She said her full-time job and BART responsibilities didn't leave her enough time for family. Now she's running for El Cerrito City Council.
Only one candidate, Barnali Ghosh, desired to fill the District 3 emptiness. Ghosh is a mayor appointed to Berkeley's Planning Commission and Transportation and Infrastructure Commission. It enjoys the support of major BART unions and five BART board membersincluding Saltzman, who spearheaded the failed BART financial strategy. Ghosh didn’t return our calls.
District 5
After BART Director John McPartland suddenly resigned in April, just months after the tip of his fourth term, the board named Dublin Mayor Melissa Hernandez as his successor.
Hernandez is now running for a full four-year term, representing a district that stretches from San Leandro and a part of Hayward east to Livermore. We hope she is healthier prepared and provides more informed financial evaluation than McPartland, who delivered a disappointing balance sheet Lack of information the employment contracts and budgets approved by him.
Hernandez has no significant resistance. The other candidate on the ballot, Joseph Grcar, a retired mathematician who worked at Sandia National Laboratory in Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is currently running 4 different district boards at the identical time: BART, Chabot-Las Positas Community College District, Castro Valley Sanitary District and Hayward Area Recreation and Park District.
If he just ran for one candidate and built a meaningful campaign, we’d take him more seriously.
District 7
Instead of searching for re-election, Director Lateefah Simon is running for outgoing Rep. Barbara Lee's congressional seat and is the clear favorite to win.
Simon leaves behind a two-way race to succeed her on the BART board, which represents a district that features North Oakland, Piedmont, Emeryville, Alameda, Treasure Island and San Francisco's Bayview District.
Of the 2 candidates, Dana Lang has by far the stronger analytical, financial and transportation skills. She has an MBA from UC Berkeley and has worked on government policy evaluation and grants for greater than twenty years, much of it focused on transportation. Her employers included the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, San Francisco MUNI and San Francisco International Airport.
Her opponent, Victor Flores, whose profession has focused on each political organizing and politics, wants BART to think about further crossing the Bay and get even deeper into the event business – each misguided goals.
BART has enough problems attracting riders to its existing system and fulfilling its core mission of providing public transit service that’s clean, secure, reliable and fiscally viable. The final thing it should do is construct a second crossing and switch it right into a development agency.
The selection on this one competitive East Bay race is evident: Elect Dana Lang in District 7.
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