Why GRCAR for BART?
Dr. Grcar is running for the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART). He is committed to addressing the system's challenges and improving its essential services. With his experience in scientific research and analysis, Dr. Grcar is uniquely qualified to understand the root cause of problems and to lead BART to a sustainable future. As your District 5 Director, Dr. Grcar pledges to prioritize:
Safety and Security: As a long-time rider, Dr. Grcar sees how security and cleanliness are critical to making BART a viable travel option. He supports placing more police officers and crisis intervention specialists on trains. It is estimated 80 % of crimes and vandalism are committed by just 20 % of the people who skip fares. Dr. Grcar supports installing new, modern fare gates to deter fare evasion—because it is also the simplest way to deter crime. Some new fare gates are being selectively installed now. Dr. Grcar will fight to keep them in the budget until all stations have them.
Financial Crisis. Dr. Grcar understands loss of ridership during and after the pandemic severely reduced revenue. However, he agrees with District 1 Director Debora Allen, that management will use the crisis to get more subsidies (Mercury News, August 12). Dr. Grcar advocates an Efficiency Committee working independent of management to develop cost-containment and revenue plans. For example, school districts and automobile manufacturers automatically furlough workers when revenues decline. The BART system should modify its labor contracts to include similar provisions.
Commuters. Dr. Grcar favors shifting costs to employers by giving reduced fare Clipper Cards to all commuters. For each $1 paid by the employee, BART would invoice the employer to recover the unsubsidized cost of transportation. His opponent leads an agency, Valley Link, that will run non-BART trains between the border of Alameda County and Dublin / Pleasanton. Without Dr. Grcar's plan, these trains crowd commuters onto BART, who do not pay taxes in counties that subsidize BART.
Active, Participatory Democracy. Dr. Grcar's opponent resigned from an elected office, Mayor of Dublin, to become an appointed incumbent BART Director, thereby discouraging opponents and setting-up a no-contest "election". Beginning as Mayor in 2020 and now as BART Director, the opponent takes a salary from Supervisor Haubert ($96,428.80 in 2024). Dr. Grcar already has disrupted these plans by challenging the appointed incumbent. Vote for Dr. Grcar to vote against influence-peddling.
Local Media's Perspective on GRCAR for BART
By Jude Strzemp on October 23, 2024
Safety and fiscal management are top priorities for incumbent Melissa Hernandez and challenger Joe Grcar in the race for BART Board of Directors in District 5.
But differing methodologies separate the hopefuls aiming to represent a large portion of the Tri-Valley, including BART stations at Dublin-Pleasanton, West Dublin-Pleasanton, Castro Valley and Hayward.
Whereas Hernandez supports diversifying revenue sources, Grcar supports something akin to furloughing BART employees when revenue is down and transferring fares to employers, according to their campaign websites.
However they agree police and mental health resources are needed to keep BART riders safe.
Grcar is a retired laboratory scientist and said his experience in research and analysis will enable him to problem-solve issues with the BART system and create its sustainable future, according to his website. He is also running for office in the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District, the Castro Valley Sanitary District and the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District in the Nov. 5 election.
As a BART director, he wants to improve transit agency’s safety and fiscal management. He also wants to shift fares from commuters to employers.
“Security and cleanliness are critical to making BART a viable travel option,” he wrote on his website.
To make BART safer, he supports increasing the presence of police and crisis intervention specialists on trains. He also supports installing new fare gates at all stations “to deter fare evasion — because it is also the simplest way to deter crime”, he wrote on his website.
On the cost-reduction side of his plan, he wrote, “School districts and automobile manufacturers automatically furlough workers when revenues decline. The BART system should modify its labor contracts to include similar provisions.” (The steps of furloughing in schools and auto industry often depend on their union contracts.)
Grcar is also in favor of creating an efficiency committee to develop cost-containment and revenue plans, according to his website.
For long-distance commutes, Grcar wants employers to foot the bill. Potentially, commuters would ride for free or at a low cost and the fare would be subsidized by their employer.
Grcar said his billing plan would bring in a lot of revenue, as commuters travel via the future Valley Link train onto the BART system.
“Without my plan, these commuters from San Joaquin County will be subsidized by the taxpayers of Alameda County through the sales tax and other taxes that Alameda pays to keep BART operating,” he told the Weekly.
Local Media's Perspective on GRCAR for BART
By David Jen on October 30, 2024
Former lab scientist Joseph Grcar is challenging Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Director Melissa Hernandez for the District 5 seat, to which she was appointed in May following the abrupt resignation of Director John McPartland.
District 5 stretches from Castro Valley to the county’s eastern boundary, including the Tri-Valley. Both candidates view declining BART revenues as one of the agency’s top priorities.
Joseph Grcar
Grcar said he decided to run when he saw no one else challenging Hernandez.
“I thought it was a good idea to at least have some discussion,” said Grcar. “(Hernandez) was a city councilmember of Dublin. And then she gets selected (as) mayor. Okay, well that’s quite an accomplishment. But she was only a mayor for three and a half years, and then she up and quits to run to get appointed to the BART board. I can’t understand that. Is she going to quit being a BART director in three and a half years?”
Grcar also questioned Hernandez’s position on Alameda County Supervisor David Haubert’s staff both during her time as mayor and as a BART director.
“(Haubert) wanted a vote on the BART board, and he wanted to continue running the city of Dublin back when he left,” said Grcar. “I mean, that is corruption and he’s doing it.”
Haubert served as Dublin’s mayor from 2014 to 2020.
Grcar believes that a system to gradually furlough non-essential (BART) employees when revenues fall should have been implemented “a long time ago.”
“I think there’s a lot of room that they could reduce staff in these times when revenue is down, and it wouldn’t really hurt the service,” said Grcar. “I don’t want to cut service at all.”
He has also proposed charging corporations the cost of their employees’ commutes on BART.
“What those companies in San Francisco are doing is they’re taking advantage of the people in Alameda County, who pay this tax money to keep the BART system going,” said Grcar.
Grcar said he would welcome a regional tax as long as the increase did not apply to Alameda County.
“Alameda has been paying more than our fair share for BART for a long time and I’m not willing to do anymore,” he said.
Grcar is also running for three more positions in the general election: Chabot-Las Positas Community College District Board of Trustees, Castro Valley Sanitary District Board of Directors, and the Hayward Area Recreation and Park Board of Directors.
Melissa Hernandez
Hernandez ... did not respond to requests for an interview.
If Livermore doesn't want BART, maybe Sunol does?
(Just kidding! RIP Bosco.)