Dublin Mayor chosen to fill Tri-Valley BART board vacancy

The BART Board of Directors has filled the open seat for the district representing most of the Tri-Valley, with Dublin Mayor Melissa Hernandez selected and sworn in to fill the remainder of the term vacated by longtime director John McPartland earlier in the year.

Hernandez was chosen from a pool of three candidates for the transit agency’s District 5 seat at the board’s meeting Thursday, beating out retired Contra Costa Deputy Sheriff Gabriel Rodrigues and Pleasanton businessman Bruce Delevaux to finish out the rest of McPartland’s term through December. The seat represents the communities of Castro Valley, Cherryland, Dublin, Fairview, Hayward, Livermore, Pleasanton and Sunol.

“As a local mayor and chair of two regional transit boards, I know BART can do more to improve on-time service, keep trains clean and safe for riders, and ensure more responsible fiscal management,” Hernandez said in an announcement Thursday. “I want to thank the board for their vote of confidence. I’m ready to hit the ground running to keep our trains moving for the communities we all serve.”

Next steps for filling Dublin’s mayoral vacancy will be announced in the coming weeks, according to Hernandez’s announcement.

District 3 Director Rebecca Saltzman made the motion to select Hernandez to fill the District 5 vacancy at Thursday’s meeting, which was approved in a 6-2 vote.

“I have had the opportunity to work with Mayor Hernandez on the Alameda County Transportation Commission for many years and I’ve been really impressed with how rooted she is in Dublin and the whole Tri-Valley area – and really it is the whole area, not just Dublin, but also that she brings as much energy to the regional issues, to the transportation issues – I mean you can see by this long list of all the places she has served, she really puts energy into the whole community,” Saltzman said.

District 1 Director Debora Allen, who represents Walnut Creek, Danville, San Ramon, and portions of unincorporated Contra Costa County, and District 6 Director Liz Ames, who represents the portion of Pleasanton not included in District 5, cast the two opposing votes against Hernandez’s appointment.

Allen said her decision was due to her support for Rodrigues instead for the position, with Ames pointing to a number of reservations about the appointment including her disagreement with Hernandez’s support for the Valley Link Rail project set to begin construction next year.

“The mayor’s got all of these connections, she’s on all of these transportation boards, but then I have some issues with transportation choices that ACTC has made and all these other agencies – for example, Valley Link,” Ames said. “I’m not real supportive of Valley Link. I thought we could extend ACE to Dublin. I just want to see, I would say more new ideas.”

Hernandez was in her second and final term as Dublin’s mayor under the city’s term limits, with her election in 2020 making her the Tri-Valley’s first-ever Latina mayor. She succeeded former Dublin mayor and current District 1 Supervisor David Haubert. She has also overseen health and human services for Haubert’s office since 2020.

While the appointment ensures just a few months on the BART board through the end of the year, Hernandez is also seeking a full four-year term in the position in the upcoming November election, with McPartland having given her his endorsement.

“Melissa Hernandez is going to be able to walk into many of the rooms that we need to have leadership and representation, whether that’s in Sacramento or with the San Jose Extension,” BART Board President Bevan Dufty said in Thursday’s announcement. “Melissa has a tremendous set of experiences and is well known. Former Director John McPartland has been supportive of Melissa’s candidacy and that heartens me as well.”

Rodrigues, who currently serves on the BART Police Citizens Review Board and was also spoken highly of during the BART board’s selection process, also plans to run for the District 5 full-term seat.