Incumbents Return as BART and HARD Directors
Castro Valley’s representation for Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and Hayward Area Recreation and Park District (HARD) should look familiar next year. With more than half of the ballots now counted by Alameda County, incumbents are winning over challengers by wide margins.
Current District 5 representative Melissa Hernandez leads the ballot count for the open seat. She received 48,080, or 69.93 percent of the votes. Her challenger, Joseph Grcar, received 20,676, or 30.07 percent of the vote.
District 5 covers the Castro Valley, Dublin/Pleasanton, Hayward, and West Dublin/Pleasanton stations. The transit agency is managed by nine elected officials from the nine BART districts. Board members serve a four-year term.
Hernadez was appointed to the position on May 23, 2024, following District 5 Director John McPartland's resignation. She is the first Latina to serve on the BART Board. She was a Dublin council member for eight years and served as the city’s mayor for four years until June 2024.
Grcar is a former lab scientist who also ran for three other elected positions, including the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District Board of Trustees, the Castro Valley Sanitary District Board of Directors, and HARD.
BART's October ridership numbers show 180,834 weekday riders--a 5.6 percent increase over last year. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, BART served 405,000 trips on an average weekday.
The Board and its committees typically meet on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month. Next year, the transit system will install they new fare gates at all remaining stations.
Six Candidates, Three Seats in HARD Race
In the contest to elect a board for HARD, voters were asked to choose their top three candidates.
Rick Hatcher led all votes with 33,379, or 31.99 percent. Louis Manuel Andrade has maintained second place with 19,928 votes, or 19.10 percent. Current Board President Peter Rosen holds 18,245 votes or 17.49 percent of overall ballots. The Castro Valley Democratic Club endorsed all three men.
Challenger Luis Reynoso is the next eligible seat seeker but has only 14,792 votes or 14.18 percent. Candidates Joseph Grcar and Kenneth Owen have secured the final ballots.
HARD’s parks and services span a 100-square-mile area, including the City of Hayward and the unincorporated communities of Castro Valley, San Lorenzo, Ashland, Cherryland, and Fairview.
The five-member Board determines the District's policies, rules, regulations, and ordinances. It rules on all matters relative to fiscal expenditures, acquisitions, development, improvement, and maintenance of park and recreation facilities and programs.
