Times soon after Lateefah Simon was pressured to vacate her position on the BART Board of Directors, two users want the company to request exterior legal advice to identify if she could be reinstated.
Simon, the only Black director on the board, was stripped of her seat Wednesday immediately after she lately moved out of her district, in spite of assurances she said she obtained from BART officers that her move saved her in district boundaries.
Simon’s ouster prompted outcry on social media from supporters and numerous nearby officials who argued Simon shouldn’t have been forced to vacate her seat.
The agency’s Board of Administrators has 60 days to appoint a alternative to fill the District 7 seat vacated by Simon, who was re-elected in 2020. In a Friday afternoon letter to BART Normal Supervisor Bob Powers, board Administrators Bevan Dufty and Janice Li said the company should really pause that procedure.
In its place, they wrote, “expert outside the house counsel need to be enlisted quickly to support BART and the public to decide possibly (Simon’s) authorized ideal to return or her potential to be appointed by the Board of Administrators.”
“We unequivocally guidance Director Simon and we, for that reason, assistance each individual lawful avenue she has to retain her seat and provide her constituents and the entirety of the BART District,” the directors stated.
In a Thursday assertion, Simon claimed she moved from her Richmond home to an condominium elaborate across the avenue from North Oakland’s MacArthur BART Station right after getting several threats in reaction to her perform on law enforcement reform. Lawfully blind and transit dependent, Simon advised The Chronicle she moved into an condominium sophisticated throughout the road from MacArthur Station mainly because it made available easy obtain to BART.
“Before going, I knowledgeable prime BART officials and sought their enter, and was certain that the constructing is in District 7,” Simon said in her assertion. “I would not have moved my household in any other case.”
Simon’s district provided a portion of MacArthur Station, nevertheless not the spot across the street that included the station’s garage parking or apartment complexes crafted on BART home, according to a map of BART’s district boundaries.
The challenge of Simon’s residence could have been moot below new district boundaries authorized Thursday by the BART Board of Administrators. The new boundaries take out Richmond and Berkeley stations from District 7 although adding the entirety of MacArthur Station, like the condominium exactly where Simon life, and 5 other Oakland stations.
It’s unclear, nevertheless, when these new district boundaries acquire effect and irrespective of whether the Board of Directors would fill the District 7 seat utilizing the new boundaries.
Dufty said in a phone interview “that’s just one of the questions” that deserves trying to get outdoors lawful advice.
“I think the residents of District 7 are worthy of just about every effort and hard work on our section not to be disenfranchised from the candidate that in fact received that election in 2020,” Dufty stated.
Powers, the BART basic manager, stated in a assertion that the agency would work to make board members who relocate conscious of irrespective of whether their new tackle stays within just their district’s boundaries. He indicated that the assurance Simon stated she received from BART officials arrived from “individuals that report directly to the BART board, not the Standard Manager’s Office.”
“It seems negative suggestions may possibly have been offered to Director Simon, and on behalf of the District. I wholeheartedly apologize for that,” Powers stated. “… BART needs additional voices like Lateefah and I am saddened she is no more time a board member. I will stick to the board’s direction and aid on the other hand desired to fill the District 7 seat.”
Ricardo Cano is a San Francisco Chronicle team author. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ByRicardoCano
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