BART Board votes to revamp committee system

The BART Board of Directors made changes to the committee system at its June 23 meeting that are designed to provide improved information to the public.

Before the changes, there were 22 Special Committees, on topics ranging from sustainability to automatic fare collection to high-speed rail. There are also three Standing Committees: Administration; Engineering and Operations; and Planning, Public Affairs, Access and Legislation. The Board wanted to pare down the number of Special Committees and change how they tell the public about their work.

The changes approved Thursday will wrap all the Special Committees except two into the Standing Committees. The only two to remain separate will be the BART Police Department Review Committee and the Redistricting Committee. There will also be new public notification procedures for meetings of the Police Department Review Committee and the Redistricting Committee, as well as for any other Special Committees that might be formed in the future. Meetings of Special Committees will be publicly noticed at least 72 hours in advance of the time scheduled for the meeting, and an agenda for the meetings will be prepared and posted with the notice, both in hard copy and online.

Notice for full Board and Standing Committee meetings is already provided in the Board of Directors section of the BART website (www.bart.gov/board). 

More detail on the changes discussed Thursday is available as part of the Board agenda packet (.pdf) for the meeting on June 23.

Updated on Thursday, June 23, with Board approving proposed changes.