Most recently, despite an ambitious effort to \u201cright-size\u201d its bus routes and schedules called Realign<\/a>, the agency has struggled to deliver basic services, with riders experiencing frequent canceled and late trips<\/a>. Some agency directors are pushing staff to fix those problems, including by providing more frequent reliability reports.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The directors who win the election will play an important role at a critical time in the agency\u2019s history. They may be in charge of deciding how to spend billions of dollars of transit measure revenue<\/a>, or they may be forced, if the Regional Transit Measure fails, to pare down service<\/a> or cut routes serving thousands of people.\u00a0<\/p>\n After recent redistricting, Oakland is represented on the AC Transit board by Wards 2, 3, and 4, and two of those seats are up for election this year. In Ward 3, Joel Young, a longtime director who currently holds an at-large seat, faces a challenger in Adriana Valencia, a product manager and community activist. In Ward 4, one-term incumbent Sarah Syed faces off against school teacher Gabriel Morales.<\/p>\n Ward 3: Joel Young, the incumbent<\/p>\n Attorney Joel Young has held one of the agency\u2019s at-large seats since 2009. In the wake of a 2022 redistricting effort that eliminated these at-large seats, Young will run for the redrawn Ward 3 seat this year, which will now cover North Oakland, Montclair, Piedmont, most of the neighborhoods surrounding Lake Merritt, and Alameda.\u00a0<\/p>\n Young has been a consistent presence at the agency for nearly two decades, where he has led major projects and, according to AC Transit, helped secure millions of dollars in funding that has helped keep the agency afloat. He has also twice been found to have violated board<\/a> policies, once over its ethics code and recently over a policy barring gender-based harassment.<\/p>\n A graduate of St. Mary\u2019s High School and UC Berkeley, where he earned both his undergraduate and law school degrees, Young said after his last election to the board that he would focus on \u201cdeficits and how to improve funding for our invaluable service.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Young\u2019s record of helping bring in major agency funding may be best represented by his role as chair of the campaign for Measure C1<\/a>, the parcel tax renewal campaign, where he partnered with the Democratic Party, AFL-CIO, AFSCME, and more. Voters approved the measure by a wide margin in 2016. The agency has said the parcel tax provides about $30 million a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n The attorney\u2019s tenure has included a commitment to zero-emission hydrogen and electric buses, an issue where he often worked in collaboration with the late director Christian Peeples, a green-energy champion. In 2022, when then-federal transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg toured Oakland<\/a>, Young said in an agency press release that the agency needed billions more from the federal government to acquire more zero-emission buses to make a real difference in Bay Area emissions.<\/p>\n Young has said he is proud to support programs that provide more equitable opportunities for agency staff and riders. He worked with county arts and education offices to commemorate the anniversary of Rosa Parks\u2019 bus segregation protest in Montgomery, Alabama. That work led to the creation of the Freedom Bus<\/a>, an AC Transit bus redesigned to educate young people about the Civil Rights Movement, which travels to schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2025, Young took on a national leadership role when he was elected vice chair of the American Public Transportation Association. In that capacity, he participated<\/a> in several national association events, including interviewing a current Trump administration official, Transportation Security Administration assistant administrator Sonya Proctor.<\/p>\n This year, the director faced an independent investigation, which found that he made \u201cunwanted physical contact\u201d with a fellow director, Sarah Syed, in violation of AC Transit\u2019s policy<\/a> prohibiting gender-based harassment. Director Jean Walsh, who witnessed the incident, told The Oaklandside that Young approached Syed from behind, \u201cwrapping both his arms around her and squeezing her in a big embrace.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe bristled and stiffened and looked very uncomfortable,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cOther people raised their eyebrows and looked at each other with concern.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Oaklandside reached out to Young over a period of weeks seeking an interview for this article. He said that he\u2019s been busy dealing with the public fallout from the investigative finding, and so he declined to give an interview for this story and did not answer questions sent by email. If Young sends us answers after publication, we\u2019ll update this story.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In a statement to The Oaklandside in September, Young said of the incident that he was trying to offer \u201ccomfort and support\u201d during a remembrance of Peeples, who had died several weeks earlier. \u201cI respect that her experience was different from my intent,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n In a public letter<\/a> responding to the investigative findings, four of the agency\u2019s seven directors supported Young, including board President Diane Shaw, who has voted with Young on many issues in recent years. The letter said, in part, that Young had secured \u201cmore than $600 million for AC Transit, advancing workforce development and transit technology, expanding the District\u2019s zero-emission fleet, and [representing] AC Transit nationally, including at the White House Roundtable on Clean Bus Manufacturing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n More recently, 33 current and former East Bay elected officials, including three Oakland city council members, called<\/a> for his censure.<\/p>\n Ward 3: Adriana Valencia, product manager and neighborhood activist<\/p>\n A product manager by trade who has worked at big tech companies including Airbnb and Twitter, Adriana Valencia is a self-described \u201chigh-energy\u201d person involved in hyperlocal issues in the Temescal neighborhood, where she lives with her family. As a board member of the Temescal Telegraph Business Improvement District and the YIMBY group East Bay for Everyone, she said she\u2019s also become familiar with key local economic and environmental issues people care about.\u00a0<\/p>\n The UC Berkeley graduate told The Oaklandside that she\u2019s always appreciated living in cities like Oakland for the benefits they provide, even with their challenges. And one of those benefits is readily available public transportation. She said she\u2019s never driven a car because she lacks depth perception \u2014 she mostly sees out of one eye \u2014 which has forced her to depend heavily on public transit.\u00a0<\/p>\n She said she didn\u2019t pay much attention to local politics until 2016, when a neighborhood group tried to halt the construction of a 260-foot-tall residential tower at the MacArthur Transit Village<\/a> next to the MacArthur BART station, which she supported. Valencia said it was obvious to her then that housing needed to be built next to major transit hubs to provide more places to live and easy access to jobs. She also said she supported Senate Bill 79, passed in 2025 by the state legislature, which sought to facilitate more transit-oriented housing in the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her conversion to bus advocacy happened a little more recently.\u00a0<\/p>\n Valencia said she and her son were among those affected by a 2024 decision by AC Transit\u2019s then general manager, Michael Hursh, to cut night service<\/a> to parts of Broadway due to concerns over crime and crowded streets. \u201cThe service was poor as the bus never came,\u201d she said. \u201cWe waited for an hour.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Valencia said she didn\u2019t appreciate the lack of notice of that change to riders. She became even more upset when she learned that Hursh received<\/a> a half-million-dollar payment between 2024 and 2025 to serve as a consultant while on his way out to a new job in Oregon, a decision the board did not initially discuss in a public forum before greenlighting. \u201cI was super incensed because half a million dollars of public money \u2014 that\u2019s a lot of bus operator money,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the last two years, transit advocates that she met through her housing advocacy encouraged her to run for the Ward 3 seat. If she wins, Valencia said, she\u2019d bring a sharp focus on bus reliability. She said it\u2019s particularly egregious that the agency canceled buses at the last minute this summer, producing long, frustrating waits, even though staff and board members promised the Realign project would increase reliability. She said a failure of transparency by the agency\u2019s executive leadership has left bus riders literally and figuratively stranded.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a big disconnect in communication between the board on the executive side and how it\u2019s operationalized,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n She said she would expect a standing agenda item at every board meeting with the latest reliability stats alongside explanations and root-cause analysis of missed service. She said she\u2019s had conversations with bus drivers who told them that they, too, get frustrated by reliability breakdowns.<\/p>\n She said she also wants to fix the disconnects between AC Transit and other mass transit providers. When BART suffered electrical outages in mid-September, forcing riders to take other forms of transit, AC Transit did not respond quickly enough to send buses to BART stations, Valencia said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a moment when there should be some sort of cross-agency coordination, it\u2019s just not there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n A long career in product management, she said, has given her the kind of background she would need for working with a public agency with tens of thousands of customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cProduct management is really about balancing a lot of competing priorities and understanding the different points of view of different people across complex organizations,\u201d she said. \u201cPutting products out the door. But it\u2019s also about an interest in learning new things, a desire to do research, and the acknowledgment that progress happens iteratively.\u201d<\/p>\n Ward 4: Sarah Syed, the incumbent<\/p>\n Sarah Syed has had a busy four years representing the old Ward 3. Like the other directors, she has had to contend with the significant financial challenges the agency faced coming out of the pandemic, when ridership plummeted and the agency was forced to seek federal and state emergency funding. A bus rider herself, who uses the 57 and NL bus lines, she has emerged as a leading board critic of some of the agency\u2019s more controversial decisions.<\/p>\n Syed, a UC Berkeley graduate and transportation planner who once worked for the city of Oakland as a bicycle and pedestrian analyst, said she is especially proud of the work she\u2019s done to surface more actionable data on bus reliability and scheduling. She says her time on the board has taught her that directors can make a real difference in peoples\u2019 lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis role has taught me how much of daily life in our district turns on decisions made at the board table: where a stop goes, how often a line runs, whether a schedule gives an operator time to use the bathroom, and whether new rider benefits quietly shut out riders who pay cash,\u201d she said. \u201cThese sound like technical questions, but they carry real equity stakes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n She criticized a decision by Michael Hursh, then the agency\u2019s CEO, to curtail nighttime bus service on Broadway downtown. Hursh did not publicly announce the change, and the board did not debate it, leaving some riders stranded and confused. Syed pushed to restore service and to change the process so the public gets notice of big changes before they\u2019re implemented, she said.<\/p>\n She also sharply criticized her fellow directors for approving what she called a \u201cgolden parachute\u201d for Hursh when he departed as CEO, asking for details about what exactly the agency was getting for that investment. She said she instead received firm pushback from her colleagues.<\/p>\n At times, she has told The Oaklandside, seeking answers on these and other issues has led to conflict with fellow AC Transit leaders. At one point, Hursh accused her of bullying and intimidation, though an investigation did not uphold that claim<\/a>. The investigation did find that Syed had \u201creached out to staff in such a way that her communications may have been interpreted as directing their work\u201d; directors are supposed to communicate with employees only through senior figures such as the general manager or general counsel, to preserve the independence of agency staff.<\/p>\n Syed has spoken out at AC Transit board meetings about what she views as the Realign project\u2019s shortcomings. She voted against the final plan and said the promised tradeoff of more reliability for less service hasn\u2019t panned out. Syed noted that in the week ending August 22, only 89.4% of scheduled trips actually ran, against a goal of 99.5%, while the agency\u2019s competitor across the Bay, Muni, ran at about 99%. Realign, she said, has made operator availability worse.<\/p>\n \u201cAn earlier version promised operators realistic run times and time for bathroom breaks, and the final plan took much of that back,\u201d she said. \u201cUnrealistic schedules contribute to burnout and absenteeism, and when AC Transit does not have enough available operators, missed trips follow. You can\u2019t schedule your way to reliability without the workforce to deliver it.\u201d<\/p>\n Getting timely, accurate information on bus service, such as on-time figures, has been the biggest unexpected challenge she\u2019s faced as a director, Syed said. She also pointed out that AC Transit\u2019s own consultant<\/a> identified \u201cunderlying distrust\u201d among directors and the need to create \u201ca culture of open communication and trust that encourages diverse perspectives and collaboration while minimizing conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cChanging that culture is the work I want to finish: clear standards, honest data and decisions made in public,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Syed has sometimes shown up to advocate with street safety volunteers on the ground. As red-light running and speeding events became frequent on the AC Transit bus-rapid transit lane<\/a>, Syed was seen by The Oaklandside speaking with families affected by the resulting collisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20160525_young_joel_resized_0.jpeg\")
Longtime AC Transit board director Joel Young is running, after redistricting, for a Ward 3 seat. Credit: Courtesy of the campaign<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oaklandside.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/AValencia_headshot.jpg\")
Adriana Valencia, a product manager, activist and bus rider is challenging for the Ward 3 seat. Credit: Courtesy of the campaign<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oaklandside.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/221116_syed_sara_resized_0.jpeg\")
Sarah Syed, now redestricted to Ward 4, is running for a second term. Credit: Courtesy of the campaign<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oaklandside.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_2431-1.png\")
Gabriel Morales, a longteam East Bay school teacher, is challenging Sarah Syed in Ward 4. Credit: Courtesy of the campaign<\/p>\n