1) Grassroots Democracy: Please describe how you make your political decisions. What is the main basis for your decision making (e.g.,
consultation with your constituents, political consultants,
colleagues, unions, businesses, donors, or your gut feelings)?

I consider unions and people in my community to be constituents and plan on engaging them
when making decisions on the BART board. I will also consult with others who are impacted by the decisions of the BART board like small businesses, fellow elected leaders, and my
colleagues.
+ - ?
[ ] [ ] [X] More transit agencies should have elected boards of directors.
[X] [ ] [ ] Create a system of public financing for all elected officeholders, including elected
transit agency directors
[X] [ ] [ ] Create limits on campaign contributions to members of elected transit agency
boards
[X] [ ] [ ] Regulate contributions to officials who are elected to regional boards
[X] [ ] [ ] My campaign accepts corporate contributions
[X] [ ] [ ] My campaign accepts contributions from paid lobbyists or related entities having
any interest in City and County of San Francisco or beyond

2) Ecological Wisdom: Please outline your view of the major environmental and ecological issues facing San Francisco and your proposed
policies to address them.

Below is a list of the major environmental and ecological issues facing SF and top-line policies
that would address them:
- Brownfield development and soil remediation
- Provide strict regulatory guidance around soil remediation and institute policies
that address new development in brownfields through an equity lens

- Air pollution from drivers / industry
- Eliminate the central freeway, reduce traffic speeds across SF by raising
sidewalks and intersections, creating “bulbouts” among other physical traffic
calming strategies, hold companies accountable that omit locally or
climate-related detrimental emissions

- Water run-off into local waters
- Support public transit so that more drivers become less dependent on their cars;
upgrade water treatment systems, treat runoff

- Climate change - sea level rise, rising temperatures (very little AC in SF), housing prices
due to folks from hotter areas moving toward the coast
- Continue SF's efforts to source completely renewable energy
- Support energy efficient regs for new and old buildings
- Support AC in new units, especially for lower income housing and housing for the
elderly

- Fishing industry in the Bay and off the coast
- Support efforts to fight climate change locally to stop the ocean acidification by
supporting public transit, bike infrastructure, and new dense housing to mitigate
suburban sprawl

- Natural habitat loss, like Redwoods
- support public transit, bike infrastructure, and new dense housing to mitigate
suburban sprawl

- Greenfield development (as a result of a lack of housing in SF)
- support public transit, bike infrastructure, and new dense housing to mitigate
suburban sprawl

+ - ?
[X] [ ] [ ] Reducing or eliminating parking minimums in new housing and commercial
developments
[X] [ ] [ ] Congestion tolls on Doyle Drive
[X] [ ] [ ] Livermore BART extension

3) Social Justice: A) Did you take a public position on the Oakland Airport Connector? Please explain.

I did not yet live in SF, but I'm very happy it now exists!

B) How often do you ride BART? What would you change about the way BART handles fare evasion?
I ride BART 4-5 times a week. I support the new fare gates.

+ - ?
[ ] [ ] [X] BART directors should focus on maintaining the existing system as opposed to
building extensions
[X] [ ] [ ] Hiring more fare evasion teams
[X] [ ] [ ] Current policy of installing new fare gates and more fences inside BART stations
to prevent fare evasion
[ ] [ ] [X] Fences around BART property to prevent camping or illegal sidewalk sales
[ ] [X] [ ] Current policy of using cleaning chemicals with strong odors in downtown stations
to deter loitering

4) Nonviolence: What are your solutions for improving the accountability of the BART police force while making the system safer? Do you think the BART
police force should exist? Do you think BART police officers should carry
guns and/or tasers?

- Crisis Intervention Specialists
- Ambassadors
- Deescalation and cultural sensitivity training for BART PD
- BART PD has made progress
- Yes, I believe BART PD should exist. There's stil progress to be made, but due to the
size of the department and turnover in recent years, the BART Police have made a lot of
progress toward police reform.
- I support the use of tasers as recommended in the Obama Commission, only with
extensive training.
+ - ?
[ ] [X] [ ] Disband the BART police
[ ] [ ] [X] Create a BART police force citizen oversight committee
[X] [ ] [ ] Create an office of the Independent Police Auditor for the BART police
[ ] [ ] [X] Automated surveillance of BART system to alert police of illegal activities

5) Decentralization: In general, the Green Party supports the principle of decentralization. What is your proposal for making our Bay Area transit
agencies at once decentralized and at the same time efficient, affordable,
and appealing?

Bay Area transit agencies today are decentralized - we have 27 separate agencies. This is one
of the greatest barriers to increasing ridership due to a system that disincentivized transit
agencies from working with one another. We should create a “carrot” of funding that rewards
agencies that work toward the greater good of providing reliable interconnected transit service.
This incentivized structure would result in lower and more equitable fares for riders in these
systems, creating more pressure on agency leadership to better coordinate.
+ - ?
[ ] [ ] [X] Create one regional, elected transit agency
[X] [ ] [ ] Create a system whereby a portion of sales and property taxes assessed by
transit districts must be spent in those transit districts

6) Community Based Economics: What are your views on Transit-Oriented Development and efforts to create affordable housing?

Transit-oriented development is essential to meeting San Francisco's and the Bay Area's
state-mandated regional housing targets, including for affordable housing. Increased housing
density makes the most sense near quality transit. At the state level, I've supported SB 50 to
allow for faster approval of multi-family buildings near transit. I also think that BART could
contribute to solving the city and region's housing and economic needs while diversifying its
revenue base if it pursued developments on land it owns, since it gets to keep the property tax
from such developments. I think BART should think bigger when developing around its stations
so it can become less reliant on fares, help people adopt carbon light or carbon free lifestyles,
and ensure that BART is around for the next century with a sustainable revenue model.
+ - ?
[ ] [ ] [X] Local hiring requirements should be enforced
[ ] [ ] [X] Downtown transit assessment fee

[ ] [ ] [X] Citywide transit assessment fee
[X] [ ] [ ] Prop 13 limits on tax increases should apply only to residential properties

7) Feminism: Women continue to be underrepresented in government. Why do you believe this is the case? Is this a bad thing, and if so, what would
you do to remedy this?

Women continue to face cultural and institutional sexism. The patriarchy is alive and well,
and that is true here in San Francisco as well. This is a cancer on our society and
something we need to continue to fight against. I have a strong record of supporting,
believing, and lifting up women and I will continue to do so in my service on the BART
Board. Specifically, I have a long history of supporting women as candidates for elected
positions at the federal, state and local level. I was a member and volunteer for Sally's List
in Oklahoma when I lived there (the EMILY's List of Oklahoma). I have personally
supported EMILY's list since 2014. And I've worked with EMILY's List and Planned
Parenthood to support the US Senate campaigns for Tammy Baldwin, Catherine Cortez
Masto, Jacky Rosen, Tammy Duckworth, Kyrsten Sinema, and other state candidates like
Maura Healy (MA Gov), Stacey Abrahams, Danica Roem (VA), Mauree Turner (OK),
among many others! I happen to also believe women (and especially lesbians) tend to be
the best public servants. I have mostly hired women in my professional career, I'm proud to
say that most of my bosses have been women, and I'm looking forward to advancing
policies that help and support women on the BART Board.
+ - ?
[X] [ ] [ ] The City should help provide more quality childcare to working parents

8) Respect for Diversity: Do you think there is a disproportionate racial impact of new fare gates, additional fare inspections, and other
current BART policies?

BART's ridership is increasingly comprised of lower income and BIPOC folks from around the
Bay Area. Sadly, BART is also overly fare-reliant, far outside of industry best practices for public
transit agencies. Most are 8-25% reliant on fares. BART is ~80% reliant on fares and parking
fees. That means that fare-evasion has a disproportionately negative impact on lower income
and BIPOC communities. Fare-evasion results in cutting service for those who are most reliant
on BART. It is through an equity lens that I support the new full-body faregates.
+ - ?
[X] [ ] [ ] Non-citizen residents should be able to vote in all local elections
[X] [ ] [ ] Full rights for transgender persons
[ ] [ ] [X] Boards and commissions now reflect the ethnic diversity of San Francisco
[ ] [ ] [X] Boards and commissions now reflect the political diversity of San Francisco
[X] [ ] [ ] My campaign reflects the diversity of San Francisco

9) Global and Personal Responsibility: What ideas do you have to convince Bay Area residents to ride BART more instead of driving,
at a time when more workers are working from home?

As a baseline, BART needs to provide safe, clean, reliable and frequent service. Several of
these areas - safety, cleanliness, and frequency - have been severely negatively impacted due
to a severe drop in ridership and revenue since the pandemic. The result is that while the Bay
Bridge is already back at capacity, BART ridership recovery is hovering around 42%. The only
way to bring more people back to downtown as the commercial vacancy rate recovers is BART.
Sadly, downtown commercial occupancy is not projected to recover until 2030-2033 and BART
will hit its fiscal cliff long before then. Yet businesses will not call employees back to the office or
expand their businesses downtown if they do not feel that their employees will be able to get to
the office safely, and the three recent homicides at BART stations in San Francisco in the last
few months, including the horrific pushing death of a passenger onto the train tracks, have only
deepened community fears about safety on BART. BART must be safe.
Data shows that crowd density on transit has an inverse impact on antisocial behavior. Said
another way - the more people who use transit, the lesser the prevalence of antisocial behavior.
But with 42% ridership and a very slow recovery rate, BART will not reach that necessary
ridership level in the next several years which means public safety measures - like the presence
of BART police, ambassadors, and crisis intervention specialists - are more essential than
before the pandemic to deter antisocial behavior like drug use on trains and those suffering from
psychotic episodes. I support all 3 of these teams in their efforts to provide safe travel for riders.
I also support establishing “annual passes” like many other systems (like in Paris) where a flat
annual fee is paid by an individual or company for unlimited use. This created
predictable/reliable annualized revenue for agencies like BART and data shows it has the
impact of incentivising more regular use. In this case, it may encourage more folks to come to
the office more often.
[ ] [ ] [X] BART should hire outside help to negotiate union contracts

10) Sustainability: The current funding crisis on most transit systems demonstrates the problem with relying on passenger fares to fund
transit. What ideas do you have for raising operating revenues needed
to run more frequent and reliable service? How will you use your
position to advocate for these changes?

BART faces an existential fiscal cliff in 2026. Around one third of its current operating budget
comes from emergency funding from the federal government that runs out in 2026. Due to
BART being a fixed-rail system and already running a bare-bones service schedule, it's
expected that this loss of 30% of operating funds will result in service reductions of 85%. This is
all due to an antiquated funding model from the 1970s that makes BART 80% reliant on fare and parking fees, dramatically out of line with the industry average for public transit systems
being only ~10-25% reliant on fares. That means BART has been very vulnerable to the impacts of remote work - more so than just about any other transit agency in the country. This inequitable funding model is broken and threatens BART's existence. I am running, in large part, to champion a ballot measure in 2026 to fix this and save BART. At the core of my campaign is climate change and equitable transit access, but also SF's economic recovery. SF doesn't recover simply because of BART, but it will NOT recover without BART. I plan to campaign for this measure and earn back the trust of voters by making BART safer, cleaner, more reliable, and making BART resilient with new revenue streams (like building housing on BART land).
+ - ?
[X] [ ] [ ] BART should be funded greater levels and be free to the rider
[X] [ ] [ ] Muni should be funded greater levels and be free to the rider
[X] [ ] [ ] Higher residential construction along neighborhood transit corridors, which may
include raising height limits by two to three stories.
[ ] [ ] [X] All housing developments on/near BART property should be 100% affordable
housing for families making less than $120k per year (80% of the Area Median Income for a
family of 4) and should be majority low income.
[X] [ ] [ ] State law change that lets bicycles treat stop signs as yield signs and red lights
as stop signs
[X] [ ] [ ] I ride Muni, bicycle and/or walk instead of driving on a regular basis
[ ] [X] [ ] Allow residents to park on the sidewalk without getting a ticket, unless their
neighbors complain
[X] [ ] [ ] Congestion pricing for parking
[ ] [ ] [X] Power more City vehicles using biofuels (e.g., corn-based ethanol)
[ ] [X] [ ] Residents should be allowed to park in the street in front of their own driveway
for free
[X] [ ] [ ] Support expanding parking meter hours to include later evening hours and
weekends
[X] [ ] [ ] Remove parking spots and car lanes to create dedicated bike and bus lanes or
wider sidewalks

Due Date: Friday, August 23, 11:59 pm

Please submit by email to cc@sfgreens.org.
For more information, call Barry Hermanson at 415-255-9494.
Please return your answers in plain
text (not HTML, PDF, or Word format), so that we can post all
candidates' answers in the same format.
The SF Green Party will invite selected candidates who return
completed questionnaires on time to speak and answer questions at our candidate forum and endorsement meeting. To be given time on our agenda, each candidate needs at least two active Green Party members to request their invitation. This will be a hybrid meeting, so
invited candidates may also speak with us via Zoom. Our endorsement meeting is scheduled for Wed, August 28 from 6:30-9:30 pm at our office, 2973 16th St, #300, SF - note that this is across the street from our old office in the Redstone Building. The first two hours will be for interviews of selected candidates, and the last hour will be for decision making. Completed questionnaires will be posted on our website, https://sfgreenparty.org.