AC Transit director who accused the board of a ‘sweetheart deal’ gets scolded for bullying

A series of disputes involving Sarah Syed and outgoing CEO Michael Hursh set the stage for Wednesday’s contentious meeting. Credit: AC Transit

An intramural dispute among AC Transit’s leadership boiled over at a meeting Wednesday night, with some of the board’s directors accusing a colleague of intimidating agency staff, though the board stopped short of censuring her.

The director in the crosshairs, Ward 3’s Sarah Syed, later said she was “being singled out as a scapegoat.” And several locals who spoke at the meeting expressed disappointment with the directors for wasting time and money on personal vendettas instead of working to improve the service.

The backdrop to the meeting was a series of overlapping conflicts involving Syed and AC Transit’s former general manager and CEO, Michael Hursh. In March of last year, Hursh accused Syed of bullying and intimidation. This was around the same time that he decided to cut off service to several blocks of Broadway due to concerns about excessive crowds and crime. Locals had decried the move as confusing and lacking proper community outreach. With Syed publicly pressuring the agency, AC Transit and local city and county law enforcement leaders worked to allocate more officers to avoid the service cutoff. 

Board President Joel Young and Vice President Diane Shaw said Syed deserved to be censured over her communications, but many members of the public disagreed. Photo: Jose Fermoso

Hursh’s accusation touched off an independent investigation, which determined that Syed did not bully or intimidate Hursh. The investigation, the results of which were only recently made public, did find that Syed had “reached out to staff in such a way that her communications may have been interpreted as directing their work.” Directors are supposed to communicate with employees “solely” through a board officer, such as the general manager or general counsel, to preserve the independence of agency staff. Director Jean Walsh said the investigation cost the agency $43,000. 

In November of last year, AC Transit announced Hursh would be moving into a consulting role with the agency. At a Dec. 11 board meeting, Syed accused the board of pushing through a half-million-dollar “sweetheart deal” for Hursh. She said the agreement had him staying on as a senior adviser with a complete “executive CEO” salary and benefits but no specific work expectations. 

All of this was prelude to Wednesday’s meeting. Several board members, including President Joel Young, Vice President Diane Shaw, and Ward 1’s Christian Peeples, argued that Syed should be formally reprimanded for violating board policies around her communication with agency staff last year.

They cited the investigator’s findings that Syed had overstepped her bounds, based in part on an email in which she asked a staffer working on the Realign project, “Could I get a copy of the draft analysis please?” They alleged that Syed’s requests and the “style” of her requests made staff afraid of her. 

“Many in our senior staff are terrified of her.  You talk about intimidation. She has intimidated most of our staff,” Peeples said over Zoom. “They’re  frightened when she asks to meet with them. They do not want to meet with her without other board members present because her versions of what happens in those meetings are often different from everybody else’s.”

“We need to be accountable in a way that is respectful to staff,” said Shaw.  

In an email to the rest of the board and agency counsel before Wednesday’s meeting, Syed protested the consideration of the censure. She said the investigator, Timothy L. Reed of the law firm Ogletree Deakins, misinterpreted her note asking for a “draft.” “I was not trying to improperly obtain a draft report that is still being reviewed in the chain of command,” she wrote, pointing out that documents that are labeled as drafts are also often publicly available. Syed said board policy specifically distinguishes inquiries from orders. 

“Basing a censure on such a weak finding … sets a scary precedent,” she wrote. At the meeting Wednesday, Syed said that it would affect “this entire board’s ability to review documents, to ask questions, and to advocate on behalf of our constituents” if her emails were determined to violate policy. 

In a statement on Instagram, Syed went further in defending herself: “I am being singled out as a scapegoat to cover up the problems with the GM’s settlement deal, besmirch my reputation, and avoid addressing the very real concerns I am highlighting in my efforts to safeguard the public trust and improve the fiscal and operational health of AC Transit.”

Directors Jean Walsh and Sarah Syed spoke out against the rest of the AC Transit board’s censure resolution. Photo: Jose Fermoso

Sitting next to Syed in her usual position on the dais, Walsh said she thought the resolution seeking censure was “weak sauce.” 

“ You read the materials. There’s not a whole lot in there. It’s very flimsy. It’s really making a lot out of nothing. But I do welcome the training, and I do think there’s always a way for us to improve and get on the same page,” Walsh said. “The dozens of members of the public and elected officials who have spoken out have agreed that we need to reject this and get back to working together to do the critical work voters elected us to do.”

Besides Walsh, about 30 people spoke up at the meeting in person or over the phone to decry the censure resolution, some saying it was “embarrassing” and “dangerous.” Others mentioned the seemingly benign question that ended Syed’s first email to AC Transit staff—“Could I get a copy of the draft analysis please?”—repeating it in an incredulous tone to highlight the length to which they felt the board members were parsing and misinterpreting language. Some questioned the timing of the resolution, wondering whether it was political payback for Syed’s accusations about the “sweetheart deal” for Hursh. 

Alameda City Councilmember Tracey Jensen said censure was inappropriate. “I oppose this action because of the suggestion of bias; regardless of the intentions of the directors who introduced the motion, the action is already being viewed through a lens of fractiousness, ambiguity, and scapegoating,” she said. 

El Cerrito Councilmember Rebecca Saltzman, who recently resigned from the BART board of directors, said she was appalled by the resolution. 

“The  things that Director Syed did are things that folks elected her to do and that I think voters expect all of their elected officials to do.,” Saltzman said.  “They expect elected officials to ask questions. They expect elected officials to ask for data, to ask for reports, to get information they need when they haven’t gotten it. If that was misconstrued in some way to staff, it can be handled in more productive ways than censure. The only time we censured [anyone on the BART board] was for racist comments. Set this aside and figure out how to work together even when you disagree.”

Ren Fitzgerald, the chair of Berkeley’s Transportation and Infrastructure Commission, said Syed had been a voice for voters “fed up with the shady, secretive senseless practices of this board in recent months.”

“Rather than listening to this majority, you’re employing intimidation tactics to silence your own colleague. The City of Berkeley and other municipalities have so much to tackle this year when it comes to transportation,” Fitzgerald said. “Rather than spending staff time and taxpayer dollars on personal grievances, I’d encourage you to work in partnership with our cities. In 12 days, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the next president of the United States. He uses humiliation to get what he wants. Don’t be like Donald Trump.” 

Syed went over emails she had sent to agency staff. Photo: Jose Fermoso

The directors spent several minutes deciding whether to vote for censure. The key moment occurred when Ward 4 Director Murphy McCalley said he felt Syed should not be censured but that she should be reprimanded in a smaller way and singled out for needing direction and training. 

The board voted 6-1 against the censure, with Syed opposing, and for an amended resolution that sought to provide Syed with extra “board governance, leadership, and coaching,” while making that same coaching “available for all board officers.”

Walsh told The Oaklandside that she was glad the censure resolution failed. The important thing was to be able to move forward. “ I think training is always a good thing for everyone, and I’ll take advantage of it myself,” she said. 

On his way out of the meeting, Young told us that he was glad the saga was over but had an additional message for Syed. 

“ Hopefully, Director Syed can get the help that she needs in order to become a productive board member,” he said. “And we’re all praying for her that she does that.” 

This story was first published by Berkeleyside’s sister news site The Oaklandside.