Will adding a transit-dependent rider to the Los Angeles Metro Board of Directors help the powerful agency gain a better understanding of issues faced by riders, such as safety, homelessness and delays?

L.A. County Supervisor and LA Metro board member Janice Hahn thinks so.

On Thursday, July 16, Hahn announced she will introduce a motion to add a dedicated rider to the 13-member board currently made up mostly of elected officials. Her motion will come up for a vote of the full LA Metro board at the meeting of July 23.

The board decides on major, multi-billion dollar rail projects, determines bus routes and frequencies, freeway improvement projects and bike-share and has an annual budget of almost $10 billion.

There is no requirement board members ride Metro. However, when Hahn was chair of the board in 2024 she took the Metro J Line rapid bus from the South Bay to Union Station and back. She still rides the transit line to Metro board meetings every fourth Thursday of the month, she said.

“The Metro Board needs a Metro rider,” said Hahn in a prepared statement. “I’ve started riding Metro more often, and it has made me a better Metro director — but I’m not an everyday rider. We should have someone on the dais who experiences the system day in and day out and can tell us what’s working, what’s not, and how our decisions affect the people who depend on our trains and buses.”

Since Metro was created in 1993, there have been 13 voting members: all five county supervisors, the mayor of L.A. and three mayoral appointees, and four members representing 87 other cities in the county by geographic area ( North County/San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley, Southeast County/ Long Beach and Southwest Corridor).

Some have suggested the board members be more representative of the ridership. The majority of bus riders are Black and Latino, and many can’t afford a car and are transit-dependent. Others say the board should have a member from a county unincorporated area.

Ridership outcomes are often, but not always, directly measured and explicitly tied to decision-making, according to a recent board report.

Hahn’s proposal goes hand-in-hand with the Ad Hoc Board Composition Committee formed by the now former Whittier City Councilmember and Metro board chair Fernando Dutra. But Dutra recently lost his re-election bid and is no longer on the LA Metro board.

The committee has discussed changes to the board structure, make-up and size. 

The committee was prompted by the passage of Measure G in 2024, an LA County charter reform action that will add four members to the Board of Supervisors, bringing the total from five to nine. The committee discussed whether to allow all nine on the Metro board. That increase, plus a transit rider, would raise the board to 18 members.

LA Metro held listening sessions, town halls and conducted a survey on what the future board should look like. The responses, including 900 survey answers, consistently supported the idea of the board including a person with daily, real life experience of riding on the system, Hahn said.

“It’s a bit of a no-brainer that should’ve been done years ago. This is not a new or weird concept,” said Damian Kevitt, executive director and founder of the group Streets Are For Everyone (SAFE).

He said the current board making decisions without a transit rider is like running a fine dining restaurant but never tasting any of the food.

“That would not be the best business model,” he added.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority include voting rider representatives on their governing boards, Hahn said.

“Giving the transit users a seat at the table is both feasible and effective,” she added.

Earlier this year, Dutra said during a board meeting his ad hoc committee considered adding a transit rider to the board. He specifically mentioned Jeremy Oliver-Ronceros, the former chairman of LA Metro’s Public Safety Committee (PSAC).

Bart Reed, long-time transit advocate and executive director of The Transit Coalition, also referenced Oliver-Ronceros as a credible candidate.

“Well, it depends on their qualifications,” Reed said. “I like that guy who was running the Public Safety Committee. He might be an intelligent addition to the board.”

Oliver-Ronceros lives in North Hollywood and often rides the D Line or a bus on Lankershim Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley. He could not be reached for this story. Also, Dutra did not return phone calls.

Move LA, a group strongly involved in advocating for more housing, better public transit and clean air, was working with Hahn’s office on the proposal, the group said.

“Move LA strongly supports adding a rider perspective on the LA Metro Board. It will strengthen the Board’s decisions and ensure the customer has a vote on important matters,” wrote Eli Lipmen, the executive director in an emailed response.

Move LA proposed the position is chosen from one of LA Metro’s advisory councils and that the position is rotated every year.

How much of a difference will this make?

“The problem is it is one vote. That’s not going to tip the Metro board’s voting,” Kevitt added. “I don’t know if this is a game-changer for Metro. But it is a good step.”

©2026 MediaNews Group, Inc.
Visit dailynews.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.