SMART mandates coronavirus vaccine or tests for staff

SMART became Marin County’s first public transit agency to require all employees as well as elected board members to either be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus or submit to weekly testing.

Under the new requirements, Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit employees and board members must either show proof of full vaccination as of Dec. 1 or take weekly coronavirus tests starting Dec. 6. Any employees who refuse to comply with the mandate after three notices will be fired.

Farhad Mansourian, the general manager, said the agency has consistently taken steps to protect its train riders since the onset of the pandemic, such as installing ultraviolet sanitation in air circulation systems on all of its trains.

The vaccination requirements were a natural next step, he said.

“We’re in public transportation,” Mansourian said Monday. “We’re in contact with hundreds of people a day and we’re trying to ensure them that this is your public service, that SMART is committed to your safety.”

The SMART board approved the new requirements in a unanimous vote on Wednesday.

SMART is one of the few transit providers in the Bay Area to mandate vaccine requirements for employees.

San Francisco Muni employees are all required to receive the vaccine. Caltrain and SamTrans began requiring employees to show proof of vaccination or submit to twice-weekly testing starting on Sept. 21. The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District requires all new hires to show proof of vaccination

SMART has about 120 employees, and 23 are not fully vaccinated, according to Mansourian. Data on the number of board members who are not fully vaccinated, if any, was not available as of Monday, he said.

As to why SMART is delaying the start date of the new mandates to December, board chair David Rabbitt, a Sonoma County supervisor, said, “It’s appropriate to give enough time for those that are on the fence to get there.”

SMART’s vaccine mandate does not include booster shots, but that could change at the board’s discretion, Mansourian said.

SMART provides 45 miles of passenger rail service between Larkspur and Santa Rosa. Similar to many transit agencies, SMART sustained a major loss of ridership when the pandemic hit. After carrying an average of 2,800 passengers on an average weekday in January 2020, the agency has slowly been rebuilding ridership to about 1,000 passengers on average weekdays.

SMART board member and Novato Councilman Eric Lucan said the vaccination requirements should help to gain more trust from wary riders.

“I do think that is an important factor for some when they’re deciding whether or not to get on the train,” Lucan said.

SMART plans to apply with the state to allow it to administer coronavirus tests at its facilities. Under the program, unvaccinated employees and board members would perform the tests themselves under the observation of trained staff. Employees will be paid while they are being tested.

Unvaccinated employees who do not take their weekly tests will be suspended without pay for five days for the first violation. A second violation will result in the employee being suspended without pay for 30 days. After a third violation, the employee will be fired.

The new policies come a month after the board voted to require all new hires to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus before they would be able to start the job. At the time, Lucan recommended that the board consider expanding the requirements to existing employees as well as board members.

Marin’s two other public transit agencies — the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District and Marin Transit — are not considering vaccination requirements for existing employees or board members.

The bridge district is awaiting federal guidance on vaccination requirements, said spokesperson Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz.

“We are awaiting the issuance of the new standards and will implement its polices once they are released,” Cosulich-Schwartz said.