AC Transit held two public meetings Wednesday to discuss the possibility the bus agency will declare a fiscal emergency and undergo a second round of service cuts.

Transit staff have proposed three options to cut an additional 8.4 percent of service, including eliminating weekend service on all but major corridor bus routes, reducing late-night services or making across-the-board cuts to the frequency of multiple lines.

The agency's Board of Directors will decide next Wednesday, June 2, whether to accept one of the three plans or come up with its own. The agency says the cuts will save an additional $11.4 million; service reductions will go into effect in August.

AC Transit has experienced a "tremendous reduction in the level of revenue received" from both sales and property taxes and state transit funding, according to AC Transit Chief Financial Adviser Lewis Clinton.

"As a consequence, we are now looking at exhausting completely the district's net working capital within the next 12-month period of time," Clinton said. "We need to make some drastic changes to our overall operations."

A fiscal emergency needs to be declared in order to do that, Clinton added.

This is because declaring such an emergency allows public agencies to bypass an environmental review before making service cuts. AC Transit also declared a fiscal emergency last June.

In March, AC Transit reduced service by 7.7 percent through discontinuing and consolidating lines in an effort to save approximately $10.3 million. Last July, it also raised fares from $1.75 to $2.

The agency says despite such cuts, as well as pursing other avenues of cost savings throughout the agency - including a hiring freeze - it faces a $56 million budget shortfall for the 2010-11 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The transit district also lobbied to pass ballot measure VV in 2008, which doubled the annual parcel tax levied against home owners.

At the 2 p.m. hearing, dozens of bus riders and transit workers spoke on the importance of bus service for those who are elderly, low income, disabled, students or don't drive.

"A fiscal emergency is being declared on the backs of people who can least afford it," said Mahasin Abdul-Salaam, who chairs a transit equity task force for Oakland faith-based organization Genesis. She called the proposed cuts "devastating" for the people of Oakland and the wider transit district.

"Find the money," she said. "Transportation is our civil right, and transportation justice means equal transportation for all."

Others advocated for extending the time of transfers from one to two hours, questioned the validity of pursuing its East Bay Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project and said drivers need adequate rest and break time.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission already reallocated $35 million from BRT to AC Transit's general fund in December to reduce service cuts. The rapid transit system would feature 18 miles of dedicated bus lanes from San Leandro through Oakland to Berkeley.

Rocky Fernandez, president of the agency's Board of Directors, told those assembled he understood service cuts "are painful and disruptive to your lives." But he said AC Transit "simply cannot continue to provide the amount of service we're currently providing."

Fernandez urged people to call their state and federal representatives to tell them to invest in public transit.

On Tuesday, May 25, federal lawmakers introduced the Public Transportation Preservation Act, which proposes to invest $2 billion in emergency aid to transit systems across the country.

Outside AC Transit headquarters in downtown Oakland, where the meeting took place, workers from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 192 protested the service cuts. The union is currently undergoing contract negotiations with the transit agency to fight layoffs. The proposed changes will cost about 123 jobs, according to transit spokesman Clarence Johnson.

AC Transit operates from Richmond to Fremont and carries about 236,000 riders per weekday. It is the third largest transit system in the Bay Area, behind BART and MUNI, and has faced continued financial problems in the last several years.