How BART plans to punish a director who made a racist comment

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The BART board of directors will soon decide how to punish a member who apologized for using racist language at a board meeting – a first for a public transport governing body.

The decision to punish Director John McPartland will be put to a vote at the next meeting on Thursday. According to board president Janice Lee, this will be the first time a BART director has been formally convicted.

“It’s not so much about John, it’s about how we move forward and how to do it right,” said Lee, who represents parts of San Francisco. “We have to figure out what it means to respect each other in a public setting.”

At a board meeting on January 12, McPartland called a presentation by black employees on BART’s work for racial equality “inspiring to pick cotton.”

McPartland, white, has served as director since 2008 and is a member of the NAACP. He apologized and pleaded ignorance on Tuesday. He also said that he writes a formal apology and also personally apologizes to employees.

“I’m quite frankly saddened to have caused so much grief to someone I respect so much,” McPartland previously told The Standard. “I admit my ignorance and sincerely apologize. I accept whatever ultimately comes to him.”

Calls to convict McPartland after the apology only intensified. He also told a black American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in 2019 that she was “very vocal” and suggested she go to law school, and in 2020, during a discussion of the Black Lives Matter protests, called Robert E. Lee a “model general” . .

During a phone interview with The Standard on Wednesday, he also referred to Lee, who led the pro-slavery Confederate army to strategic mistakes during the American Civil War, as a “military genius” who should also be remembered as a racist slave owner.

BART General Manager Bob Powers, in an email to staff this week, called the Jan. 12 comments “unacceptable” and “embarrassing.”

Lee said recent comments directed at staff have added a new element to encourage board action than in the past. The BART board can only publicly denounce fellow directors and remove them from committee assignments for violating their code of conduct, or remove them from discussion or voting on the matter.

“Because it has never been used before, we don’t have a plan,” Lee said. The BART Board of Directors meets virtually on Thursday starting at 9:00 am, with private public comment available at 2150 Webster St. in Auckland.

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