BART Board Director James Fang Calls Eleanor Mason Ramsey "Incompetent" - SFGateThis is from today's "Matier and Ross": “BART barking: Quite a tempest at BART headquarters the other day, as a dozen African American and Chinese American contractors led by Hunters Point activist and trucker Charlie Walker confronted the board over what they view as a lack of transit jobs going to minorities.
Walker and his pals lit into the board, complaining that they were losing out on contracts while BART hemmed and hawed over completing the necessary "disparity study" to prove that, in fact, minority contractors aren't getting enough work.
Unless things changed pronto, Walker warned, he would make sure President-elect Barack Obama (whom he claims to know personally) halted all federal contracts with the financially strapped transit agency.
Having had enough of the rant, board member James Fang of San Francisco tried to duck out of the meeting, only to be corralled in the lobby by Walker, who pressed his demands some more.
To which Fang shot back that the only reason Walker and his friends weren't getting any work was that the person doing the disparity study - someone Walker's allies on the board had demanded get the job - was "incompetent" and her findings were unusable.
Or so says Walker, who dashed back into the board room, took to the microphone and repeated every word of Fang's allegedly private conversation to those gathered at the meeting.
Board director Carole Ward Allen, representing Oakland and Alameda, soon jumped in, giving Walker a tongue-lashing for suggesting she and the board hadn't done their part over the years to help disadvantaged minorities.
The bickering continued for the better part of two hours, with no resolution.”
-- Yikes. Fang should explain why he called Ramsey incompetent, and provide details to back it up.
Walker and his pals lit into the board, complaining that they were losing out on contracts while BART hemmed and hawed over completing the necessary "disparity study" to prove that, in fact, minority contractors aren't getting enough work.
Unless things changed pronto, Walker warned, he would make sure President-elect Barack Obama (whom he claims to know personally) halted all federal contracts with the financially strapped transit agency.
Having had enough of the rant, board member James Fang of San Francisco tried to duck out of the meeting, only to be corralled in the lobby by Walker, who pressed his demands some more.
To which Fang shot back that the only reason Walker and his friends weren't getting any work was that the person doing the disparity study - someone Walker's allies on the board had demanded get the job - was "incompetent" and her findings were unusable.
Or so says Walker, who dashed back into the board room, took to the microphone and repeated every word of Fang's allegedly private conversation to those gathered at the meeting.
Board director Carole Ward Allen, representing Oakland and Alameda, soon jumped in, giving Walker a tongue-lashing for suggesting she and the board hadn't done their part over the years to help disadvantaged minorities.
The bickering continued for the better part of two hours, with no resolution.”
-- Yikes. Fang should explain why he called Ramsey incompetent, and provide details to back it up.
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