Published Sunday, August 26, 2007, by the San Francisco Chronicle

M&R: Racial politics marked BART board's search for new chief

By Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

The selection of longtime BART second-in-command Dorothy Dugger as
the transit agency's new general manager was loaded with politics
-- a lot of it racial.

It started last month when the search firm charged with seeking out
a diverse range of candidates came back with a list of 30 possible
GMs -- of whom 16 were African Americans. Only one was Latino and
none was Asian American.

The BART board's three-member search committee whittled the list
down to nine earlier this month, five of them African American and
the rest white.

That triggered pointed questioning from some board members about the
mix, including questions from James Fang as to why no Asian Americans
or Latinos had made the cut.

"It seemed unusual that the search firm, which is supposed to find
qualified minority candidates, only found African American
candidates," Fang told us.

Tensions peaked when the search committee narrowed its choice to
Sacramento light-rail boss Beverly Scott, who is black, and Dugger,
who is white. They were also the only women from the final nine.

Before the search committee could make a planned Aug. 16 trip to
Sacramento to get a final appraisal of Scott, BART board member Bob
Franklin left a phone message for panel President Lynette Sweet --
telling her that, by his count, Dugger already had the votes for
the job.

It wasn't long before Franklin and his colleagues, overriding Sweet's
attempt to put off the vote, called for a special meeting Thursday to
confirm their choice.

Sweet, who is African American and has pushed for more minorities and
women in management positions, cried foul. She was joined by a large
contingent of African American women who turned out at the meeting to
support Scott.

"Dorothy is our general manager and we will have to work with her,"
Sweet said Friday. "But I don't feel there is a level playing field,
and unless we make a concerted effort to make it level, we won't get
there."

Some of Sweet's colleagues are reeling over her decision to make a
public stink over the selection process, including her accusation
that Franklin violated the Brown Act open meeting law by counting
votes ahead of the selection.

BART's lawyers say Franklin did nothing wrong, and now there are
rumblings of a board coup to remove Sweet from the panel's presidency.

Stay tuned.

[...]

The high road: State Attorney General Jerry Brown is pulling up
stakes, leaving his loft in Oakland's flatlands for a nearly
$2.5 million, 4,200-square-foot home high in the hills.

The deal is set to close this week for a five-level, Japanese-style
home atop Skyline Boulevard, built by a designer who worked on
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's Zen-inspired compound in Woodside.

Brown has spent the past 13 years in lower Oakland, first at his
communal loft and most recently in a midtown Telegraph Avenue
apartment he shares with his wife and chief adviser, Anne Gust, who
wanted something more quiet.

"You hear the BART trains every time they go by," Brown said of his
apartment digs, "and every time the street-cleaning trucks go by,
they shake the building."

As for continued speculation that the 69-year-old Brown is mulling
one last run for governor: "I haven't ruled it out," he said, "but
then I haven't considered it."

Some things never change.

Contact Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross at(415) 777-8815, or e-mail
matierandross@sfchronicle.com

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