An outgoing BART director gave a parting gift to her colleagues: MAGA hats

By Rachel Swan | San Francisco Chronicle (TNS)

OAKLAND, CALIF. — An outgoing BART board director known for conservative stances and tense standoffs with her Democratic colleagues handed each of them a parting gift at the last meeting of her term: MAGA hats.

Director Debora Allen, who decided not to run for re-election, put the hats in gift bags that she passed out during a board meeting Thursday, which also included a letter to each board member.

The meeting opened with speeches by departing board members Bevan Dufty, Rebecca Saltzman, who won a seat on the El Cerrito City Council and Lateefah Simon, who will succeed Barbara Lee in Congress. Allen told the Chronicle she had also been asked to give remarks. She spoke out after Dufty appeared to pass over her and give the floor to Mark Foley, who is not leaving the board.

"I did have some parting comments — did you want me to give them now?" she asked Dufty. He agreed, and allowed her to speak.

"For sure the last four years have been the most challenging years in history for BART," Allen said, adding that she had wanted to bow out in 2020, but that supporters convinced her to stay.

---------------------------------------------

Don't Miss Out. Subscribe to the Transit Intelligence Newsletter

---------------------------------------------

She went on to discuss the agency's financial crisis, which grew dire as Bay Area residents continued working from home. Allen criticized the agency for increasing spending on operations and hoping for a bailout from taxpayers. Additionally, Allen touted her work to boost financial transparency and public safety on BART.

"With all that, I wanted to depart by giving a gift to my colleagues," Allen said. "What do you buy San Francisco Democrat politicians that seem to have everything they need? Well, it took a while, but I think I came up with something that you all might need over the next four years."

"I know you all don't think you'll need this, but I bought each of you one of these," she said, pulling back her chair to reach into a bag. Grinning, she whipped out a black baseball cap with President-elect Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan.

The other directors looked down at their laps. " Jesus Christ," someone mumbled into a microphone.

In an interview on Friday, Allen said the MAGA hat was partly a joke, though it also carried a message: "That continued funding from the federal government of Bay Area transit projects must involve engaging both parties."

She recalled traveling to Washington, D.C., with a delegation from BART under the first Trump administration. At that time, Allen said, she raised concerns that BART officials were only lobbying Democratic legislators.

A registered Republican when she was first elected in 2016 to represent central Contra Costa County, Allen switched to no party preference in 2019. On the BART board, however, she established herself as a fiscal conservative who pushed back against labor unions while also tacking right on social issues.

After the murder in George Floyd in 2020, Allen made public remarks that appeared to downplay the killing of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer in 2009. Grant's family called on her to step down.

That episode came two years after Allen's 2018 brush with Grant's family, when she posted a social media poll to ask whether BART should name stations after individuals. At the time, relatives and supporters of Grant were campaigning to name Fruitvale Station in his honor.

When Allen passed out her gifts during Thursday's meeting, the board chambers was packed. Among the audience were progressive groups calling for stronger protection against sexual assaults and harassment on BART, and championing BART's effort to rename the Lake Merritt Station for Oakland Chinatown — a symbolic act of racial reparation, Board Director Janice Li said.

As Allen spoke, "the mood in the room changed," Li said. She characterized Allen as a divisive public official who had long been isolated from colleagues.

"It was saying the quiet part out loud," Li said of the hats. "We knew you harbored these beliefs. We knew you were inflammatory."

Allen said she has had to endure years of snipes from other board members who view her as "either a racist or a Republican when I don't agree with them."

Her letter to Li said: "Your accusations for racism, your constant interruptions and your attempts to silence me didn't bother me much. I know it was all part of the show."

Li seemed to reference Allen's letter and gifts in comments she made later at the meeting Thursday.

"Winning is the best revenge," she said. "Especially when it comes to toxic, hostile and uncooperative people."

Dufty described feeling bewildered when Allen displayed a MAGA hat at the dais. He said he reached for Simon's hand.

"I just needed to center myself," he said. "I asked Lateefah if I could hold her hand for a minute or two."

He paused a beat.

"I'm OK now."

Reach Rachel Swan: [email protected]

___

(c)2024 the San Francisco Chronicle

Visit the San Francisco Chronicle at www.sfchronicle.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Daily News Briefing