Carole Ward Allen

On January 3, 1989, Ward Allen honored the life and legacy of Alameda County Supervisor John George by authoring a resolution of condolence.[22] George was a law partner of Ward Allen’s father; working in his law office in 1960s, and a long-time family friend.

In addition, Ward Allen along with her board members advocated and secured funds to bring Oakland - Jack London Square (Amtrak station) to Oakland in the early 1990s after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.[23] This was the first time in history Amtrak had come to Oakland. The site of the Amtrak station officially opened in 1995 and owned by the Port of Oakland. Ward Allen was involved in much of the contracting and legal work surrounding the Port of Oakland owning the facility where the Amtrak station was built when she headed the Port from 1990 to 1992, working with two different city mayors; Lionel J. Wilson and Elihu Harris.

Ward Allen was a critical proponent of the Jack London Square Re-Development project during the late 1980s and early 1990s.[24] In 1989, when Ward Allen was Vice President of the Port of Oakland Board of Commissioners, the Port's headquarters relocated to Jack London Square and her name was engraved on the building.

In July 1991, then-President Ward Allen of the Board of Port Commissioners, advocated for permits to be issued to allow dredging to take place at the port. She pushed for dredging at the port along with labor representatives and other agencies, stating that, "Dredging is already needed . . . the port is the shallowest on the West Coast."[25]

Ward Allen was an advocate for the creation of Oakland Aviation High School, which was adopted by the Oakland Unified School District with the Port of Oakland serving as a partner of the charter school.[26] While she was on the BART board, she remained committed to serving as an advocate of this charter school since her days on the Board of Port Commissioners.

Left, Ronald V. Dellums, (Center) Ward Allen, James Fang, and Sandre Swanson at the groundbreaking of the Oakland Airport Connector in 2010.

During Ward Allen's tenure on the BART Board, she fought for the creation of contracting opportunities for small minority-and-women-owned businesses.[45] Providing employment opportunities to Oakland and Alameda residents was extremely important to her. Therefore, she collaborated with the local unions to facilitate the creation of job opportunities to put people back to work and provide economic relief to citizens in the wake of the Great Recession.[46] As a result, the Oakland Airport Connector project has generated approximately 2,500 to 5,200 direct and indirect jobs.[47][48] Ward Allen has been active in many of BART’s historic measures such as its first Project Labor Agreement with zip-code-priority to disadvantaged communities in her district.[49]

On October 20, 2010, BART director Ward Allen had a ground breaking event on the project at the Oakland Coliseum Station and was joined by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Mayor Ron Dellums, Assemblywoman Sandre Swanson, Oakland city councilman Larry Reid, Port of Oakland, local unions and ministers on its announcement to the public.[50] The high-tech and environmentally friendly 3.2-mile automated Oakland Airport Connector began operating in November 2014.[51]

As Chairwoman of the Oakland Airport Connector Committee, she has solicited the input from diverse communities (such as non-English speaking and low-income), in the aftermath of a civil rights complaint against the construction of the Coliseum–Oakland International Airport line.[52] She was the first BART director to demand that signage and documentation needed to be multi-lingual; to serve her communities, but to ensure diverse populations understand how to evacuate train stations in the circumstance of an emergency. This need was especially a priority to Oakland's Chinatown and Fruitvale districts given the predominantly Asian and Latino population. Furthermore, she made sure there were live translators available for the first time in BART's history during community and townhall meetings in 2009.

On July 15, 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the historic BART Accountability Act AB 1586[53] into California law, which Ward Allen urged the California State Legislature to adopt during a Senate hearing on June 15, 2010.[54][55] She worked closely with Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, who authored the legislation, to enforce civilian oversight of the BART Police Department.[56] Ward Allen thanked the governor, the community, the entire BART organization and Assemblyman Swanson for their hard work in getting AB 1586 bill implemented in the aftermath of the shooting of Oscar Grant.[55] The law also created the Office of the Independent Auditor at BART, which would investigate matters brought to the BART Board by the civilian oversight committee.

In addition to changing California law, Ward Allen supported the family of Oscar Grant by being the only BART director who attended the Oscar Grant trial on the nine-member board in Los Angeles during the summer of 2010. Earlier, in the same year, she was one of the keynote speakers at the inaugural vigil; honoring the life of Oscar Grant and supporting his family at the Fruitvale station. In her speech, she apologized again on the behalf of BART for his tragic death, and gave Grant’s uncle Cephus Johnson a bouquet of flowers for the family.[57]

In 2009, the hiring of two independent organizations reviewed BART's policies and procedures in the process of overseeing the BART Police.[58] The two independent firms investigated the matters of BART Police Shooting of Oscar Grant and were charged with making recommendations to the board.[59][60] Ward Allen formulated and chaired BART's first Police Department Review Committee, and as a result, BART made sweeping changes on many security measures, as well as corrected and implemented several policies and procedures.[61] BPD Review Committee has led to the re-training of all officers on use of force, diversity re-training and other issues. Ward Allen hired Kenton Rainey, the person selected to lead BART’s 296-member police force, to take command as Chief of Police.[62]

In 2009, Ward Allen formulated BART's first Small/Minority/Women-Owned Business and Bonding Committee.[63] The committee sought to address the critical problems that are preventing minority-and-women-owned construction businesses from receiving adequate information in a timely fashion, making plan rooms available to low-income communities, expediting the response time of all allocations and qualifying for contracts. Ward Allen advocated that the BART Board should earmark a part of the capital budget to support disadvantaged business enterprises, resulting in BART injecting up to $45 million between 2009 and 2014 into the local economy with much of that money going to minority- and women-owned businesses.[64]

Dorothy Dugger, David Hinson, and Ward Allen (right) finishing a business meeting with U.S. Department of Commerce.

On May 25, 2005, then-Vice President Ward Allen of the BART Board of Directors joined Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, city councilman Larry Reid, CCJPA Vice Chair Forrest Williams, and Caltrans Division of Rail Chief Bill Bronte at the grand opening of the Oakland Coliseum Intercity Rail Station.[65] She was a proponent of the $6.6 million facility being built to provide other modes of public transportation to citizens of Oakland and the Bay Area. Ward Allen served on the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority board of directors for several years during the early 2000s.

Ward Allen's efforts toward cultivating a more eco-friendly and green environment for BART resulted in the largest BART bicycle station being created as a part of the Fruitvale transit village. The Fruitvale transit village is a national model for transit oriented development, given Ward Allen and former BART director Margaret Pryor's leadership. The Fruitvale transit village was built in partnership with the Spanish Speaking Unity Council, and Phase I was completed in 2004. Phase I included 94 rental units, 92 of which were affordable to households at extremely and very low incomes, and 2 market-rate units. This was a significant victory for BART district 4 residents and the City of Oakland. On July 22, 2010, Ward Allen and the BART Board approved 3.4 acres of property that remained undeveloped for Phase II of the transit village.

In addition, she worked hard on the Coliseum transit village for more than a decade and approved its construction of single-family for-sale homes — with some set aside for low- and moderate-income residents — as well as shops and restaurants.[66] Ward Allen worked closely with Oakland city councilman Larry Reid to approve the third stage of the transit village project, which would explore building approximately 100 workforce housing units on what is now a 1.3 acre parking lot at Snell Street and 71st Avenue in their shared district.

Ward Allen served as the Chairperson of the following standing committees: Board’s Police Department Review Committee; Planning, Public Affairs, Access & Legislation Committee; and Oakland Airport Connector – Coliseum Station Development Liaison Committee. She also chaired the Fruitvale Policy Committee, Executive Management Committee; Small/Minority/Women-Owned Business & Bonding Committee; Small Business Advisory Committee; and was a member of the AC Transit Liaison Committee.