Alameda County native John McPartland is seeking reelection to his fourth term on the BART Board of Director, District #5, representing Central Hayward, Castro Valley, Dublin, Pleasanton and Livermore.

Since 2008, John McPartland has been the BART Director for District #5; before running for public office and joining the Board, John was a BART Safety Specialist for six years where he served as a liaison to, and facilitated major emergency response training for, all municipal public safety agencies and BART staff throughout the BART four county service area.

McPartland came to BART with a strong background in emergency management and leadership after a career with the Oakland Fire Department and retiring as a Chief. In addition to his emergency response duties in Oakland, John had further duty assignments in Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Hazardous Materials (HazMat) and the FEMA sponsored Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces (USAR T/F).

John also has an extensive military background. He is an Army Colonel (ret) and Combat Veteran with over 30 years of Active and Reserve service to the nation in command and staff positions in the Airborne, Infantry, Artillery and Transportation Branches. His duty stations have included multiple locations across the US, Europe and Southeast Asia. While serving in the Reserves, he was mobilized to active duty for special operations during “Operation Desert Storm”, the “Northridge Earthquake” and for a deployment to “Korea”. His awards and decorations include: The Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster and many more.

McPartland has been a community supporter and activist his entire adult life.  Most notable among his contributions include having served on the “California Seismic Safety Commission”, he is a “Master Mason”, member of the Alameda County “Emergency Managers Association”, member and past Commander of the Castro Valley “Veterans of Foreign Wars” (VFW) Post 9601 and member of a federal “Disaster Medical Assistance Team” (DMAT CA-6) with which he deployed to Hurricane Katrina. He recently retired from the Alameda County Sheriff’s “Underwater Dive Unit” after 45 years of volunteer service to Alameda county.

John has a BA from St. Mary’s in Moraga, CA (thesis: disaster planning), a Master’s in Public Administration from Cal State East Bay in Hayward, CA, is a graduate of the US Army’s “Command and General Staff College” at Ft Leavenworth, KS and the Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s “Executive Leadership Program” at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA.  He also holds numerous military and professional qualifications in leadership, management and emergency operations.

In his personal time McPartland swims, dives, skis, consults and trains on “Disaster Preparedness” to both corporate and fraternal organizations, teaches part time in community colleges and loves teaching his grand kids how to scuba dive and rappel.  He wishes he and his wife, Maria, could travel more; if only they could find the time.

My personal and professional core values are equity, truth, transparency and accountability, while my personal imperative is to provide for the safety and well being to the public I serve and those I serve the public with. 

My political philosophy is to work collectively and collaboratively, with my fellow elected officials, to provide the most reliable, affordable and efficient public transportation achievable to the 130K constituents in my district and the 2+million patrons that ride BART each week.

I am a professional leader with strong experience in both the governmental and private sectors, specializing in leadership, financial analysis, administration and project/program management.

I know and appreciate public service. For over ten years I have served the people of Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin and part of Dougherty Valley by way of my work as an Analyst in the Finance Department of Zone 7 Water Agency, the provider of drinking water and flood protection to the Tri-Valley.  I started my public service career working for the Alameda County Employees Retirement Association, which serves 26,000 members and manages over $8.5 billion.

I also currently act as Treasurer of the Alameda County Management Employees Association        and represent over 1,300 members of management.

I have broad, real life experience.  My wife of 30 years and I have raised two confident and engaging women, both of whom are now married and working in professional careers (one in Livermore, Finance and the other Seattle, Emergency Room Nurse).   

Prior to joining public service, I worked for over 20 years in the private sector serving national and multinational companies as Vice President, General Manager and Western Regional Manager.  I have a solid footing regarding management, fiscal policy, negotiations and contracting.  

All individuals should be involved in the political process in some way.

It's not fair to complain if you are not willing to do something about it and as I looked around, I did not see anyone willing to take the risk to put themselves out front for the betterment of the community rather than themselves.  I therefore decided to jump in and try to make things better for the taxpayers, the BART employees and the transit customers.