In defiance of BART management, BART board member Bevan Dufty has been picking up a broom and helping clean 16th Street Station himself. Dufty has been arguing that the station, one of the dirtiest in the BART system, needs to have its own full-time janitor, and it currently does not.
"I’m at loggerheads a bit with the BART executive management who are telling me a million reasons why, in this billion dollar budget, I can’t get a daytime cleaner here at 16th and Mission," Dufty tells CBS 5. "I’m kind of rattling the door and saying, ‘Come on, don’t give me excuses. Let’s do things.'"
Dufty says there are multiple unfilled janitorial openings at BART and he doesn't understand why they aren't being filled faster. He says he's been told a janitor would have to be moved from the suburbs to take care of 16th & Mission, but Dufty doesn't believe that should be the case. And we know BART pays its janitors extremely well, especially those who put in a lot of overtime.
Currently, a cleaner does come in the afternoons to 16th & Misison, but Dufty is pushing for one who starts at 7 a.m. and does not split his or her time.
Meanwhile, he'll be showing up on Wednesday mornings to make his point, and he's so far been doing so with some high-profile help, including Mission District Supervisor Hillary Ronen.
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