California IN BRIEF : OAKLAND : Official Suspended For Alleged Remark

Robert Garside, Alameda County Transit assistant general manager for operations, has been suspended over an alleged remark to a transportation study group in April, an official announced. Garside was suspended for a week without pay from his $90,000-a-year job and voluntarily assigned to attend “sensitivity and awareness training” to improve his performance, said General Manager James L. O’Sullivan. Garside told a 16-member study group on April 30 that AC Transit had problems because of “inept minorities and women,” said Local 192 business agent Ed Jackson of the Amalgamated Transit Union. Jackson said he was not at the meeting but was quoting people who were there. O’Sullivan said his investigation of the incident showed “the word ‘inept’ ” was not used. He said that he did not have the exact language of Garside’s remark, but it was “inappropriate.”