City Hall Doubles Down on Fire Hazard at Police Station

City Explores New Addition at Police Station to Solve Fire Escape Problem

Price May Climb to $1 Million or More
on Work Deemed Unnecessary

Staff Doubles Down on Lack of Accountability 

Police Station Runs Afoul of California Fire Code

Complaint Opens Investigation

An internal City Hall memo, recently intercepted by the Tattler brings new revelations about how the City's police station building came to be in violation of the California Fire Code and left the public vulnerable in the fast moving Emeryville police station fire escape scandal: illegal and non-permitted work was performed, adding locked doors blocking off escape. The addition of the locked doors was done sometime after the 2012 major remodel of the building the memo states, by unknown people, presumably police personnel.   Equally intriguing and inexplicable is the assertion made by the memo's author, City Manger James Holgersson, that by placing locked doors blocking egress for the second floor public lobby, the City is not in violation of the Fire Code but he is advising that the City Council spend money to add a legal fire escape nonetheless.
Mr Holgersson is suggesting that the City of Emeryville go above and beyond the legal minimum to the tune of a million dollars or more and provide a fire escape that's not necessary (according to his reading of the California Fire Code).

In anticipation of Tuesday's City Council agendized discussion on the lack of a fire escape for the public lobby at the Powell Street station, the City Manager released the memo to the Council informing them the City is not bound by regulations spelled out in the California Fire Code requiring public buildings to provide emergency legal egress because he says the police have promised to escort citizens out of the building in the event of a fire.  However, the California Fire Code, a state mandated suite of regulations that govern egress for both public and private buildings, does not provide the police escort idea as an acceptable permanent replacement for the delineated 'paths of egress' codes spelled out in Chapter 10 of the voluminous document.

Interim City Manager James Holgersson
Emeryville should spend up to a million dollars
on a fire escape at the police station even though
it's not legally needed he says.

The Alameda County Fire Department has opened an investigation into the matter as a result of a Tattler complaint.
 

Mr Holgersson, acknowledges in the July 11th memo that the police escort idea, legal in his mind, is nonetheless sub par and the City is presented with "the opportunity to reassess and how to improve the public access and egress in the building."  As such, the Council is being directed to consider one of three what he asserts are voluntary improvements to help the public with emergency egress.  The three choices consist of building a new set of exterior stairs out the front of the building (as the Tattler reported on June 21st), moving the public lobby downstairs or building a new addition to the police station on the ground level and put the public lobby there.  A local building contractor gave a cost estimate for the solutions ranging from as much as $300,000 for the stairs, $750,000 to move the public lobby downstairs to as much as $1 million or more for a new addition.

Chapter 10 of the California Fire Code, BE 1003.6 Means of Egress Continuity clearly states "Paths of egress shall not be interrupted by a building element." Section 1031, Maintenance of the Means of Egress as well as BE 1025.2.6, Doors within the Exit Path all address the illegal condition at the police station.

The memo claims "changes in police security policy functions" after the completion of the 2012 $3.7million police station remodel brought the locked set of doors blocking the public fire escape, work performed without a building permit by unknown person(s).
Any work done without the benefit of a permit, especially work that would constrain a public fire escape is a violation of the California Fire Code as well as a violation of the Emeryville Building Department and Public Works because it involves a public building.

More Redactions
In related news, a Tattler Public Records Request for documents related to the police station fire escape was answered by City Hall on Monday, several days after what the law allows.  The document dump, some 138 emails in all, mostly detail discussions about how and when internal meetings about the issue should take place.  The City, adding to the already redacted information presented to the Tattler, is withholding an unknown number of documents that speak substantively to the issue, citing the following:

The City asserts that certain other documents are exempt from disclosure under Government Code, § 6254(a) as they are preliminary drafts, notes, or interagency or intra-agency memoranda that are not retained by the public agency in the ordinary course of business, and because the public interest in withholding those records clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

The Tattler has run a number of stories on the fire hazard at the police station, starting in 2016 but has hit a wall of redacted information on this issue.  City Councilman Scott Donahue said he intends that the City make a legal fire escape that comports with the California Fire Code and also that accountability will follow, regardless of any assertions to the contrary from the staff, "We will find out what went wrong" he said.

The July 11th memo may be read HERE