Total Censorship With Police Department Fire Escape: 100% Redaction of Public Record

Redact City-

What the City Doesn't Want You to Know About the Police Dept Remodel That Left 

the Building Unsafe:

Everything

Police Chief Blacks Out Entire Public Record

Document received from City Hall in response to Public Records Request. 

The City of Emeryville, citing an obscure 1973 case law decision that allowed the government to withhold prison building plans from the public, blacked out building plans of the Hollis Street police department to the public inquiring about the City's failure to provide public fire escape egress at the police building.  The architect plans, produced for the City as part of a 2012 $3.7 million remodel of the the City's Public Safety Building at 2449 Hollis Street, putatively shows a State of California mandated fire escape at the second floor public lobby that was removed, illegally, at some later date.  We say 'putatively' because Emeryville's Chief of Police, Jennifer Tejada, has totally redacted the publicly owned plans so we can't know for sure.  However, the architect, retained by the City for the 2012 remodel, recently assured the Tattler he did provide for public egress at the second floor lobby and the plans, if we could view them would prove it.  The architect, Don Dommer of Albany based Dommer and Associates, upon hearing of a lack of a second floor public fire escape at his building, is conjecturing somebody must have done illegal work closing off public access after his contract with the City was complete.

The Tattler originally brought the issue of no public fire escape at the police station to the City at a Council meeting in 2016 and with an accompanying 2016 Tattler story but City Hall resisted the call to correct the public safety issue, waiting until after a second Tattler story on June 21st.  Assurances are now being offered from the Chief Building official, Victor Gonzales, that the City plans on making the police station legal, in the wake of the June 21st story.  Mr Gonzales is postulating a new set of exterior stairs could be added out the front of the building to make the building code compliant.

As Emeryville City Hall moves to fix the illegal fire trap at the police station public lobby (presuming they will), the public is left with questions of culpability.  Blacked out building plans notwithstanding, the question about when the fire escape was removed is less important to know than who removed it and if that subsequent illegal work was permitted by the Building Department.  Emeryville's Building official Victor Gonzales hinted he might at least share culpability as reported in the June 21st Tattler story when he said, "Everybody makes mistakes" and "I'm doing the best I can."

Chief Tejada's claim the information about the public fire egress at the station is secret and if made known to the public would compromise police safety, is overwrought and the full redaction of this public document is not warranted.  Because government is transparent and not permitted to withhold the public's right to know their business if it is being done to hide government malfeasance, these questions of who removed the public fire escape at our police station will be answered and this redaction impediment will not serve to deter.

The Tattler requested the building plans via a Public Records Request two weeks ago and accompanying the document filled with blacked out drawings ordered by Chief Tejada was the following dubious justification:

”The City of Emeryville finds ...under Government Code section 6255(a) and Evidence Code section 1040, public agencies have been able to withhold building plans for a correctional training facility and detention facility from the public on the grounds that individuals may use the information to plan an escape, which would threaten the safety of the communities. Thus, the benefits of non-disclosure outweighed the benefits of disclosure of the building plans for these buildings utilized by law enforcement....”    

Despite $3.7 Million Major Remodel, City Forgot the Fire Escape: More Money Needed

Fire Escape Blunder Will Cost $300,000

Exterior Stairs to be Added to Front of 
Police Department Building

Emeryville's Public Safety Building is Still Unsafe

Emeryville's chief building official announced Tuesday the City will likely have to build an external stairway out the front of the two story police headquarters building because the City failed to provide an emergency fire exit during a major $3.7 million remodel of the building in 2012.  The second floor front public lobby at the police department building on Powell Street, is accessible by elevator only and has had no fire escape since 2012 or sometime after, when the building was cleared for occupancy, possibly erroneously, by the City's own Chief Building Official, Victor Gonzales, an "oversight" he says.

Emeryville's Police Department
Existing Entryway
The new fire escape will have to come
out through these upstairs windows, catwalk
over to the left and then down a flight of stairs.

Mr Gonzales, who makes $155,000 per year as head of the Building Department at City Hall admitted the lack of a legal fire escape for the ironically named Emeryville Public Safety Building must be fixed even though he himself signed off on the building. "Mistakes were made and we're working on a fix" he said before he mentioned the external stairs solution.  Preliminary estimates for legal egress stairs range up to $300,000 and would have to be paid via Emeryville's taxpayer funded Capital Improvement Program, a fund with an already overextended and fully earmarked project wish list.
The police building was overhauled in a major remodel completed in 2012, ironically done in part to improve safety, including fire safety, at a cost of at least $3.7 million according to the chief architect for the project.  The Tattler reported a $2.7 million figure in a December 2016 story, a number obtained from the City of Emeryville but the architect reports the 3.7 higher number.

The architect, Don Dommer of Oakland's Don Dommer Associates, told the Tattler he recalled he provided a legal "path of travel" for egress in the event of a fire and that unauthorized work done without benefit of his plans may have been subsequently done.  The Tattler is waiting to receive a set of the plans of the 2012 remodel project to be made available by a public records request, due in 9 days.  The Chief of Police, Jennifer Tejada has requested the plans be redacted owing to their sensitive nature.

City to Red Tag its Own Building?
Further complicating the public safety issue in the remodel and the concomitant embarrassment for the City, is a binding Certificate of Occupancy document uncovered by the Tattler that requires the City to vacate the police department building because of the lack of legal public egress.  The April 27th, 2012 C of O document that conditionally permits the Police Department and the public use of the building, mandates the permission for use be revoked and the Certificate of Occupancy be void if the "prescribed codes or regulations of the City of Emeryville are not met".

Second Floor Public Lobby: Fire Trap
The windows will be replaced with egress doors.

In a bizarre turn, the same person who signed off on the police building's fitness in 2012, Victor Gonzales, being the Chief Building Official, is the same person whom the Certificate of Occupancy now requires to 'red tag' the building, causing its forced evacuation.
While the building has been in a technical state of violation, probably since completion of the 2012 remodel project, only since the earlier Tattler story made the lack of legal egress condition known to the Emeryville Building Department in 2016, has it been imperative the building be red tagged.  Before that Tattler story, Mr Gonzales theoretically could have made the argument he didn't know the building lacked a fire escape. However, in the wake of the current Tattler story, the City Attorney, Micheal Guina said he is looking into what could be a conflict of interest or a state of jeopardy; Mr Gonzales being the same person to enforce the illegal condition he signed off on.   Thus being the power of a chief building official.
Beyond Mr Gonzales's obvious reluctance to implicate himself, the only way for the City to obey the core provision of its own legal document, the police building Certificate of Occupancy now, would be to tender an admission of incompetency, an unlikely event.

Still, Mr Guina told the Tattler he will consider the implications of the tricky exigency and report his decision to the City Council soon.

Attempting to defuse what's becoming a volatile situation for City Hall, Mr Gonzales, who's bailiwick is the construction trade, buildings and the public safety therein, told the Tattler Tuesday his oversight is understandable, "I'm doing the best I can. Everybody makes mistakes".  Besides, he said, the public safety has thus far "not been put at risk", "have there been any fires?" he asked.

Damning Document
Portends Homeless Cops
It's "....shall become void", not 'might become void'.