Incident - Lake Merritt Sail Boat House - December 3, 2005
Mr. Mayor, Madam City Administrator and City Council Members:
On Saturday December 3, 2005, the Public Works Agency was notified by the Director of Parks and Recreation at 7:45 am that the Sail Boat House had been damaged the night before when it was rented for a birthday party.
(See Tribune article: http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_3277935)
We were informed that repairs were needed immediately because a wedding was scheduled to take place that same day at 2:00 p.m.
My Assistant Director Brooke A. Levin personally visited the building and met with OPR Director Audree Jones-Taylor to review the damage and dispatch staff to respond to repair the building and meet the 2:00 deadline for the wedding. After an outstanding response and performance by Public Works Agency staff, the Sailboat House was ready to receive it's wedding guests by the 2:00 pm deadline.
Below is a summary of the work that took place to repair and clean-up from the damage. PWA staff is tracking all costs of clean-up and replacement of the windows for invoicing the involved parties.
Facilities Division
- The Facilities Division had custodians arrive at by 8:30 am to handle all cleaning of broken glass, blood, soda sprayed on walls and ceiling and floors.
- Sweeping and discarding broken glass from both inside and outside the building.
- Scrubbing and washing away dried up blood on the balcony, stairs and floor inside the building.
- Washing a lot of splattered soda pop off the ceilings and light fixtures.
- Buffing the floor.
- The Facilities Division had a total of 5-FTE working 14 person hours to clean up the facility.
Parks and Building Maintenance Division
- The Parks and Building Maintenance Staff arrived by 9:30 am and had a total of 3-FTE spend 13 person hours on the job repairing and painting the window areas so they would be presentable to the wedding party.
- Four windows were broken and glass, blood were all over the inside and outside of the facility.
- Boarded up two 77" x 65" windows adjacent to the office area.
- Installed Lexan (plexi glass) in one 77" x 65" window in the main room with a view toward the Lake so that the wedding could proceed.
- Patched a 4th 77" x 65" window to stabilize it from causing any problems (hole in the corner).
Next Steps
Staff is working with the City Attorney's office to recover costs for damage from the renting party, and PWA together with OPR will review its requirements and procedures to strengthen, if appropriate, our ability to recover damages from incidents like this one.