Oakland city officials must end their stonewalling over the release of records pertaining to the Ghost Ship warehouse fire.
It’s been more than two months since the tragic inferno that killed 36 people. Despite Mayor Libby Schaaf’s promise of transparency, her administration has failed to release critical public documents.
The mayor and City Attorney Barbara Parker have a choice: They can follow the law or they can become the political symbols of a cover-up of the nation’s deadliest fire since 2003.
And if they choose cover-up, we’ll meet them in court. We served notice with a front-page article on Friday and in a letter from our attorneys the day before. City officials have one week to produce the records we’ve been seeking for two months or we will file a lawsuit to compel them.
We’re tired of waiting. The public deserves answers about what city workers and officials knew about the dangerous conditions inside the warehouse in the years leading up to the fire.
What makes this particularly disturbing is that Schaaf knows – indeed she has publicly acknowledged – that, under the law, the records from before the fire are disclosable public documents.
There should be no hassling over whether they’re confidential. All pre-fire records about the warehouse were public documents then and they remain so today.
It’s past time for the city to produce them, along with the other documents we seek. Yet city officials have ignored our request for records about fire inspections, calls to the Police Department for service and the 911 tapes from the night of the tragedy.
Most of what the public has learned about the months and years leading up to the fire has come from investigative journalism. Records are often the key to that. They’re often the best documentation of who knew what and when.
While Schaaf has promised her own “very thorough and methodical investigation so we can discern what in fact happened,” that’s not a substitute for public access to records.
Especially when Schaaf has hedged her promise by declaring “we will not scapegoat city employees in the wake of this disaster.” No one is looking to unfairly blame workers for the fault of others, but those responsible should be held accountable.
Our job is to hold them accountable, to report on what went wrong and who is responsible. Right now, city officials are blocking that and ignoring the public’s legal right of access.
It’s time for the transparency the mayor promised. Now.
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/02/04/editorial-oakland-must-turn-over-ghost-ship-records-now/
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
122 Oakland Fire Dept (OFD) - Senior Officials ignored life/safety issues at 2551 San Pablo
March 31, 2017
The Associated Press reports that inspectors have discovered that an apartment building in a California neighborhood (2551 San Pablo Ave Oakland, CA) , lacked fire extinguishers, smoke detectors in every apartment, along with a working sprinkler system just three days before a blaze erupted and killed three (four) residents. During an inspection on Friday, officials uncovered the multiple fire code violations, and ordered the owner of the Oakland building to immediately fix the fire alarm and sprinkler systems.
Oakland firefighters urged senior fire officials in January to consider immediately shutting down the West Oakland halfway house that burned Monday, killing four people, because of safety problems, newly released city emails show
The emails show that firefighters who responded to medical calls in January and February at the three-story building reported seeing dangerous conditions — trash, exposed electrical wires, a locked door to a fire escape — that posed a danger to “life safety.” They urged fire inspectors to shut down the building.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-firefighters-wanted-halfway-house-shut-11042357.php
Sabatini was a fire department arson investigator before she was brought over to the Fire Prevention Bureau starting Jan. 3 to help with inspections in the wake of the infamous Ghost Ship warehouse fire that killed 36 people.
She was part of a 2 1/2-month string of email communications about the San Pablo Avenue boarding house that began Jan. 8, after firefighters responded to a medical call at the building.
“I recommend that we consider shutting this building down immediately due to the danger to life safety,” wrote Capt. Richard Chew. But Sabatini overruled him and directed the property owner be given 30 days to fix the problems.
Sabatini said Tuesday that she later accompanied two fire inspectors into the building on Friday March 24. The inspection report from the visit detailed 11 deficiencies, which have been widely reported since the fire.
Sabatini said none of them were considered life-threatening. “I don’t want people to think we left a building that we thought was an imminent danger,” she said.
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/04/04/inspectors-requirement-might-have-led-to-fatal-oakland-fire/
The Associated Press reports that inspectors have discovered that an apartment building in a California neighborhood (2551 San Pablo Ave Oakland, CA) , lacked fire extinguishers, smoke detectors in every apartment, along with a working sprinkler system just three days before a blaze erupted and killed three (four) residents. During an inspection on Friday, officials uncovered the multiple fire code violations, and ordered the owner of the Oakland building to immediately fix the fire alarm and sprinkler systems.
Oakland firefighters urged senior fire officials in January to consider immediately shutting down the West Oakland halfway house that burned Monday, killing four people, because of safety problems, newly released city emails show
The emails show that firefighters who responded to medical calls in January and February at the three-story building reported seeing dangerous conditions — trash, exposed electrical wires, a locked door to a fire escape — that posed a danger to “life safety.” They urged fire inspectors to shut down the building.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-firefighters-wanted-halfway-house-shut-11042357.php
Sabatini was a fire department arson investigator before she was brought over to the Fire Prevention Bureau starting Jan. 3 to help with inspections in the wake of the infamous Ghost Ship warehouse fire that killed 36 people.
She was part of a 2 1/2-month string of email communications about the San Pablo Avenue boarding house that began Jan. 8, after firefighters responded to a medical call at the building.
“I recommend that we consider shutting this building down immediately due to the danger to life safety,” wrote Capt. Richard Chew. But Sabatini overruled him and directed the property owner be given 30 days to fix the problems.
Sabatini said Tuesday that she later accompanied two fire inspectors into the building on Friday March 24. The inspection report from the visit detailed 11 deficiencies, which have been widely reported since the fire.
Sabatini said none of them were considered life-threatening. “I don’t want people to think we left a building that we thought was an imminent danger,” she said.
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/04/04/inspectors-requirement-might-have-led-to-fatal-oakland-fire/
121 Oakland Police Dept (OPD) - Visited Ghost Ship 35 times in 2 years. Yet no enforcement.
Feb 16, 2017 - East Bay Times
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/02/16/editorial-ghost-ship-fire-killed-36-but-its-not-their-department/
Thirty-six people died in Oakland’s infamous Ghost Ship fire. Police had seen and had been told almost two years earlier that people were living there illegally. Yet they did nothing.
Why? Because it’s not their department.
It would be merely a bureaucratic cliché if the outcome hadn’t been so tragic. Amazingly, Mayor Libby Schaaf endorses this shameful denial of responsibility. It’s political pandering at its worst.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf speaks at a press conference regarding the deadly Ghost Ship warehouse fire at the Emergency Operations Center on Wednesday, Dec. 7,2016, in
“Our police officers are trained to identify criminal activity, they are not trained in code enforcement,” Schaaf told our reporters. Well, Madame Mayor, maybe it’s time to train them, like other cities do and Oakland has in the past.
We’re not talking about the intricacies of wiring for 240-volt outlets or the required dimensions of a landing outside a doorway. We’re talking about recognizing obvious hazards and showing enough initiative to alert experts in other city departments.
Newly released records, turned over only after this newspaper’s threat of litigation, reveal that police had visited the building and associated properties 35 times between mid-2014 and the Dec. 2 fire.
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/02/16/editorial-ghost-ship-fire-killed-36-but-its-not-their-department/
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/02/16/editorial-ghost-ship-fire-killed-36-but-its-not-their-department/
Thirty-six people died in Oakland’s infamous Ghost Ship fire. Police had seen and had been told almost two years earlier that people were living there illegally. Yet they did nothing.
Why? Because it’s not their department.
It would be merely a bureaucratic cliché if the outcome hadn’t been so tragic. Amazingly, Mayor Libby Schaaf endorses this shameful denial of responsibility. It’s political pandering at its worst.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf speaks at a press conference regarding the deadly Ghost Ship warehouse fire at the Emergency Operations Center on Wednesday, Dec. 7,2016, in
“Our police officers are trained to identify criminal activity, they are not trained in code enforcement,” Schaaf told our reporters. Well, Madame Mayor, maybe it’s time to train them, like other cities do and Oakland has in the past.
We’re not talking about the intricacies of wiring for 240-volt outlets or the required dimensions of a landing outside a doorway. We’re talking about recognizing obvious hazards and showing enough initiative to alert experts in other city departments.
Newly released records, turned over only after this newspaper’s threat of litigation, reveal that police had visited the building and associated properties 35 times between mid-2014 and the Dec. 2 fire.
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/02/16/editorial-ghost-ship-fire-killed-36-but-its-not-their-department/
120 Oakland Fire Dept (OFD) - 2551 San Pablo Ave was reported as unsafe in 2015 - and nothing was done.
April 4, 2017 - Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/04/04/oakland-halfway-house-fire-firefighter-botched-2015-inspection-referral/
New emails and correspondence from Oakland officials show confusion dating back to 2015 involving a firefighter’s attempted referral on the 2551 San Pablo Ave. building that burned last week.
In September 2015, a Station 5 firefighter found an alarming situation at a halfway house on San Pablo Avenue and sent a referral to inspectors to visit the three-story building.
Or so he thought.
In fact, the dangerously unsafe building would not be brought to the fire prevention bureau’s attention until 16 months later. An inspection was finally completed March 24 — finding a number of serious violations in the transitional housing facility — and three days later four people were killed in a predawn fire that broke out in a room lit by a candle, according to the preliminary fire investigation.
In another example of the city’s failure to respond appropriately to fire safety issues, the firefighter in September 2015 checked the “referred” box on the department’s inspection software OneStep, but made the critical mistake of not also phoning or emailing the Fire Protection Bureau to alert them that an inspection was needed. That mistake, which has been an issue in the department, according to exclusive emails obtained by this news organization, sent the referral falling through the cracks.
“Clicking that doesn’t do anything on the other end” to send an alert, said Mark Hoffmann, co-acting fire chief, referring to the “referred” box in OneStep. A spokeswoman for Mayor Libby Schaaf confirmed the referral procedure was not followed.
In an exclusive interview with this newspaper Tuesday, Assistant Fire Marshal Maria Sabatini found ample problems when they finally walked through the building on March 24 and ordered extension cords and other wiring removed from the second-floor room where the fire originated, raising the possibility that the resident in that room was using a candle because electricity was no longer available.
“That might have been the case,” Sabatini said, referring to the need to use a candle that apparently started the fire. That question and whether the extension cord was later disconnected will probably be part of the ongoing investigation into the fire, she said.
Tuesday’s revelations show further confusion between the city’s firefighters and the civilian inspectors who have split responsibilities on monitoring fire safety issues inside Oakland’s buildings.
Fire inspection data shows that firefighter Charles Gresher on Sept. 17, 2015, attempted to refer problems at 2551 San Pablo Ave. to the Fire Prevention Bureau. Gresher declined to comment Tuesday and a request for comment from the firefighter’s union was not immediately returned.
On Jan. 11, 2017, Fire Capt. Sean Laffan emailed Sabatini, other inspectors and firefighters, reminding them that the halfway house had been referred to inspectors in 2015 because firefighters believed it was a care facility, needing state-mandated annual inspections by civilian inspectors. Laffan remarked in the email that the building “far exceeds the level of training for a company officer.”
Sabatini, who only moved to her fire marshal role in January after serving for years as an arson investigator, responded the next day to Laffan and a battalion chief, reminding them of firefighter lapses in how referrals are made.
“I’ve learned some (firefighters) think that when the ‘referred’ tab is clicked in OneStep, that an inspector is automatically notified. (This is not true),” she wrote. “Do you think it means someone picked up the phone and called the (Fire Protection Bureau), or sent an email? Not looking to hang anyone here, just really trying to figure out how to smooth this out.”
In the missive she explained the frantic atmosphere in the inspection bureau post-Ghost Ship, and said she had trouble even talking to Fire Marshal Miguel Trujillo because they were so busy and overwhelmed.
“I’m serious … it is crazy busy here,” she wrote. “They are not able to keep up with their own assignments and on top of that, everyday a batch of notices like this situation with 2551 San Pablo comes in.”
The city also provided a timeline by Inspector Flanoy Garrett and his five attempts between Feb. 25 and March 24 to get the building owner or nonprofit tenant to accompany them for an inspection of the three-story apartment building. Finally, part-owner Monsa Nitoto joined them for the inspection March 24.
“When the inspector was finally able to have the reluctant owner appear for the site visit, he was presented with violations to mitigate immediately, and informed that an inspector would return after the weekend to evaluate the progress,” Sabatini wrote in an email Tuesday to city spokeswoman Karen Boyd, obtained by this newspaper. “As part of the inspection we knocked on doors and entered several individual rooms to look for candles and other imminent fire hazards. We entered the room where the fire eventually started, and we spoke with the occupant. There were no candles or careless use of smoking materials observed in any of the rooms.
“I know this awful tragedy cannot be undone but I hope that there might be some awareness that despite a tremendous shortage of inspectors, corrective action was taking place in an attempt to address the safety issues,” she continued.
Also on Tuesday, city officials finally released the December National Fire Protection Association report on the Ghost Ship fire which this newspaper had requested repeatedly since the agency met with Oakland officials a week after the Fruitvale fire in which 36 people died.
The NFPA recommended the city conduct a survey of all occupied buildings and log each one into a centralized database that can be accessed by multiple city departments. The city should use that database to identify the highest-risk properties, set a schedule for inspections and staff the city’s Fire Prevention Bureau appropriately, the group suggested.
The recommendations also encourage the city to identify how property data maintained by different city agencies can be shared and made interactive so employees can more readily access information from other departments.
Last week, the city announced it would be roughly doubling the fire inspection staff, which currently stands at five, and taking steps to enhance their training. The announcement followed the release of emails showing that firefighters — on at least three occasions since the start of this year — urged their bosses to contact the Fire Prevention Bureau and shut down a San Pablo Avenue property.
When it comes to figuring out what to do with known problem properties, however, the recommendations are less clear. The NFPA suggested the city work with city and county staff, along with community members, to develop a policy to assess and address hazardous buildings and also conduct a workshop on how to identify, prevent and intervene in unpermitted social gatherings.
Finally, the NFPA recommended the city do a better job of communicating with just about everyone, from elected officials to city staff and from property owners to the public.
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/04/04/oakland-halfway-house-fire-firefighter-botched-2015-inspection-referral/
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/04/04/oakland-halfway-house-fire-firefighter-botched-2015-inspection-referral/
New emails and correspondence from Oakland officials show confusion dating back to 2015 involving a firefighter’s attempted referral on the 2551 San Pablo Ave. building that burned last week.
In September 2015, a Station 5 firefighter found an alarming situation at a halfway house on San Pablo Avenue and sent a referral to inspectors to visit the three-story building.
Or so he thought.
In fact, the dangerously unsafe building would not be brought to the fire prevention bureau’s attention until 16 months later. An inspection was finally completed March 24 — finding a number of serious violations in the transitional housing facility — and three days later four people were killed in a predawn fire that broke out in a room lit by a candle, according to the preliminary fire investigation.
In another example of the city’s failure to respond appropriately to fire safety issues, the firefighter in September 2015 checked the “referred” box on the department’s inspection software OneStep, but made the critical mistake of not also phoning or emailing the Fire Protection Bureau to alert them that an inspection was needed. That mistake, which has been an issue in the department, according to exclusive emails obtained by this news organization, sent the referral falling through the cracks.
“Clicking that doesn’t do anything on the other end” to send an alert, said Mark Hoffmann, co-acting fire chief, referring to the “referred” box in OneStep. A spokeswoman for Mayor Libby Schaaf confirmed the referral procedure was not followed.
In an exclusive interview with this newspaper Tuesday, Assistant Fire Marshal Maria Sabatini found ample problems when they finally walked through the building on March 24 and ordered extension cords and other wiring removed from the second-floor room where the fire originated, raising the possibility that the resident in that room was using a candle because electricity was no longer available.
“That might have been the case,” Sabatini said, referring to the need to use a candle that apparently started the fire. That question and whether the extension cord was later disconnected will probably be part of the ongoing investigation into the fire, she said.
Tuesday’s revelations show further confusion between the city’s firefighters and the civilian inspectors who have split responsibilities on monitoring fire safety issues inside Oakland’s buildings.
Fire inspection data shows that firefighter Charles Gresher on Sept. 17, 2015, attempted to refer problems at 2551 San Pablo Ave. to the Fire Prevention Bureau. Gresher declined to comment Tuesday and a request for comment from the firefighter’s union was not immediately returned.
On Jan. 11, 2017, Fire Capt. Sean Laffan emailed Sabatini, other inspectors and firefighters, reminding them that the halfway house had been referred to inspectors in 2015 because firefighters believed it was a care facility, needing state-mandated annual inspections by civilian inspectors. Laffan remarked in the email that the building “far exceeds the level of training for a company officer.”
Sabatini, who only moved to her fire marshal role in January after serving for years as an arson investigator, responded the next day to Laffan and a battalion chief, reminding them of firefighter lapses in how referrals are made.
“I’ve learned some (firefighters) think that when the ‘referred’ tab is clicked in OneStep, that an inspector is automatically notified. (This is not true),” she wrote. “Do you think it means someone picked up the phone and called the (Fire Protection Bureau), or sent an email? Not looking to hang anyone here, just really trying to figure out how to smooth this out.”
In the missive she explained the frantic atmosphere in the inspection bureau post-Ghost Ship, and said she had trouble even talking to Fire Marshal Miguel Trujillo because they were so busy and overwhelmed.
“I’m serious … it is crazy busy here,” she wrote. “They are not able to keep up with their own assignments and on top of that, everyday a batch of notices like this situation with 2551 San Pablo comes in.”
The city also provided a timeline by Inspector Flanoy Garrett and his five attempts between Feb. 25 and March 24 to get the building owner or nonprofit tenant to accompany them for an inspection of the three-story apartment building. Finally, part-owner Monsa Nitoto joined them for the inspection March 24.
“When the inspector was finally able to have the reluctant owner appear for the site visit, he was presented with violations to mitigate immediately, and informed that an inspector would return after the weekend to evaluate the progress,” Sabatini wrote in an email Tuesday to city spokeswoman Karen Boyd, obtained by this newspaper. “As part of the inspection we knocked on doors and entered several individual rooms to look for candles and other imminent fire hazards. We entered the room where the fire eventually started, and we spoke with the occupant. There were no candles or careless use of smoking materials observed in any of the rooms.
“I know this awful tragedy cannot be undone but I hope that there might be some awareness that despite a tremendous shortage of inspectors, corrective action was taking place in an attempt to address the safety issues,” she continued.
Also on Tuesday, city officials finally released the December National Fire Protection Association report on the Ghost Ship fire which this newspaper had requested repeatedly since the agency met with Oakland officials a week after the Fruitvale fire in which 36 people died.
The NFPA recommended the city conduct a survey of all occupied buildings and log each one into a centralized database that can be accessed by multiple city departments. The city should use that database to identify the highest-risk properties, set a schedule for inspections and staff the city’s Fire Prevention Bureau appropriately, the group suggested.
The recommendations also encourage the city to identify how property data maintained by different city agencies can be shared and made interactive so employees can more readily access information from other departments.
Last week, the city announced it would be roughly doubling the fire inspection staff, which currently stands at five, and taking steps to enhance their training. The announcement followed the release of emails showing that firefighters — on at least three occasions since the start of this year — urged their bosses to contact the Fire Prevention Bureau and shut down a San Pablo Avenue property.
When it comes to figuring out what to do with known problem properties, however, the recommendations are less clear. The NFPA suggested the city work with city and county staff, along with community members, to develop a policy to assess and address hazardous buildings and also conduct a workshop on how to identify, prevent and intervene in unpermitted social gatherings.
Finally, the NFPA recommended the city do a better job of communicating with just about everyone, from elected officials to city staff and from property owners to the public.
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/04/04/oakland-halfway-house-fire-firefighter-botched-2015-inspection-referral/
119 Oakland Fire Dept (OFD) Another fatal fire highlights Oakland inspection dysfunction
March 28, 2017 - East Bay Times
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/03/28/editorial-another-fatal-fire-highlights-oakland-inspection-dysfunction/
Forty deaths in four months. How many more people will die due to Oakland’s dysfunctional fire- and code-inspection system?
Thirty-six people were killed late last year in the Ghost Ship warehouse inferno in the Fruitvale District. Then on Monday, four perished and four were injured after an early morning blaze destroyed a West Oakland residential building that housed 80-100 people.
Both tragedies were preventable. If only Oakland’s inspection systems had worked the way they should have. If only warning signs had been heeded and aggressively responded to.
Start with Ghost Ship: At first, officials said that before the fire no city workers had been inside the warehouse, which was filled with furniture and turned out to have no sprinklers or fire alarms, only one obvious exit, cords strung to provide electricity and a makeshift stairwell built out of wood pallets.
But city records turned over last month after this newspaper’s threat of litigation revealed that police had visited the building and associated properties 35 times between mid-2014 and the Dec. 2 fire.
The records showed that at least two police officers who had been called to the site noticed problems, with one reporting an “illegal rave with drug and alcohol sales” and the other reporting that “this is a warehouse that is also an illegal shared housing.”
After Ghost Ship, we were told steps were taken to improve communications between departments and ensure such tragedies were avoided.
Then came Monday. As bad as it was, it could have been much worse. In addition to the fatalities, other residents were rescued from inside and from fire escapes of the three-story building on San Pablo Avenue.
This time, no one can claim city inspectors were unaware of the dangers. Planning and Building Department records show 20 code enforcement complaints for the residential building over the last 10 years.
Records show the building was unstable, had electrical issues, lacked hot water and heat, and had mold and rodent infestation and leaking roofs and pipes throughout the building.
Meanwhile, the fire department, which under state law should have inspected the building annually, apparently failed to do so. Records show fire inspectors visited the site in 2010 and 2012. But it took referrals from other city workers for them to visit again in 2015 and finally again last week. (To the extent there’s any good news, it’s that there was communication this time, unlike in the case of Ghost Ship.)
On last week’s visit, fire inspectors found inadequate fire alarms, smoke detectors and sprinkler systems; a lack of fire extinguishers; extension cords in lieu of electrical outlets; and a lack of adequate emergency lighting, exit signs and evacuation maps.
Three days later the building burned.
If only code enforcement officers had warned fire inspectors or, if they did, fire inspectors had heeded the warning. If only they had shown up sooner, as they should have.
If only.
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/03/28/editorial-another-fatal-fire-highlights-oakland-inspection-dysfunction/
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/03/28/editorial-another-fatal-fire-highlights-oakland-inspection-dysfunction/
Forty deaths in four months. How many more people will die due to Oakland’s dysfunctional fire- and code-inspection system?
Thirty-six people were killed late last year in the Ghost Ship warehouse inferno in the Fruitvale District. Then on Monday, four perished and four were injured after an early morning blaze destroyed a West Oakland residential building that housed 80-100 people.
Both tragedies were preventable. If only Oakland’s inspection systems had worked the way they should have. If only warning signs had been heeded and aggressively responded to.
Start with Ghost Ship: At first, officials said that before the fire no city workers had been inside the warehouse, which was filled with furniture and turned out to have no sprinklers or fire alarms, only one obvious exit, cords strung to provide electricity and a makeshift stairwell built out of wood pallets.
But city records turned over last month after this newspaper’s threat of litigation revealed that police had visited the building and associated properties 35 times between mid-2014 and the Dec. 2 fire.
The records showed that at least two police officers who had been called to the site noticed problems, with one reporting an “illegal rave with drug and alcohol sales” and the other reporting that “this is a warehouse that is also an illegal shared housing.”
After Ghost Ship, we were told steps were taken to improve communications between departments and ensure such tragedies were avoided.
Then came Monday. As bad as it was, it could have been much worse. In addition to the fatalities, other residents were rescued from inside and from fire escapes of the three-story building on San Pablo Avenue.
This time, no one can claim city inspectors were unaware of the dangers. Planning and Building Department records show 20 code enforcement complaints for the residential building over the last 10 years.
Records show the building was unstable, had electrical issues, lacked hot water and heat, and had mold and rodent infestation and leaking roofs and pipes throughout the building.
Meanwhile, the fire department, which under state law should have inspected the building annually, apparently failed to do so. Records show fire inspectors visited the site in 2010 and 2012. But it took referrals from other city workers for them to visit again in 2015 and finally again last week. (To the extent there’s any good news, it’s that there was communication this time, unlike in the case of Ghost Ship.)
On last week’s visit, fire inspectors found inadequate fire alarms, smoke detectors and sprinkler systems; a lack of fire extinguishers; extension cords in lieu of electrical outlets; and a lack of adequate emergency lighting, exit signs and evacuation maps.
Three days later the building burned.
If only code enforcement officers had warned fire inspectors or, if they did, fire inspectors had heeded the warning. If only they had shown up sooner, as they should have.
If only.
http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/03/28/editorial-another-fatal-fire-highlights-oakland-inspection-dysfunction/
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
118 Oakland Fire Dept (OFD) - 2551 San Pablo Ave and the history of owner Keith Kim
March 29, 2017 - Mercury Times
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/29/keith-kim-oakland-fire-landlords-rollercoaster-past/
OAKLAND — More than two decades before four people died in Monday’s four-alarm San Pablo Avenue inferno, landlord Keith Kim was a rising star in Oakland, saving a storied potato chip company, a beloved bakery and hundreds of jobs.
“Keith Kim may be one of the best investments Oakland ever made,” glowed a 1996 article in one Bay Area newspaper.
But a series of failures and bad business decisions would later tarnish his Robin Hood image.
The feds indicted him in an odd insider trading case. His much ballyhooed Granny Goose venture turned stale and hundreds of jobs were lost. Under his leadership, the Merritt Bakery floundered. He owed millions of dollars in unpaid income taxes. A foray into the dot-com boom, after some initial success, brought more financial trouble. Years later he would go bankrupt.
After quietly operating development deals for several years, Kim, 55, was thrust back into Oakland’s spotlight Monday when his three-story, multi-unit residential building at 2551 San Pablo Ave. went up in flames. Low-income tenants, many renting from various nonprofits aligned with the building, shimmied down fire escapes, climbing from sheets tied together and hung from windows, and were plucked out of the burning building by firefighters.
Three days before the massive blaze, a fire inspector toured the building and found numerous fire-safety violations, including a lack of fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers and clearly marked exits in all areas of the building, and smoke detectors in all living spaces. City records show 18 complaints filed against Kim’s property within the past five years, including deferred maintenance, rodent infestation, electrical issues, structural deficits and a lack of heat. A tenant called it a “death trap.”
Residents filed multiple restraining orders against Kim and his associates claiming they bullied residents and sent thugs into the property to evict them.
Kim, who has not spoken publicly since the fire and did not return calls Wednesday, earlier told this newspaper that he decided to evict his tenants after learning of the Dec. 2 Ghost Ship tragedy, where 36 people died in a fire in a warehouse with its own code issues.
Councilman Noel Gallo said several property owners, including Kim, have ignored building, fire and safety codes, putting residents at risk.
“It’s a catch-me-if-you-can attitude, from East Oakland to West Oakland,” Gallo said. “He should’ve known better based on all the properties he owns, his years in Oakland, his experience with development. There’s no excuse for that behavior.”
Golden Goose
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Kim came to the United States as a 10-year-old with his mother and two brothers, according to a 1994 article in the Oakland Tribune. After graduating from Stanford with a degree in economics, Kim moved to Sacramento in 1985 to take an insurance job. It was there that he bought his first house and launched his real estate career in 1989.
He came to Oakland and started a construction company to work with his real estate firm, building homes and developing small apartment buildings, according to the Stanford alumni magazine.
Kim purchased the San Pablo Avenue property in 1991 for $525,000, and started turning heads.
In 1994, at age 32, Kim purchased Oakland’s Merritt Bakery and Restaurant, saving 80 jobs and keeping the local institution from bankruptcy. However, the already-struggling business failed to thrive under his leadership, and he eventually sold the bakery back to its original owner 19 months later. The bakery was damaged in a fire in 2013.
In 1995, Granny Goose announced it was closing the Oakland potato chip plant, costing the city between 350 and 400 union jobs. With the help of a $2.25 million loan from the city, Kim kept it open, buying the parent company for $4.75 million.
“I don’t want to be hypocritical,” Kim told a newspaper at the time. “I’ve made a ton of money out of this. But is that my only motivation? No. There are 600 jobs, and that means 600 families. That’s a tremendous responsibility.”
It was around that time that Kim met Simon Cho, a property owner and developer in Oakland. Kim impressed him immediately, Cho said.
“He was a very bright young man, very business oriented,” Cho said. “I liked him.”
Cho said he encouraged Kim to aim his ambitions high: “Set your goal for the mayor of Oakland or governor of California,” Cho recalled telling him. “I always encouraged him in that way.”
And local politicians took notice. Former Oakland Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente sang Kim’s praises over the potato chip deal.
“It’s a message that the local city government and small businesses can create a partnership for the benefit of both,” De La Fuente said at the time.
Kim’s rescue of Merritt Bakery and Granny Goose were heralded in March 1996 when he was named businessman of the year by the San Francisco Korean Chamber of Commerce for saving jobs and boosting the regional economy. But, in fact, Kim’s troubles had already begun.
Federal charges
By 2000, the celebrated Granny Goose deal was cooked. The company owed $37 million, including $2.2 million to the city of Oakland, and was insolvent, but Kim faced bigger problems.
The year before, Kim attended a Colorado retreat hosted by the Young President’s Club, an exclusive organization for the nation’s top young executives. He learned that one participant couldn’t make the meeting because her company, Meridian Data, was about to merge with Quantum Corp. The club rules required members to keep such business discussions confidential, but Kim left the meeting and bought stock in Meridian. He made $832,000 when the deal closed two months later.
Kim was indicted in 2001 and convicted the next year by a federal jury for making a false statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was probing the deal.
Also during 2000 and 2001, Kim shorted the IRS and California Franchise Tax Board more than $12.2 million in income taxes, bankruptcy records show.
Dot-Com
As the dot-com bubble grew, Kim joined internet incubator Brainrush. The company, now defunct, assisted new websites, including MySimon.com.
Kim pitched the business venture to his childhood friend, Michael Chung, and convinced Chung to invest $1 million, according to court records. When CNET bought mySimon in 2001 for $700 million, Chung asked for his money. He alleged in a lawsuit that Kim lied to him and told him the sale lost money. Chung claimed that Kim actually used the proceeds to pay back a personal loan to the Brainrush majority shareholder.
As the bubble burst, Kim returned to real estate. In 2003, Kim partnered with Cho to acquire two acres, which they hoped to turn into 154 condos with 10,000 square feet of retail space in Koreatown. The project fizzled after a third partner joined the deal. They eventually sold part of that land last year, Cho said.
Councilman Larry Reid remembers Kim being a City Hall presence in the mid to late 1990s, when he owned Granny Goose.
“Keith kind of disappeared then he resurfaced” recently with a West Oakland development, Reid said.
Kim as a tenant
From August 2009 to February 2010, Kim and his family rented a Piedmont home. Landlord Justin Sterling sued the family in April 2010 claiming they failed to maintain the Sierra Avenue property, pay for utilities or even set up trash service. Sterling also alleged that Kim hid his criminal conviction and financial status when filling out the rental application.
The Kims countersued, saying the house lacked heat, had inadequate plumbing and electrical wiring, and had bad odors and trash piling up. Kim claimed the landlord sent a large tattooed man to evict his family.
In September 2011, with lawsuits and tax debt mounting, Kim and his wife, Janice, filed for bankruptcy, claiming only $45,000 in assets, while accumulating more than $13.7 million in debt. The father of four claimed he was making $6,200 a month as a consultant. No real estate was claimed on the bankruptcy filing.
In 2013, Kim’s business, Mead Avenue Housing Associates, took out a $2.9 million bank loan against the dilapidated San Pablo Avenue property.
That same year, Kim partnered with Jabari Herbert to develop a 417-unit apartment complex at 500 Kirkham St. in West Oakland. On Tuesday, the day after the San Pablo Avenue fire, the Oakland council voted to transfer those development rights to Panoramic Interests, LLC.
On Wednesday, state Sen. Nancy Skinner, who recently participated in a special hearing on affordable housing safety issues in the wake of the Ghost Ship fire, condemned Kim.
“Unfortunately, this tragedy once again highlights a circumstance where building owners are aware of the derelict condition of a property,” she said, “and despite complaints did not take remedial action to ensure safe and habitable conditions for their residents.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/29/keith-kim-oakland-fire-landlords-rollercoaster-past/
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/29/keith-kim-oakland-fire-landlords-rollercoaster-past/
OAKLAND — More than two decades before four people died in Monday’s four-alarm San Pablo Avenue inferno, landlord Keith Kim was a rising star in Oakland, saving a storied potato chip company, a beloved bakery and hundreds of jobs.
“Keith Kim may be one of the best investments Oakland ever made,” glowed a 1996 article in one Bay Area newspaper.
But a series of failures and bad business decisions would later tarnish his Robin Hood image.
The feds indicted him in an odd insider trading case. His much ballyhooed Granny Goose venture turned stale and hundreds of jobs were lost. Under his leadership, the Merritt Bakery floundered. He owed millions of dollars in unpaid income taxes. A foray into the dot-com boom, after some initial success, brought more financial trouble. Years later he would go bankrupt.
After quietly operating development deals for several years, Kim, 55, was thrust back into Oakland’s spotlight Monday when his three-story, multi-unit residential building at 2551 San Pablo Ave. went up in flames. Low-income tenants, many renting from various nonprofits aligned with the building, shimmied down fire escapes, climbing from sheets tied together and hung from windows, and were plucked out of the burning building by firefighters.
Three days before the massive blaze, a fire inspector toured the building and found numerous fire-safety violations, including a lack of fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers and clearly marked exits in all areas of the building, and smoke detectors in all living spaces. City records show 18 complaints filed against Kim’s property within the past five years, including deferred maintenance, rodent infestation, electrical issues, structural deficits and a lack of heat. A tenant called it a “death trap.”
Residents filed multiple restraining orders against Kim and his associates claiming they bullied residents and sent thugs into the property to evict them.
Kim, who has not spoken publicly since the fire and did not return calls Wednesday, earlier told this newspaper that he decided to evict his tenants after learning of the Dec. 2 Ghost Ship tragedy, where 36 people died in a fire in a warehouse with its own code issues.
Councilman Noel Gallo said several property owners, including Kim, have ignored building, fire and safety codes, putting residents at risk.
“It’s a catch-me-if-you-can attitude, from East Oakland to West Oakland,” Gallo said. “He should’ve known better based on all the properties he owns, his years in Oakland, his experience with development. There’s no excuse for that behavior.”
Golden Goose
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Kim came to the United States as a 10-year-old with his mother and two brothers, according to a 1994 article in the Oakland Tribune. After graduating from Stanford with a degree in economics, Kim moved to Sacramento in 1985 to take an insurance job. It was there that he bought his first house and launched his real estate career in 1989.
He came to Oakland and started a construction company to work with his real estate firm, building homes and developing small apartment buildings, according to the Stanford alumni magazine.
Kim purchased the San Pablo Avenue property in 1991 for $525,000, and started turning heads.
In 1994, at age 32, Kim purchased Oakland’s Merritt Bakery and Restaurant, saving 80 jobs and keeping the local institution from bankruptcy. However, the already-struggling business failed to thrive under his leadership, and he eventually sold the bakery back to its original owner 19 months later. The bakery was damaged in a fire in 2013.
In 1995, Granny Goose announced it was closing the Oakland potato chip plant, costing the city between 350 and 400 union jobs. With the help of a $2.25 million loan from the city, Kim kept it open, buying the parent company for $4.75 million.
“I don’t want to be hypocritical,” Kim told a newspaper at the time. “I’ve made a ton of money out of this. But is that my only motivation? No. There are 600 jobs, and that means 600 families. That’s a tremendous responsibility.”
It was around that time that Kim met Simon Cho, a property owner and developer in Oakland. Kim impressed him immediately, Cho said.
“He was a very bright young man, very business oriented,” Cho said. “I liked him.”
Cho said he encouraged Kim to aim his ambitions high: “Set your goal for the mayor of Oakland or governor of California,” Cho recalled telling him. “I always encouraged him in that way.”
And local politicians took notice. Former Oakland Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente sang Kim’s praises over the potato chip deal.
“It’s a message that the local city government and small businesses can create a partnership for the benefit of both,” De La Fuente said at the time.
Kim’s rescue of Merritt Bakery and Granny Goose were heralded in March 1996 when he was named businessman of the year by the San Francisco Korean Chamber of Commerce for saving jobs and boosting the regional economy. But, in fact, Kim’s troubles had already begun.
Federal charges
By 2000, the celebrated Granny Goose deal was cooked. The company owed $37 million, including $2.2 million to the city of Oakland, and was insolvent, but Kim faced bigger problems.
The year before, Kim attended a Colorado retreat hosted by the Young President’s Club, an exclusive organization for the nation’s top young executives. He learned that one participant couldn’t make the meeting because her company, Meridian Data, was about to merge with Quantum Corp. The club rules required members to keep such business discussions confidential, but Kim left the meeting and bought stock in Meridian. He made $832,000 when the deal closed two months later.
Kim was indicted in 2001 and convicted the next year by a federal jury for making a false statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was probing the deal.
Also during 2000 and 2001, Kim shorted the IRS and California Franchise Tax Board more than $12.2 million in income taxes, bankruptcy records show.
Dot-Com
As the dot-com bubble grew, Kim joined internet incubator Brainrush. The company, now defunct, assisted new websites, including MySimon.com.
Kim pitched the business venture to his childhood friend, Michael Chung, and convinced Chung to invest $1 million, according to court records. When CNET bought mySimon in 2001 for $700 million, Chung asked for his money. He alleged in a lawsuit that Kim lied to him and told him the sale lost money. Chung claimed that Kim actually used the proceeds to pay back a personal loan to the Brainrush majority shareholder.
As the bubble burst, Kim returned to real estate. In 2003, Kim partnered with Cho to acquire two acres, which they hoped to turn into 154 condos with 10,000 square feet of retail space in Koreatown. The project fizzled after a third partner joined the deal. They eventually sold part of that land last year, Cho said.
Councilman Larry Reid remembers Kim being a City Hall presence in the mid to late 1990s, when he owned Granny Goose.
“Keith kind of disappeared then he resurfaced” recently with a West Oakland development, Reid said.
Kim as a tenant
From August 2009 to February 2010, Kim and his family rented a Piedmont home. Landlord Justin Sterling sued the family in April 2010 claiming they failed to maintain the Sierra Avenue property, pay for utilities or even set up trash service. Sterling also alleged that Kim hid his criminal conviction and financial status when filling out the rental application.
The Kims countersued, saying the house lacked heat, had inadequate plumbing and electrical wiring, and had bad odors and trash piling up. Kim claimed the landlord sent a large tattooed man to evict his family.
In September 2011, with lawsuits and tax debt mounting, Kim and his wife, Janice, filed for bankruptcy, claiming only $45,000 in assets, while accumulating more than $13.7 million in debt. The father of four claimed he was making $6,200 a month as a consultant. No real estate was claimed on the bankruptcy filing.
In 2013, Kim’s business, Mead Avenue Housing Associates, took out a $2.9 million bank loan against the dilapidated San Pablo Avenue property.
That same year, Kim partnered with Jabari Herbert to develop a 417-unit apartment complex at 500 Kirkham St. in West Oakland. On Tuesday, the day after the San Pablo Avenue fire, the Oakland council voted to transfer those development rights to Panoramic Interests, LLC.
On Wednesday, state Sen. Nancy Skinner, who recently participated in a special hearing on affordable housing safety issues in the wake of the Ghost Ship fire, condemned Kim.
“Unfortunately, this tragedy once again highlights a circumstance where building owners are aware of the derelict condition of a property,” she said, “and despite complaints did not take remedial action to ensure safe and habitable conditions for their residents.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/29/keith-kim-oakland-fire-landlords-rollercoaster-past/
Monday, March 27, 2017
117 City of Oakland and the odd connections to 2551 San Pablo
2015
A partnership called the West Oakland Development Group is working on the project at 500 Kirkham St., according to city documents. The project's lead managers are Jabari Herbert, the former executive director of the non-profit Alliance for West Oakland Development, and Keith Kim of private developer DCSI. The project also includes three community groups: Herbert's former group, the Alliance for West Oakland Development, as well as supportive living operator House of Change and youth development program Tomorrow's Answer.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2015/06/west-oakland-housing-apartment-development.html
2013
http://oaklandlocal.com/2013/11/west-oakland-ambitious-development-projects-in-the-works-community-voices/
2015
The first plans are in to erect a residential project with up to 572 rental units near the West Oakland BART station. The West Oakland Development Group is working on the project at 500 Kirkham St, and lead managers are Jabari Herbert, the former executive director of the nonprofit Alliance for West Oakland Development, and Keith Kim of private developer DCSI, reports the San Francisco Business Times. The project also includes three community groups. Two hurdles: financing details are TBA and a project partner failed to develop a nearby site in 2007, showing how uncertain building is in that area.
https://www.bisnow.com/san-francisco/news/multifamily/plans-unveiled-for-massive-west-oakland-multifamily-46664
Urojas Community Services houses 21 people on the first and second floor. They share the first floor with House of Change, and the third floor is occupied by Dignity Housing West, according to Rev. Dr. Jasper Lowery, the founder and director of Urojas Community Services. Jabari Herbert, a West Oakland developer, is listed as the agent for both of the latter two organizations, according to the Secretary of State’s business registry. Last week, Herbert said he was not longer associated with either agency. Herbert and Keith have worked together on a development project near the West Oakland BART station.
A call to Kim on Monday went straight to voicemail. Reached Monday, Herbert said he had no comment on the fire. He said House of Change ceased operations several years ago.
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/27/oakland-four-alarm-fire-burning-at-building/
2008 EBEX Article:
The City of Oakland plans to spend nearly $4 million for blighted land in West Oakland that sold for less than $2 million in 2004.
At the center of the deal is a politically connected local businessman, Jabari Herbert, who failed to disclose his financial interest in the property when urging city councilmembers to go forward with the purchase last month.
This questionable deal involves slightly less than one acre of land at 1396 5th Street, between Mandela Parkway and Kirkham Street, directly across from the West Oakland BART station. For decades, the property was home to the Red Star Yeast manufacturing plant, which closed in 2003 and was torn down after years of neighborhood complaints about foul smells wafting over the area. In December 2004, a group of investors led by Herbert and local developer Curtis Eisenberger purchased the property for $1.89 million.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/another-bad-deal/Content?oid=1091311
House of Change
A partnership called the West Oakland Development Group is working on the project at 500 Kirkham St., according to city documents. The project's lead managers are Jabari Herbert, the former executive director of the non-profit Alliance for West Oakland Development, and Keith Kim of private developer DCSI. The project also includes three community groups: Herbert's former group, the Alliance for West Oakland Development, as well as supportive living operator House of Change and youth development program Tomorrow's Answer.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2015/06/west-oakland-housing-apartment-development.html
2013
http://oaklandlocal.com/2013/11/west-oakland-ambitious-development-projects-in-the-works-community-voices/
2015
The first plans are in to erect a residential project with up to 572 rental units near the West Oakland BART station. The West Oakland Development Group is working on the project at 500 Kirkham St, and lead managers are Jabari Herbert, the former executive director of the nonprofit Alliance for West Oakland Development, and Keith Kim of private developer DCSI, reports the San Francisco Business Times. The project also includes three community groups. Two hurdles: financing details are TBA and a project partner failed to develop a nearby site in 2007, showing how uncertain building is in that area.
https://www.bisnow.com/san-francisco/news/multifamily/plans-unveiled-for-massive-west-oakland-multifamily-46664
Urojas Community Services houses 21 people on the first and second floor. They share the first floor with House of Change, and the third floor is occupied by Dignity Housing West, according to Rev. Dr. Jasper Lowery, the founder and director of Urojas Community Services. Jabari Herbert, a West Oakland developer, is listed as the agent for both of the latter two organizations, according to the Secretary of State’s business registry. Last week, Herbert said he was not longer associated with either agency. Herbert and Keith have worked together on a development project near the West Oakland BART station.
A call to Kim on Monday went straight to voicemail. Reached Monday, Herbert said he had no comment on the fire. He said House of Change ceased operations several years ago.
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/27/oakland-four-alarm-fire-burning-at-building/
2008 EBEX Article:
The City of Oakland plans to spend nearly $4 million for blighted land in West Oakland that sold for less than $2 million in 2004.
At the center of the deal is a politically connected local businessman, Jabari Herbert, who failed to disclose his financial interest in the property when urging city councilmembers to go forward with the purchase last month.
This questionable deal involves slightly less than one acre of land at 1396 5th Street, between Mandela Parkway and Kirkham Street, directly across from the West Oakland BART station. For decades, the property was home to the Red Star Yeast manufacturing plant, which closed in 2003 and was torn down after years of neighborhood complaints about foul smells wafting over the area. In December 2004, a group of investors led by Herbert and local developer Curtis Eisenberger purchased the property for $1.89 million.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/another-bad-deal/Content?oid=1091311
House of Change
| Revocation Date (effective date on which organization's tax exemption was automatically revoked): 15-May-2011 |
| Employer Identification Number (EIN): 83-0413153 |
| Legal Name: HOUSE OF CHANGE |
| Doing Business As: |
| Mailing Address: 1357 5TH STREET SUITE A OAKLAND, CA 94607-1804 United States |
| Exemption Type: 501(c)(3) |
| Revocation Posting Date (date on which IRS posted notice of automatic revocation on IRS.gov): 22-Feb-2012 |
| Exemption Reinstatement Date (effective date of tax exemption, determined by the IRS after the organization's exemption was automatically revoked and the organization applied for reinstatement of exemption.): |
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