BEFORE (EXIT opens IN)        AFTER (EXIT opens OUT)

(CLICK ANY OF THESE IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEWS)

February 9, 2002 The new Lakewood Washington City Hall at 6000 Main Street is a nice modern building providing space for city government needs. Beginning in November 2001 I (and others) have brought some building code, fire code, and ADA problems with the building to the attention of the city, hoping to get them fixed.

The first person I talked to about the problems was the city attorney (Dan Heid) at the Building Dedication on November 30th

In December I discussed the same problems with the Project Manager for the City Hall project, the Public Works Director (Bill Larkin).

On January 9th I brought them up again, and also provided a written complaint to the Public Works Department about the Life Safety problems that had not yet been addressed. I also established this website to publicly document the problems.

On January 10th I e-mailed Bill Larkin the URL to this website, and he responded with a brief e-mail stating "all code discrepancies will be corrected in the near future."

On January 14th I e-mailed the Lakewood City Council, the building inspection folks, and the city clerk a brief letter that told them there were access problems with the Council Chambers and remainder of the building after seeing a statement in the online council agendas that the Council Chambers were fully accessible.

On January 18th the City Manager (Scott Rohlfs) sent me a letter stating that the city was aware of the problems I had brought out on this site, and was to be fixing them shortly. He specifically mentioned Council Chambers seating, accessible exits, and handrails on the outside steps.

On January 22nd I attended a city council meeting with the intent of making a public comment to generate some interest and action. Since this was the first City Council meeting I had ever attended in my 55 plus years, I was unaware of the need to sign up before the meeting in order to speak. During a 30 minute break in the meeting while the council considered some matters out of the public view, I spoke with the City Clerk (Alice Bush) about how one gets permission to speak, and Bill Larkin about the lack of progress, and brought to his attention yet another inaccessible feature of the Council Chambers (the speaker's rostrum). I was told by Bill that the inward opening exit doors and the lack of any handicapped accessible route away from the building from the south emergency exits would be fixed the "next week."

I asked Bill to please at least put up some temporary signs on the emergency exits that could not be used by those in wheelchairs. His response was since they would start building the state and federally required accessible route the next week, that he would probably have the route finished before he could get the signs. I suggested paper and a felt pen as a start.

I also questioned the plan to use just one ramp for the four exits on the south side of the building, and commented that, at the very least, directional signage would be required to let someone who just rolled out of the main doors that the only way down from the plaza was an invisible ramp 100 feet west.

I had several contacts with a reporter from the News Tribune (Cecilia Nguyen), and I provided her with not only an interview, but all of my documentation both to and from me about the problems. On January 29th she had a News Tribune photographer (Bruce Kellman) ask if he could meet me at the City Hall to go over some of the information visually. He took probably 30-40 pictures. In talking with a City Hall employee, I found that the exit doors from the Council Chambers had been corrected to open outward earlier that day.

On January 30th The News Tribune published one of the images and an article about the building and it's problems.

On January 31st I sent an e-mail to the Assistant City Attorney (Mike McKenzie) asking for his assistance in getting the building to comply with RCW 9.41.300. He responded on February 1st that they were working on the problem, and that he would contact me again when there was further information.

On February 4th I attended my second City Council meeting, again with the intent to speak. I signed up and indeed spoke to the council in the public comments portion of the meeting. (What I said is here.)

The following is the "Progress" visible as of that date:

Council Chambers exit doors now open outward.

Door opening effort on some interior doors has been reduced to meet requirements.

Four handrails have been installed on the south steps.

These new handrails do not meet code, and one of them is blocked from safe and easy access by one of the bowls of rocks the building has for roof drainage (see pictures). There are two sets of steps, each about 50 feet wide. The only handrails installed are at the ends of these steps, with approximately 50 feet between handrails, and only 3 of the 4 handrails are safely usable.

All of the south side building exits are still inaccessible and present a safety hazard to those in wheelchairs. There are no signs marking these exits as having "NO WHEELCHAIR ACCESS" even though the city has known about the problem for over two months, and has been requested several times to please mark the exits before someone is injured.

On February 5th I contacted the Fire Marshall about the south exits not being accessible, and was referred to the building inspector (KC Ellis) since this is covered by State Building code rather than Fire Code. I contacted Mr. Ellis by 'phone and he informed me that the building had not yet been final inspected, and wouldn't be until the city asked for it to be inspected. When I asked about at least looking at the south exits and getting them marked as not wheelchair accessible until that could be corrected, he stated that he did not believe me that they were inaccessible. He asked that I provide him with a list of problems, and he would ensure that they were looked at when the city asked for a final inspection. I referred him to a list I already had prepared on-line, and he said "I don't have time to surf the web."

Click this image, please.

I went to his office at the city hall, and asked that he ride down one floor and walk less than 50 feet to any of the south exits and I'd point out to him that they were inaccessible and Mr. Ellis spent the next 20 minutes telling me that he did not believe they were inaccessible, that he did not have time to look at them with me, and that he would do nothing until final inspection was requested by the city. I ended up telling him I did not appreciate being called a liar by a person that spent more time telling me he didn't have time to do something than it would have taken to do it. He is the sort of self-important and officious employee that gives others a bad name. He may have set the tone for my remaining discussions with the city on these matters.

I will visit the City Hall one more time to see if any further progress has been made, and unless substantial progress is readily visible I will be filing a complaint at the state level. I have already contacted the ADA folks at the DOJ in Washington, DC, and checked with them about the problems. Since Washington State's Building Code was ADA certified my easiest and quickest route may be via the state, but the DOJ appears quite willing to step in if I request it.

Despite words reassuring me that the problems are known and being addressed, I sometimes feel I am running into a brick wall, hence the background of this page.