{"id":29999,"date":"2017-03-26T14:34:19","date_gmt":"2017-03-26T21:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/city-officials-bergmann-management-still-at-odds-after-building-condemned\/"},"modified":"2017-03-26T14:34:19","modified_gmt":"2017-03-26T21:34:19","slug":"city-officials-bergmann-management-still-at-odds-after-building-condemned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/city-officials-bergmann-management-still-at-odds-after-building-condemned\/","title":{"rendered":"City officials, Bergmann management still at odds after building condemned"},"content":{"rendered":"
Two weeks ago, as nighttime temperatures dipped into the teens, the city condemned the Bergmann Hotel and evacuated 30-some tenants from the dilapidated building. Now that the weather is beginning to warm up, it might be water under the bridge for some \u2014 but questions persist as to how the boarding up of the Bergmann was handled, and even as to whether it was necessary at all.<\/p>\n
On March 9, city officials had issued a 24-hour \u201cnotice and order of dangerous building\u201d that listed violations that were creating an unsafe and unsanitary situation that made the premises \u201cunfit for human occupancy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The order says the building had to be vacated within 24 hours, regardless of whether the violations were corrected. And that\u2019s how it was handled, with the building getting shut down and condemned and with the arrest of building manager Charles Cotten because he did not vacate the building.<\/p>\n
But Cotten says he was told the Bergmann Hotel could stay open, as long as they fixed the most egregious issues.<\/p>\n
And that was the message the city was sending out, as late as noon that Friday.<\/p>\n
On March 9, City Manager Rorie Watt sent a release to the Empire that stated the City and Borough of Juneau issued the owner of the Bergmann Hotel, Kathleen Barrett, and Cotten a notice of code violations and an order to evacuate the building, citing significant health and safety issues.<\/p>\n
According to Watt\u2019s email, Barrett was given 24 hours to rectify the violations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf she fails to do so, CBJ will be forced to close the building and tenants will have to be evacuated mid-day Friday,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the event that the building has to be evacuated, CBJ is working with The Salvation Army and partner social service agencies to connect displaced tenants with housing and resources,\u201d Watt concluded.<\/p>\n
The following day, just hours before the deadline, CBJ Deputy City Manager Mila Cosgrove told the Empire there would be another walk-through before a decision to close the building down would be made.<\/p>\n
But at 4 p.m., that decision appeared to be a done deal. City officials and Juneau Police Department officers walked through the door, telling tenants the building had been condemned and they needed to clear people out. Cotten was detained, Police Chief Bryce Johnson said, because the hotel was supposed to have been vacated by then.<\/p>\n
A last walk-through then was conducted with Kathleen Barrett\u2019s son, James Barrett; Capital City Fire &Rescue Fire Marshal Dan Jager later cited unsafe carbon monoxide levels found in the boiler room as the tipping point.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were working on the issues when they got there (at 4 p.m.),\u201d Cotten said. \u201cWe were told they would re-inspect \u2026 and if we weren\u2019t up to par, they were going to close it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not what happened, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad I known, would I have left my stuff there?\u201d Cotten asked. \u201cI have an antique desk and a $1,000 fridge still sitting there. \u2026 They closed it down under deceit and deception.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plan in place to safely house displaced residents?<\/p>\n
Questions have also arisen about the city\u2019s handling of the looming displacement of the hotel\u2019s tenants.<\/p>\n
While a sign had been posted on the exterior of the hotel on March 9, few tenants seemed aware of the 24-hour notice and believed they might be able to stay.<\/p>\n
Some service agencies that were cognizant of the developing situation went door to door Friday morning, talking to clients, and made plans to show up and possibly provide transportation if tenants were displaced later that day.<\/p>\n
Cosgrove said that CBJ was \u201cattempting to create a safety net for tenants,\u201d and had worked with the Salvation Army to open a low-barrier warming center for a few nights. She added that city staff would be on site and that flyers would be handed out.<\/p>\n
A city official was outside above the hotel at the corner of Third and Harris streets with those flyers, but it was not clear how many tenants got one. The flyer stated that AWARE, Glory Hole and St. Vincent de Paul were available to help.<\/p>\n
The flyer then listed the Glory Hole for anyone needing immediate housing. Earlier that day, however, Glory Hole staff going door to door had informed tenants that the shelter had been at maximum capacity the night before. The next option provided on the flyer was the Salvation Army\u2019s warming shelter, but no plan was in place for transportation until volunteers from St. Vincent de Paul, AWARE and the Glory Hole showed up on their own initiative.<\/p>\n
Cynthia Dau, a concerned Juneau resident who showed up at the Bergmann that afternoon to lend a helping hand, later emailed members of the Assembly regarding what she described as a \u201cgut-wrenching\u201d failure to handle the situation humanely.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew the owners,\u201d she wrote. \u201cYou knew the circumstances. This is not a population that responds to hit-or-miss contact. Anyone with strength of mind would have insisted on person-to-person contact\u201d by knocking on tenants\u2019 doors.<\/p>\n
City manager Watt, however, placed the blame squarely on the building owner and manager, arguing that it was unfair to criticize CBJ\u2019s handling of the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not right to come in after the fact and criticize the city for playing the hand that the owners dealt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is one group that could have avoided the whole situation \u2014 the building owners,\u201d Watt charged. \u201cThey put the tenants and the city in this position, and the service providers. It could have all been avoided if they had just taken care of that building instead of blaming everyone else for what came after.\u201d<\/p>\n
Housing is a big goal of the city, Watt said, adding that having to condemn the Bergmann shows how dire the situation was.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody is very happy we had to take that action,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watt said he was not aware how long the most egregious issues, including a hole in the roof, had been present, but said the building owners\u2019 refusal to correct the code violations on the city\u2019s mandated timeline is what precipitated the decision to post the 24-hour notice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe owner was not being responsive,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have this 100-year-old building with a hole in the roof and an ad-hoc heating system \u2026 The fire danger is really, really high.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watt cited the December 2016 Oakland warehouse fire that left 36 dead as the kind of outcome he wanted to prevent, saying, \u201cYou can\u2019t prove the negative of what could have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Code violations included broken windows, unsafe boiler, damaged sheetrock<\/p>\n
From the city\u2019s perspective, the Bergmann Hotel management staff had been given numerous opportunities for the violations to be repaired.<\/p>\n
In a release sent out after the building was shuttered, spokeswoman Lisa Phu noted that a letter requesting the correction had been sent in October, with a Nov. 18 deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Barrett\u2019s request, the deadline was extended to the end of February,\u201d Phu wrote. \u201cIn the interim, CBJ and CCFR officials did repeated walk-throughs and communicated with Ms. Barrett and building staff on multiple occasions. Inspections in March revealed few corrections and several new violations.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to CBJ, those issues included a lack of heat, lack of bathrooms, lack of fire protection, the hole in the roof and old wiring.<\/p>\n
Hours before city officials condemned the building, Cotten conducted a quick tour of the three-story hotel.<\/p>\n
A dangerous building, Cotten said, is \u201cone where you might fall through the floor, or something might fall and hurt you.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his estimation, there wasn\u2019t any such danger.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is nothing life-threatening about the stuff that you\u2019ve seen,\u201d he said. \u201cIt never gets down to a dangerous temperature in this building. If the boilers go off, we get them fired up. They were off only when we were working on them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Down in the basement, Cotten pointed to piles of stored items, none of which are currently blocking the sprinkler heads.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stacks used to be up to the ceiling when I first started working at the Bergmann,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve done pretty good; we\u2019ve taken out three dumpster loads since then.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the boiler room, Cotten said, the pressure valve on the boiler kept blowing, causing hot water to be discharged. He blamed wind outages for the problems they had been having with keeping the boiler lit.<\/p>\n
According to Cotten, a damaged sprinkler head was quickly fixed, although he did not have the system certified as was mandated by the city.<\/p>\n
There were operational bathrooms, mostly separate toilets and showers, on all three floors, but not in the basement; according to Cotten, those were deemed unnecessary because there is no longer any public access to that area.<\/p>\n
Cotten said he had just had all the fire extinguishers serviced, but that three were subsequently vandalized and needed to be re-charged. The fire exit door also keeps getting damaged, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can only do so much \u2014 we can\u2019t walk the halls constantly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Cotten acknowledged the missing skylight was a major issue, but claimed it was being fixed.<\/p>\n
Kathleen Barrett\u2019s son, James, who was handed the keys to the hotel last week, said fixing the missing skylight would be a simple fix as soon as the weather warmed up. He pledged to get the Bergmann up and running again as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
On Friday, however, little sign of progress could be discerned, with no one present at the hotel and some sort of alarm persistently going off. It could still be heard Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2022 Reporter Liz Kellar can be reached at 523-2246 or liz.kellar@juneauempire.com.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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