Ready or not, here we come

Despite naysayers who say the Tazer doesn't engage in serious discussion, this is the sort of thing we're talking about...

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Council considers $9.5 million lease for police
RICHMOND: Unsafe conditions at Hall of Justice prompt proposal

By John Geluardi
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

The Richmond City Council will consider spending a minimum of $9.5 million to temporarily house the Police Department until a new public safety building is built.

The 57-year-old Hall of Justice Building, which currently houses the department, is unsafe because of mold infestation due to excessive water intrusion, according to an April report. The building also was determined to be seismically unsafe in 1992.

City staff is recommending that the council tonight approve a lease for a 55,000-square-foot space in the DiCon Fiberoptics building at 1689 Regatta Blvd. in the southern part of the city. The lease would be for three years with options for five more.

Councilman John Marquez, who is chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said the Hall of Justice Building is in terrible shape, and police employees should not be expected to work among mold and water-stained carpets, walls and ceiling tiles. In addition, the basement, where evidence is stored, regularly floods with up to a foot of groundwater.

"I think the move is a good idea," Marquez said. "I think staff has worked out a good contract, and I see no reason to keep police employees in that building. A safe working environment is the most important thing."

Councilman Tom Butt, an architect who specializes in building renovation, has been challenging the mold reports as inadequate and exaggerated. With some repairs, the building could be habitable until the new public safety building is constructed, Butt said.

"A careful reading of all the reports does not support the fact that there is a pervasive and unhealthy mold contamination in the building that precludes continued occupancy," he said. "I think they ought to stay in that building."

The city Redevelopment Agency expects to lease the space for a minimum of five years until the Police Department can move into the new, $40 million public safety building, which is planned for Barrett Avenue and 25th Street.

But uncertain financing has caused the city to delay groundbreaking indefinitely on that project, which could extend the DiCon lease for years.

If the council approves the lease, the city will pay $81,000 a month for the first year, with regular increases each year thereafter. The city also will spend $2.9 million to modify the building so it is suitable for police use.

Taxpayers would pay $9.5 million for the five-year lease, including moving costs, taxes, insurance and maintenance fees. The expense is an unexpected one for the city, which already was scaling back critical road repairs to save money.

The lease would be retroactive to Dec. 1, and the department would be phased into the DiCon building over the next several months.

Police employees have been working in substandard conditions for years. The mold infestation first came to light in April with completion of a report by MACS Lab Inc.

The police department is budgeted at $44.6 million for 2006-07, making it the most expensive department in the city. The fire department is a distant second at $23.5 million.

Reach John Geluardi at 510-262-2787 or at jgeluardi@cctimes.com.

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Let's dissect this a little...

How come the financing is uncertain? Previous financial mismanagement by the city, perhaps?

What does it mean to Richmond? 1) RPD HQ is in disrepair; whether Marquez or Butt is right about mold, etc. doesn't matter in light of RPD having needed a new one for some time anyway. 2) They're having to move, which costs money. 3) They have to spend additional money to make the place usuable. 4) The site isn't what we'd call centrally located; it's south of 580 and puts RPD in better position to serve El Cerrito than Richmond. 5) They might have to be there for a while because their replacement HQ is likely to be delayed, which would drag out the lease and cost even more money.

Put that all together, and what's the result? For RPD, we're not sure yet, but we hope it isn't a degradation in service. For the city, it definitely means an outlay of money that could have been better spent with wiser forethought and management. At the very least, it's money that isn't going to RFD to renovate firehouses and maintain their services, or to other departments and programs.

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Police see minor issues driving increased violence
Latest shootings make Richmond's homicide total highest since 1994

By Karl Fischer
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

RICHMOND - Eight gunshot victims went to local hospitals and one died after assaults on Richmond streets over the weekend, a continuation of a perpetual street-violence epidemic that has claimed more victims this year than any other since the early 1990s.

Last week, Richmond surpassed its highest annual homicide total since 1994 when the city's 41st victim of 2006 died on Burbeck Avenue. It was the second straight year that Richmond set this decade's peak for killings.

One more death has since been added to the tally, and over the weekend five shootings added nine more victims to this year's nonfatal shooting count, which Monday afternoon stood at 278 -- Richmond's highest total since 1993.

"It's crazy. We're in a really volatile situation right now," said the Rev. Andre Shumake, a local anti-violence advocate. "But there is a real commitment on the part of the faith community, the residents as well as the city to move forward and resolve the long-standing problems that cause this violence."

Richmond's struggle with endemic street violence comes at a time when urban crime appears on the rise in the Bay Area and across the nation.

Violence in Oakland and San Francisco is well-chronicled, while the FBI this week released its most recent national crime statistics, which show murder rose by 3.1 percent in all metropolitan counties during the first half of 2006 compared with the same period in 2005.

But a particularly acute problem appears to plague Richmond.

"One thing that makes it different and more challenging (in Richmond) are the retaliatory shootings over very minor matters," Richmond Police Chief Chris Magnus said. "Granted, there are some retaliatory crimes involving specific groups -- what we loosely refer to as gang-related shootings -- but in a way, it's actually easier to monitor those situations."

Harder to predict are the shootings related to simple interpersonal breakdowns, Magnus said.

"We are seeing shootings that spring from matters that are not even gang-based or drug-based, but just about somebody disrespecting somebody else," he added.

The weekend's violence started about 5:45 p.m. Friday, when an argument broke out during a basketball game at the Parchester Village Community Center at 900 Williams Drive. Several men were playing on the blacktop court at the center, Detective Sgt. Mitch Peixoto said. At least one left immediately afterward.

"It appears that somebody left, then returned a short time later and shot up the playing area" Peixoto said, adding that police have not identified the attacker and also lack a firm description of any getaway car.

Rounds struck two men. One of them, wounded in the upper thigh, took shelter in the center until police arrived. The other, 32-year-old Jermonte Briggs, collapsed in the parking lot and died a short time later at a local hospital.

Many people witnessed the attack, Peixoto said, and detectives need someone to call them to tell what they saw. The killing was the second this year in the Parchester Village neighborhood.

Several more shootings followed:

• About 6:50 p.m. Friday, a pedestrian near the corner of 23rd Street and Maricopa Avenue went to the hospital in critical condition after someone shot him more than a dozen times. The victim is expected to survive, police said Monday.

• About 10 p.m. Saturday, gunmen fired more than 50 rounds into a car and the general environment of 26th Street and Maricopa. Paramedics took two shooting victims to the regional trauma center from that attack.

• About 1:30 a.m. Sunday, an argument at a party on Sheldon Court in the May Valley neighborhood degenerated into a fight, and then into a shooting that left three wounded.

• About 2:15 a.m. Monday, a man phoned police from his home in San Pablo to report that someone chased him from a hamburger restaurant in El Cerrito and shot him as he drove through the Richmond Annex neighborhood about a half-hour earlier. He went to the hospital with serious injuries.

The weekend deluge followed the shooting death of 27-year-old Raimon Williams, killed in a drive-by shooting Thursday afternoon on Burbeck Avenue.

Detectives found no evidence linking any of the shootings, Peixoto said, including the two fairly close together on Maricopa in the North and East neighborhood.

Reach Karl Fischer at 510-262-2728 or kfischer@cctimes.com.

HOW TO HELP:

Police ask anyone with information about any of the weekend's shootings in Richmond to call Detective Sgt. Mitch Peixoto at 510-620-6647 or the anonymous tip line at 510-232-TIPS (232-8477).

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A brief consultation with Tazerville's Dread Captain returned this: Homicides are usually approached from a remedial, rather than preventive, standpoint, but it's possible to affect some factors and mitigate the probability of their occurrence. The spontaneous nature of these shootings bears this out, and if you think about it, it makes perfect sense.

Chief Magnus said it best: "We are seeing shootings that spring from matters that are not even gang-based or drug-based, but just about somebody disrespecting somebody else."

Imagine the basketball game. It starts off just fine, but maybe one foul leads to an exchange of words, which leads to threatened violence then real violence. Would you have predicted it? Of course not, since everything was going just fine. But was it possible to prevent it? The possibility exists.

At many levels, all of us have to do what we can to improve the situation, but we're not so sure that the City of Richmond is doing their part. From today's first article, for instance, we believe that improperly spending taxpayer money is one such factor because of the detrimental effects on services.