Arturo
Editor-at-Large
Over 1,000 City of San Diego employees were moved into the 101 Ash Street building in December 2019 and January 2020 without final building inspections that would have required that all of the fire life safety equipment be certified to be working, and after City leaders were warned by the general contractor that the systems were not operable, but City staff then misrepresented the building status to the press, the public, and even the San Diego Ethics Commission.
The building, which served as the corporate headquaters of San Diego Gas & Electric and later its parent company Sempra Energy for more than 45 years, was leased by the City in January 2017 under a 20-year lease-to-own agreement, then the City spent more than $30 million in renovations before the building was ultimately abandoned in late January 2020 due to asbestos exposure.
GEO riot
The Western Region Detention Facility in Downtown’s aging ex-county jail is looking for a new chief of security to make “improvements in security operations without compromise to the safety and security of the client population or staff.” Run by Boca Raton-based private prison operator GEO Group for the U.S. Marshals Service, the detention center faced a crisis this fall when 86 detainees turned up Covid-19 positive, according to a November 2 report by TV station KGTV. In addition, 64 GEO employees tested positive for the deadly virus.
But handling the pandemic hasn’t been the facility’s only problem. A decrepit prisoner intake system sometimes leaves police prisoner drop-offs idling outside, with potentially dangerous outcomes. The jail’s chief of security, per an online job notice, “plans and responds to emergency situations, directs searches for escaped offenders,” and “participates in the formulation of escape and riot control plans.”