Obsessed with an elevator. . . don’t know how that happened, its just so absurd and gets wackier by the day.
From: Hoffman, Jeanne
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 12:34 PM
To: All Email Users
Subject: MMB ElevatorHello,
As many of you have already realized, we are having a lot of mechanical problems with the MMB Elevator.
Two techs from KONE were on-site yesterday for 9 hours. When they left they indicated that the elevator “operational” – but when you arrived at your desired floor you would need to push the open door button to get out. Fac. Mgmt. staff used the elevator and followed the techs’ instruction. Unfortunately, when staff arrived at the desired floor and pressed the open button, the doors did not open. Fac. Mgmt. staff then went to every floor and tried to get out. Finally after several attempts staff was able to get the elevator open.
Fac. Mgmt. posted a “Out of Service” to avoid having anyone else get stuck.
The techs from KONE are on-site again today.
I will send out an updated email once Fac. Mgmt. has a better understand of the reliability of the elevator once KONE has finished their work.
Fac. Mgmt is working as quickly as possible to execute a PW contract to modernize the elevator.
Please feel free to call me or email me if you have any questions or concerns. I know that having this elevator out of service is a huge inconvenience for city staff and I appreciate your patience as we work to get this issue resolved.
Jeanne
Jeanne Hoffman
Facilities and Sustainability Manager
Engineering Division
210 MLK, Jr. Blvd. CCB Room 115
I think it makes sense that she refer to city staff. It is inconvenient for the public as well and makes having meetings more difficult (thankfully it is August and relatively quiet), but this isn’t a press release, it’s an internal e-mail.
Some people rely on that elevator and will not be understanding of why it’s not working. As we live in a flame-throwing society these days (“Government can’t even get an elevator functional, how do you expect it to run the health care system?!”) you’ve gotta cover your ass or it’ll get put in a wringer. Simply saying “We’re working on it” isn’t good enough for anybody anymore.
With an elevator that does not function in a building that serves the public and where there are meetings the people need to go to the priority should be trying to figure out how to make those services accessible. At one of the meeting I was at, there was a woman on crutches that had to go up to 2nd floor, what if she would have been in a wheelchair. The funding for her agency could have been impacted by the elevator not working because they took input and gave initial recommendations at the meeting and her clients could see reduced services as a result if she couldn’t have made it to the meeting. That’s a much bigger issue than inconvenience to staff. And its not AT ALL quiet for the CDBG and Office of Community Services department – its go time! They are having 3 – 5 meetings a week during August. Finally, it’s not about being “understanding”, its about accessibility and open government.
Is a root cause of the problem that the Facilities and Sustainability Manager is not qualified for the position?