Vallejo seeking to rebuild police station at current location

VALLEJO – The Vallejo City Council directed city staff on Tuesday to develop plans to rebuild the city’s police station at its current location instead of proposed waterfront or John F. Kennedy Library options, once again changing course in a years-long quest to find a new location for the city’s beleaguered police department.

The council did not hold a formal vote at the meeting Tuesday to rebuild the police building at the department’s current location at 111 Amador St., but all the members of the council agreed to give staff direction to come back with a report on how to proceed with a rebuild. The meeting was the first time the council took up the issue since three new city councilmembers were elected in November.

City staff estimates that rebuilding the station at 111 Amador will cost $121 million and will take 4.5 years to fully complete the project. This scenario requires the department to move some of its operations to a temporary location during construction.

Assistant City Manager Terrance Davis said the cost for the police station could not come from grants because grant money for infrastructure projects of this size is often reserved for rural communities. The city will need to finance the project through municipal bonds or public-private partnerships, Davis said.

A report prepared by city staff stated that with interest rates running at about 4%, a loan to cover the cost of a project of this size would require an annual debt service of $8.5 to $13 million over a 20 to 30-year period.

Councilmember Mina Loera-Diaz said that she does not want this to come from Measure P, a seven-eighths-cent sales tax increase passed by voters last year. But Mayor Robert McConnell said that since that money goes to the city’s general fund that some Measure P funds may be needed to service the debt for the police station.

The City Council has changed course numerous times in trying to build a new police station over the last several years. Initially, the city purchased a two-story office building along the city’s waterfront at 400 Mare Island Way for $13 million in 2019 with the intention of redeveloping the building to house the police department. Some police services have since been moved to that location.

The cost to move the police station directly to Mare Island Way was estimated to be $45 to $76 million depending on the extent of the renovation.

But many residents objected because the department would take up prime real estate along the waterfront and potentially change the character of the popular location for recreation and tourism.

Last spring, as the City Council considered whether to apply for a $30 million loan to renovate the building, many residents objected to the plan, arguing that moving the police station to such a prime location was incongruent with the department’s record of violence and excessive force.

A public survey showed that many residents favored keeping the department at its current location, but the council chose to prepare a feasibility study for the possibility of using the JFK Library building near City Hall for the Police Department and moving the library to 400 Mare Island Way.

The feasibility study for that option indicated that the project will take four years to complete and cost $75 million to $109 million, depending on the choice of a partial or full renovation of both buildings.

The existing police building, constructed in 1961, has a number of deferred maintenance issues including a decrepit HVAC system, sewage problems and several repairs and upgrades needed for the locker rooms and detention facilities.

The 2014 Napa earthquake damaged portions of the building and in the assessment of that damage the city discovered asbestos and lead. According to McConnell, the building is likely to need a full tear-down and rebuild in order to complete the remediation in a cost effective manner.

The lead contamination is confined to a portion of the building that is currently sealed and the asbestos is not airborne so it does not pose a danger to those in the building, Davis said.

During public comment, police Officer Bill Carpenter said that he had been diagnosed with cancer and said that 52 officers and employees who have worked in the building have had cancer, including 28 who died from the illness. “Each and every one of those lives matter,” he said.

In a recent presentation to the council on police staffing and response times, interim Police Chief Jason Ta detailed the department's problems retaining and recruiting qualified officers. Ta said that the department conducted an internal survey which indicated slow progress on a new police station is one of the main reasons that officers leave the department.  

But a resident who identified herself as Andrea S. argued that the department’s reputation for dysfunction is its primary obstacle to recruitment.  “After decades of failure to reform the police department it is no wonder that we have this reputation,” she said. “No prospective officer is going to apply to the city of Vallejo. They are not going to want to come here and be in that environment or in that culture.”

To rebuild the police station in its existing location would create other challenges, such as requiring the City to move its corporation yard to make room for expansion of the police station. A study of the police department's requirements to serve current and future populations indicates that the department will require all 5.3 acres available at the 111 Amador site.

City staff suggested that the corporation yard could be moved to 50 Solano Ave. alongside the Vallejo Flood and Wastewater facility. However, the Vallejo Flood and Wastewater District has also expressed interest in utilizing that location.

City staff also presented an option of moving the police station to an unspecified location such as a big box store or a similar commercial building. This option requires the purchase of a suitable property that has not yet been identified. Staff estimates that such a plan would cost  $72 million plus the cost of purchasing the land and could be completed in 3.25 years.

Building out an existing structure to accommodate a police facility would require extensive reconstruction. Police facilities are required to meet more rigorous construction standards to withstand potential disaster events and walls and windows must provide ballistic protection.

Among the many concerns regarding locating the police station at 400 Mare Island Way was that the large glass facade would either need to be replaced with ballistic glass or a wall would need to be built behind the glass to safeguard workers from possibility of a shooting.

400 Mare Island Way is also in a zone with a high likelihood of soil liquefaction. The building requires the construction of an alternate access route because one of the entrances could potentially be flooded by a high water event.

After the staff presentation on Tuesday, Vice Mayor Rozzana Verder-Aliga asked Davis how much the city has spent already on examining different options. “After we purchased 400 Mare Island Way we spent $900,000 on design,” Davis said. “I think to date we are at about the $1.3 million range including the design plus the additional feasibility studies.”

City staff did not indicate on Tuesday when the council would take up the issue again.