1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 450 N STREET 3 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 7 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 8 JANUARY 11, 2012 9 ITEM P OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS 10 ITEM P5 ADMINISTRATION DEPUTY DIRECTOR'S REPORT 11 ITEM P5.1 HEADQUARTERS FACILITY UPDATE 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Reported by: Juli Price Jackson 23 No. CSR 5214 24 25 26 27 28 1 1 P R E S E N T 2 3 For the Board Jerome E. Horton of Equalization: Chairman 4 5 Michelle Steel Vice-Chairwoman 6 7 Betty T. Yee Member 8 9 George Runner Member 10 11 Marcy Jo Mandel Appearing for John 12 Chiang, State Controller (per 13 Government Code Section 7.9) 14 15 Diane G. Olson Chief, Board 16 Proceedings Division 17 18 For Staff: Liz Houser Deputy Director 19 Administration 20 For DGS: Angela Verbaere Chief, Building and 21 Property Managment 22 James Derby Assistant Deputy 23 Director DGS/RESD 24 Nik Karlsson Branch Chief 25 Project Management Branch 26 ---oOo--- 27 28 2 1 450 N STREET 2 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 3 JANUARY 11, 2012 4 ---oOo--- 5 MR. HORTON: Miss Olson. 6 MS. OLSON: Our next item is P5.1, Headquarters 7 update, facilities update. 8 MR. HORTON: As recent as possible, you know 9 what I mean? 10 MR. RUNNER: Some things you may not want to -- 11 MS. STEEL: What happened to that window? 12 MS. HOUSER: Never a dull moment. 13 MR. HORTON: It's already on Channel 2. 14 MS. HOUSER: Good afternoon, Chairman Horton 15 and Members. 16 MR. HORTON: Good afternoon. 17 MS. HOUSER: I'm Liz Houser, Deputy Director, 18 Administration. 19 My first item is an update on the 450 N Street 20 building. Earlier today a glass spandrel panel fell to 21 the sidewalk and 5th Street on the east side of our 22 building. No injuries have been reported. 23 The glass fell from an area between the eighth 24 and ninth floors. So, employee work areas were not 25 impacted. The eighth floor is currently unoccupied and 26 has been cordoned off. DGS is on site and McGinnis Chen 27 will be here this afternoon to conduct an assessment. 28 Local public safety officials have been 3 1 notified and portions of the 5th Street -- of 5th Street 2 have been closed to vehicle traffic, as has the sidewalk 3 on the BOE side of the building. 4 Staff on the 5th Street side of the building 5 have been moved away from the window wall from the ninth 6 floor down to the second floor. 7 I have Mr. Jim Derby and Miss Angela Verbaere 8 here from the Department of General Services to provide 9 additional details and answer any questions you may 10 have. 11 MR. HORTON: Thank you very much. 12 Would the representatives of DGS please 13 introduce yourself for the records and then commence 14 with your presentation? 15 MS. VERBAERE: I'm Angela Verbaere. I'm the 16 Branch Chief of the Building and Property Management 17 Branch, General Services. 18 MR. HORTON: Welcome. 19 MS. VERBAERE: Thank you. 20 MR. DERBY: Jim Derby, Assistant Deputy 21 Director, Real Estate Services Division. 22 MR. KARLSSON: Nik Karlsson, Branch Chief for 23 Project Management Branch. 24 MR. HORTON: Okay. 25 MS. VERBAERE: Currently we have a vendor on 26 site who's certifying the swing stage. That needs to be 27 done before each use. 28 Once that's completed, they'll go down off the 4 1 side of the building, remove the -- 2 MR. HORTON: What is swing stage? 3 MS. VERBAERE: Swing stage is the equipment 4 that goes over the side of the building that we've used 5 for investigation in the windows before. And it's also 6 used for window washing 7 MR. HORTON: Okay. 8 MS. VERBAERE: So, that needs to be certifed 9 before every use. And they're currently doing that. 10 Once that's completed, they'll go off the side 11 of the building, remove the rest of the glass that's in 12 the window, board the window up for tonight. 13 And McGinnis Chen is due to be onsite just 14 about now to start their investigation into what caused 15 the window to fail. 16 The fire marshal has asked us to keep the 17 sidewalk cordoned off until such time as there -- a 18 determination is made about the failure of the window. 19 And they've also asked us to collect and keep all of the 20 glass so that it can be thoroughly looked at to see if 21 there is some kind of an indication of why the glass 22 failed. 23 MR. HORTON: Thank you very much. 24 Does that conclude your presentation? 25 MS. VERBAERE: It does. 26 MR. HORTON: Any questions, Members? 27 There's a such thing as a phobia just about 28 being close to windows. I don't recall exactly what 5 1 it's called. And I don't know if any of our employees 2 have such a phobia or will have it after experiencing 3 this recent occurrence. 4 But are we doing anything in that regard to 5 assure our team members that the building is safe and 6 the window that they stand close to might not fall out? 7 MS. HOUSER: Mr. Horton, we have sent an all 8 employee -- Miss Cazadd, as our ED, sent an all employee 9 update out to our employees to inform them on what we 10 know now. 11 Until the assessment is completed, that's -- I 12 can only inform them what we know now. 13 MR. HORTON: Okay. 14 MS. HOUSER: We were very surprised by this. 15 MS. STEEL: Don't go near the windows. 16 MR. HORTON: Let's also -- 17 MS. HOUSER: It didn't day that Miss Steel, but 18 it did just inform them of what had happened and that we 19 do have McGinnis Chen in to do an assessment on that 20 area. And then we'll have them look throughout the 21 entire building. 22 But we first had to -- have to determine what 23 happened in this area. 24 MR. HORTON: You never now how these traumatic 25 experiences really affect people. I mean, I was sort 26 of -- and, so, it's important that we also advise our 27 employees that they have a -- they have an outlet within 28 the Board of Equalization to discuss these things if, in 6 1 fact, they have some fears that -- or some concerns that 2 we should certainly make that available to them. 3 And it seems to me that DGS is kind of moving 4 towards that, right? 5 MR. DERBY: I'm sorry? 6 MR. KARLSSON: One of the concerns that we 7 have, I'm just going to voice that concern, is that the 8 glazing that is located where the employees are is a 9 dual pane safety glass. The glazing that fell out is a 10 spandrel glass, which is single pane, which doesn't 11 allow -- where it presently sits, it's not humanly 12 possible to get to. 13 So, if you remove the ceiling tile, you can 14 access the spandrel glass, which is where this glazing 15 is -- fell out. So, that where the humans are, the 16 employees, are on a different type of glazing that sits 17 within your building. 18 MR. HORTON: And we're confident that there's 19 not a problem as well? 20 MR. KARLSSON: At this point we believe that 21 it's not a problem. 22 MR. RUNNER: That what's not a problem? 23 MR. HORTON: Mr. Runner? 24 MR. RUNNER: That what's not a problem? 25 MR. KARLSSON: The -- the glazing where the 26 occupants are -- 27 MR. RUNNER: Uh-huh. 28 MR. KARLSSON: -- is a dual pane window -- 7 1 MR. RUNNER: Okay. 2 MR. KARLSSON: -- which is different -- a 3 different type than the spandrel glazing that has -- is 4 currently vacated the building. 5 MR. RUNNER: The previous window problem, was 6 that this kind of window or -- 7 MS. MANDEL: Yes. 8 MR. RUNNER: -- was this -- so, this is 9 similar -- 10 MS. VERBAERE: Right. 11 MR. RUNNER: -- in terms of the kind of window 12 that has fallen as the previous? 13 MS. VERBAERE: Right. The previous glass was 14 also the spandrel glass. 15 MR. RUNNER: So, we had -- so, the previous 16 windows where they had fallen were not where employees 17 were? 18 MS. VERBAERE: No. 19 MR. RUNNER: These are the -- and this is 20 similar to that? 21 MS. VERBAERE: Yes. 22 MR. RUNNER: Kind of? The event's similar but 23 the -- 24 MS. VERBAERE: Yes. 25 MR. RUNNER: -- but the glazing is similar? 26 MS. VERBAERE: Yes. 27 MR. RUNNER: Is the same? Okay. 28 MS. HOUSER: The work areas haven't really been 8 1 impactd. Because when you go into 8 and look up, you 2 can see that the cracked window is slightly higher than 3 the seating area as they had indicated. 4 The sidewalk area is a large concern. 5 MR. RUNNER: Yeah. 6 MS. HOUSER: So -- we did have employees -- it 7 was very near our employees' smoking area. 8 MR. RUNNER: Right. 9 MS. HOUSER: And we had some employees who had 10 just come in and right -- the glass came down. 11 So, it is a very, very large concern for us. 12 And we -- we've closed that edge of -- that whole end of 13 the building and asked employees to take alternative 14 routes. 15 MR. RUNNER: What was done in the -- I'm 16 sorry. 17 MR. HORTON: No, go ahead -- 18 MR. RUNNER: What was done -- when this was 19 addressed before, what was -- what was done in terms of 20 inspection and correction to fix the problem? 21 MR. KARLSSON: I wasn't involved with the 22 project, but it was my understanding that at the time 23 our office went in and removed, through a contractor, 24 removed each individual spandrel glass itself, glazing 25 component, and inspected it for flaws. 26 And if there were flaws within that window, it 27 was removed. It was also put back within a new 28 gasketing system. 9 1 MR. RUNNER: So, this would -- this particular 2 window that fell out, would have gone under that? 3 MR. KARLSSON: Correct. 4 MR. DERBY: That's correct. And McGinnis Chen, 5 who are the -- who will again be returning, but they 6 were the forensic architects who assisted us with the 7 review of the problem before and they inspected, I 8 think, 1364 windows. 9 MR. RUNNER: What kind of -- what kind of -- 10 when we -- when we have a contractor comes in and does 11 that kind of repair, what -- what kind of warranty 12 protections do they then provide on the repair to which 13 they have done?. 14 MR. KARLSSON: Well, typically it's a one year 15 industry standard warranty issue. 16 MR. RUNNER: Okay. 17 MR. KARLSSON: It's interesting to listen to 18 these consultants talk about falling -- about windows 19 falling out within the industry practice. 20 So, there -- they -- they actually have an 21 allowance for industry practice of windows falling 22 out. 23 MR. RUNNER: Do you think we're above the 24 allowance? 25 MR. KARLSSON: No. 26 MR. RUNNER: You don't think we're above the 27 allowance? 28 You think this is typical? 10 1 MR. KARLSSON: In my mind, no, but I'm 2 understanding what these consultants -- 3 MR. DERBY: There was a 32-page report produced 4 by McGinnis Chen back in 2005, they're the forensic 5 architects, and Mr. Karlsson's statement's based on 6 their statement and their report which indicated a 7 certain failure of window glazing over a ten-year period 8 and that -- that, you know, this failure of the seven 9 previous spandrel window pieces was at a lower rate than 10 they identified in that report. 11 I don't think any of us believe that any 12 failures are okay. But I think that's the -- 13 MR. RUNNER: I just don't read a lot about 14 windows falling out of buildings. 15 MR. DERBY: And I think these are -- I think 16 the distinction -- it's hard, looking at this building, 17 I'm not -- I will admit, Members and Mr. Chair, I'm not 18 an architect or engineer -- but the spandrel glass in 19 this building isn't -- it's -- for lack of a better 20 word, it's an architectural feature of the curtain wall 21 rather than a window and that's the distinction between 22 the two kinds of glass. 23 And, so, other buildings may not have this, 24 so -- kind of glazing as an architectural feature, 25 whether they have some kind of a pre-cast concrete or 26 some other kind of a structure, this building has that 27 spandrel glass. And it appears to have been a problem. 28 And we had hoped that the repairs done 11 1 previously and the investigation done previously would 2 have solved that. 3 And, obviously, we're disappointed and 4 concerned and respect and understand the Board of 5 Equalization's concern as well. 6 We're trying to address this immediately and 7 that's why we're getting the architects back, to try to 8 find out what went wrong. 9 MR. RUNNER: Okay, thank you. 10 MS. MANDEL: Question? 11 MR. HORTON: Ms. Mandel? 12 MS. MANDEL: When they come through, is there 13 any way of them knowing whether this window was a window 14 that was -- oh, I'm am sorry, a spandrel glass piece 15 that was replaced in the prior review or whether it was 16 one that was -- was looked at and -- I don't know what 17 kind of records they kept of which ones they looked at 18 and said, "No, that one was okay." 19 I don't know if it matters -- 20 MR. DERBY: It's a good question -- 21 MS. MANDEL: -- but I was just curious. 22 MR. DERBY: -- and we'll certainly try to 23 follow up on and report back on, absolutely. 24 MR. HORTON: Okay. Thank you very much for 25 appearing before us and so expeditiously, we appreciate 26 that. 27 MS. VERBAERE: Thank you. 28 MS. HOUSER: On a more positive note, we have 12 1 been working with the DGS staff to begin to identify 2 program elements for BOE's new headquarters. This 3 process will include a survey of BOE employ -- all BOE 4 headquarters employees, including the annex staff, to 5 gather their input on the amenities and services they 6 would like to see in their new headquarters. 7 This is the first step in developing the 8 Request for Lease Proposal that we hope to release in 9 the fall of 2012. The responses to this request will 10 assist DGS in developing the true cost -- a true cost 11 proposal for our move to a new headquarters. 12 We are also planning to meet with Finance and 13 DGS in the next few weeks to discuss the move. 14 Are there any further questions on the 15 headquarters facility? 16 MR. HORTON: Discussion, Members? 17 Hearing none, please continue. 18 ---o0o--- 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 13 1 . 2 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 3 4 State of California ) 5 ) ss 6 County of Sacramento ) 7 8 I, JULI PRICE JACKSON, Hearing Reporter for the 9 California State Board of Equalization certify that on 10 JANUARY 11, 2012 I recorded verbatim, in shorthand, to 11 the best of my ability, the proceedings in the 12 above-entitled hearing; that I transcribed the shorthand 13 writing into typewriting; and that the preceding pages 1 14 through 13 constitute a complete and accurate 15 transcription of the shorthand writing. 16 17 Dated: February 7, 2012 18 19 20 ____________________________ 21 JULI PRICE JACKSON 22 Hearing Reporter 23 24 25 26 27 28 14