San Diego city workers moved into Ash Street high rise despite continuing asbestos violations

San Diego city officials sent employees to work inside the newly remodeled high rise at 101 Ash Street even though county regulators found multiple asbestos violations in the weeks leading up to the move -- and since, The San Diego Union-Tribune has learned.

The county Air Pollution Control District has found the known carcinogen three times since Dec. 13, when the first city workers began moving into their new work stations inside the former Sempra Energy headquarters.

“We’ve been out to this address several times,” county spokesman Michael Workman said last week. “While successful cleanup is taking place, there have been newly created or discovered violations.”

Workman declined to discuss the situation in more detail because the case is still active.

“It’s open and in progress,” he said.

City officials acknowledged the county violation notices but say the premises are safe. They plan to open the building to the public as planned on Monday, three years after the city entered a $128 million lease-to-own deal for the mid-century office tower just north of City Hall.

Johnnie Perkins, the deputy chief operating officer monitoring the Ash Street project, said more than 230 air samples taken by the city since August all returned results that are within acceptable state and federal health limits.

“Air monitoring continues to show that even though asbestos containing materials were found in the building by the APCD, there are no airborne asbestos hazards and air samples are well below regulatory standards for airborne asbestos fibers,” he said. “The city continues to actively conduct air monitoring.”

County officials have been inspecting the property every week or more since last summer.

Records show the county found environmental health violations 16 times over the past five months, as recently as Dec. 26 -- almost two weeks after city officials declared the property ready to occupy and began migrating hundreds of employees from alternate buildings downtown.

Perkins disputed the county’s assertion that the city is creating new violations in the way it has responded to the original notices of violation issued in August.

“The full abatement was completed for the areas where we are doing tenant improvements,” he said. “There is still asbestos in the building … The question is, was there a release into the air that caused a danger to the health and safety of those in the building? And the answer is no.”

However, in an email Wednesday, a senior planning official warned city employees to avoid specific parts of the 19-story high rise.

“The 2nd floor of 101 Ash is still under construction and is not accessible to staff,” Leslie Sennett of the Development Services Department wrote. “Do NOT go on the floor. Staff found not following this direction will be disciplined.”

The same message advises employees to avoid removing any items of furniture from empty cubicles and notes that workers assigned to the newly remodeled building have been issued special identification.

Perkins said the email was badly worded and that no employee would face discipline for entering the second floor. He also said the remaining construction work has no relation to the active asbestos violations.

“We’re just finalizing a few punch-list items like you do at your house when you remodel,” he said.

Perkins acknowledged that certain areas like mechanical rooms remain off-limits to city staff -- and when crews do enter those areas, they wear breathing apparatuses to protect themselves from inhaling asbestos fibers.

Perkins, who last month said the building renovations were completed on time and within budget, said the additional work is being performed at night and on weekends to minimize any inconvenience to city employees.

“The asbestos containing materials can be managed, and that’s what we are doing,” he said Friday.

The situation has worried some employees -- and at least one union official.

Michael Zucchet, general manager of the union that represents almost 6,000 white-collar workers, said he is monitoring the situation as closely as possible. He said getting information from regulators has been difficult because the union has no direct role in the investigation.

“We are absolutely concerned about it. Asbestos is a known, very serious health hazard,” he said Friday. “That said, we are confident that the city and its contractors have done everything they can to make that building safe for employees and visitors.”

The city was first cited by county regulators on Aug. 14, when inspectors issued five separate violations.

Specifically, the city did not remove all of the asbestos-containing debris; did not properly dispose of the material; allowed visible emissions to be discharged into the outside air and did not keep the material wet until it was properly sealed as required, the notices said.

The substance of ensuing violations has not been released because the case remains active.

The renovations were immediately halted while city officials and their contractors responded to the county, and the interruption lasted about three weeks.

City officials were intent on occupying the building before the end of the year because the project already had been delayed by two-plus years from its original plans -- and cost tens of millions of dollars more than originally estimated.

In October 2016, before Mayor Kevin Faulconer approved the lease-to-own agreement, his staff told the City Council that the former Sempra Energy headquarters could be occupied by July 2017 with little more than a $10,000 power wash.

Instead, officials decided to renovate portions of the building and upgrade the heating, air, plumbing and other systems.

The improvements were designed to increase the eventual city workforce from 800 to more than 1,100, and they required significant changes to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and other regulations.

In 2018, even as the city was paying almost $18,000 a day to lease a vacant building, the council agreed to spend an additional $30 million to complete the remodeling work on all 19 floors.

Councilwoman Barbara Bry, who was first elected weeks after the council voted to approve the 20-year lease, has long criticized the mayor’s handling of the Ash Street property. She said she was never told that county regulators found asbestos again after Christmas.

“It’s frustrating when I hear about issues with 101 Ash Street through the media,” said Bry, who is running for mayor. “Our city employees, who are already in this building, also deserve to receive timely updates on any violation.”

The city already is defending a lawsuit from other San Diego employees who claim top officials directed them to work inside a nearby office tower even though they knew a remodeling project exposed them to asbestos.

That case, filed in June by almost two dozen employees who worked in a nearby building referred to as the Executive Complex, accused the city of knowing that construction work in the building disturbed asbestos and concealing the exposure from employees.

City spokeswoman Christina Chadwick said there were key differences between the Ash Street case and what happened at the Executive Complex.

“In the case of Executive Complex, the city of San Diego was the tenant and leased office space from a third party or landlord,” she said. “This third party controlled all activity within the building, including tenant improvements, and the city did not control the construction.”

The 2019 lawsuit is proceeding in San Diego Superior Court.

Workman said the city is likely facing a fine once the violations are closed.