Testimony of Robin-Eve Jasper
Director
Office of Property Management
Adrian M. Fenty
Mayor
COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY AND THE JUDICIARY
Councilmember Phil Mendelson, Chairman
Monday, March 16, 2009
10:30 am
Room 123
Council Chamber
John A. Wilson Building
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004-3003
Good morning Chairman Mendelson and members of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary. I am Robin-Eve Jasper, Director of the Office of Property Management and I thank you for the opportunity to testify today to follow-up on the capital projects and space needs for public safety agencies. With many items on today’s agenda, I will limit my general comments to the following key points; overall, the District’s objective is to better utilize existing District assets, achieve operational and economic efficiencies, and locate essential, uniquely governmental functions in District-owned properties.
With these points in mind, I will address specific issues raised in earlier hearings.
Fire & EMS and the Department of Corrections Headquarters
The P.R. Harris School, located at 4600 Livingston Rd, SE will consolidate a variety of administrative and training facilities for Fire & Emergency Medical Service and the Department of Corrections. Consolidating these functions at P.R. Harris from the dilapidated facility at the Grimke School will benefit the Washington Highlands community and improve the operations of these agencies. For example, the Fire & EMS administrative offices are currently spread across seven different locations in the District. Additionally, the Fire & EMS Candidate Physical Agility Testing facility and the secondary Command & Control Center will be incorporated at this location. Programming and concept drawings are complete. Concept pricing and value engineering is currently underway. Construction of the Candidate Physical Agility Testing facility and the Command & Control Center are being expedited and will be complete this year. The District hopes to have the rest of this facility completed by the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2010 at a cost of $26.3 million.
Fire & EMS Engines 1, 13, 22, and 26
Fire & EMS is currently renovating or seeking to replace several fire stations. Many of these facilities are at the end of their useful life and have not been upgraded since their construction.
For example, Engine 1 was built in 1960 and is located at 2225 M Street N.W. The fire station has not undergone any substantial renovations. A new firehouse to be constructed by a private developer is being considered as part of a Request for Proposals by the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development in the West End neighborhood. In the meantime, however, Engine 1 will receive critical repairs and other improvements under the Buff ‘n’ Scrub and Greening program.
The District has also issued a solicitation to replace Engine 13 as part of a larger redevelopment plan for 4th and School Streets, SW. The District received three proposals from developers last fall and a community meeting was held in February to allow the development teams to share their ideas for the site. The District is requiring that the new fire station on Parcel 69 and that redevelopment be phased in such a way as to allow Engine 13 to remain in operation throughout the project. The District is proceeding with the Best and Final Offer evaluation and will make a selection shortly.
Engine 22 is one of the District’s oldest fire houses and was constructed in 1897. Located at 5760 Georgia Avenue NW, the facility has reached the end of its useful life. In addition, the Fire Department has determined that moving the station further north would improve efficiency and reduce response times to calls for service. A potential site has been identified on the Walter Reed Army Medical Center at Georgia Avenue and Aspen Street, NW. An agreement in principle has been reached with the federal government for the city to use this portion of the property for a new Engine 22 station that would serve both the surrounding DC community and the federal entities located on the Walter Reed campus. In order to move quickly on the relocation of Engine 22, the city is simultaneously conducting due diligence on the site (including an environmental assessment), while also developing the terms of an agreement to use to proffer to the current site operator, the US Army.
Last but not least, Engine 26 was constructed in 1937 and is located at 1340 Rhode Island Avenue, NE. This firehouse also needs to be replaced and relocated to fulfill the department’s long term plans to reorganize the locations of stations to reduce response times. Fire & EMS is actively working with the Office of Planning to identify potential sites for relocation.
Metropolitan Police Department Facilities
The Consolidated Forensic Lab will offer a state-of-the-art, LEED Gold facility consolidating the offices of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Department of Health Public Health Lab, and the Metropolitan Police Department Forensic Services Division. Project construction will begin in April of this year.
The First District station, currently housed at Fourth and E Streets SW and the MPD Criminal Investigations Division will move to the former Bowen Elementary School this month. The Bowen School closed last year and was renovated through collaboration among the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization, the Office of Property Management, and MPD in just over seven months. The Major Crimes Unit, also known as the Violent Crimes Branch, will be relocated to the 1st District Headquarters in mid-April as part of the overall renovation of the Bowen School.
In addition, the District is moving forward with plans to renovate the Daly Building to provide an improved public safety headquarters. Funding is identified in the Fiscal Year 2009 budget for implementation in Fiscal Year 2013 and to the extent that funds are available sooner the District will begin design on Daly redevelopment.
The new Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Evidence Warehouse will integrate law-enforcement best practices and the use of technology to create a 21st century evidence facility. The Warehouse will combine traditional and high density automated storage retrieval system with specialized law enforcement technology to maintain chain of custody and store and retrieve evidence. The Evidence Warehouse will be a LEED silver facility and will be located at DC Village. The Warehouse will be an owned facility which is especially appropriate given the essential, and uniquely governmental nature of this facility. Schematic (35%) design is complete for this project and the construction contract was submitted to Council last week.
To improve the District’s information sharing capabilities, Fusion Center analysts were relocated to the Unified Communications Center. This project was funded through a Public Safety Interoperable Communications grant sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce and completed in time for the 2009 Presidential Inauguration.
And finally, as provided to the Committee by Chief Lanier of the Metropolitan Police Department on Monday, March 9, 2009 the current lease for the property occupied by the 6th District substation expires in 2011. At this time, plans are for the property to remain a MPD facility during the term of the current lease.
Department of Corrections Inmate Processing Center
The legal settlement in the Bynum v. District of Columbia case requires the District to construct a new Inmate Processing Center at the DC Jail. The District has awarded the design contract for this facility to DMJM, an architectural and engineering firm with significant experience designing this type of facility. We have received several concept design options and have requested pricing to ensure the project does not exceed the available budget. Construction is scheduled to begin early in the first quarter of calendar year 2010.
CCA Correction Facility Steam Billing
As the Committee is aware, the District has been working to recover payment for steam provided to the CCA Correction Facility. A letter has been sent to CCA formally demanding payment for the sum due from 1997 to the present. CCA has been advised in that letter that unless payment is received, the District will offset the total due from the District's monthly payments to CCA over a 24-month period.
Office of Administrative Hearings
The Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) is relocating to the fourth floor of One Judiciary Square. The initial agency-approved design has been revised to increase the total number of hearing rooms and was approved by OAH last week. The hearing rooms include a raised dais with security railings for judges, separate access and exit doors for judges, panic buttons in each hearing room, coded identifications at the reception desk, a large waiting room, conference rooms for meetings and mediations, and sufficient office and work space for judges and staff. Construction will begin in early calendar year 2010 and be completed later that fall.
DC Armory
The District is currently renovating several building systems of the DC Armory, including exterior walls and windows, flooring, electrical upgrades, HVAC upgrades, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing work, elevator modernization, and renovation of locker rooms.
Several initiatives have already been completed such as floor replacements, the elevator modernization, and upgrade and renovation of the locker rooms.
There were discrepancies with the contractor over the design intent for the exterior renovations. As a result, the District re-bid the project. Work will commence in April when weather permits and will be completed in the fall.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. This concludes my testimony and I am available to answer any questions.