Big push for Mare Island Way station
Police chief, city manager in favor
Hot-button items like proposed sites for a new police headquarters and a progress report on police department reforms will be the focus of Tuesday night’s Vallejo City Council meeting.
The current police station on Amador Street is consistently listed by officers leaving the department as for their departure, according to the Vallejo Police Department.
“Morale at the police department has significantly deteriorated because of poor working conditions,” said Chief Shawny Williams in a staff report for council.
According to the police, the building has a broken HVAC system and “significant” sewage problems that frequently back-up into bathrooms and the locker room. There is also lead and asbestos on the property, though the asbestos will not pose a threat unless its casings are removed, officials said.
In addition to its environmental issues, Williams has told the council that there are no viable interview rooms, especially for victims of crimes or anyone who may need counseling. There is also no community room, sleeping quarters for officers doing long shifts, and very little public parking.
In short, the 20,000 feet they currently occupy needs to be supplanted by at least 75,000 feet, says Williams.
In February of 2019, the council authorized the purchase of the old State Farm Insurance building at 400 Mare Island Way for $13.4 million. The building is a large and somewhat modern edifice that faces the marina.
The council ordered a study to see if the site
would be feasible for a new police headquarters. It was deemed acceptable but in need of about $35 million in repairs/upgrades/retrofitting (with the 3 percent adjustment for 2021 prices).
Since the purchase, some residents have spoken out against the project, often calling into community forum sections of the council meetings to express their concerns. The main complaint is cost, followed by location.
For some, having a police station along one of Vallejo’s loveliest drives is detrimental to the city’s image and appeal to tourists. Others have pointed out that it is not easily accessible to freeways, which they feel is important for dispatch.
In the staff report given to council prior to Tuesday’s meeting, several other possible locations for the police station are listed: The west quadrant of the Sonoma Boulevard and Solano Avenue intersection, the northwest quadrant of the Benicia Road and Rollingwood Drive intersection (estimated to cost upwards of $95 million), and JFK Library.
Input from the community has offered up the “old” Walmart location on Sonoma Boulevard, but it is not correctly zoned for a police station, nor is it for sale. It’s also 127,000 square feet, far larger than the desired 75,000 square feet.
The former Food 4 Less building on Sonoma is 50,000 square feet and for lease, but it, too, is not zoned for “public facilities.” The Park Place Medical Plaza is for sale at $13,950,000, with 56,991 square feet, but it is currently housed by Kaiser
Permanente, which will remain there until 2024.
If the staff report is any indication, both the chief and the city manager are pushing for the Mare Island Way location. In the report, they note that “a number of California communities have effective and attractive police departments located on or near waterfronts,” including Napa, Sausalito, Long Beach, San Diego, Venice Beach, Capitola, Pismo Beach, and Carpenteria.
They also say that the building on Mare Island Way would help them fulfill goals set by the DOJ and the community to reform the department. They say the building is “designed to protect and serve people,” offering ample room for community engagement within the confines, easy public accessibility, space to implement more compassionate victim/survivor services and connect people with other resources, and higher officer retention. Williams and City Manager Greg Nyhoff also think that the building’s high visibility is a plus, not a minus, calling it a “pillar of safety and
community policing.”
The council will also be hearing an update on the police department’s OIR, or Office of Independent Review report, as ordered by state feds in the wake of the disproportionally high officer-involved shootings in Vallejo.
A draft of the police department’s plans to address issues raised in the OIR was given to the council in June. The information was made available to the public and their feedback was presented to the council in November of that same year.
In the staff report given to the council for Tuesday’s meeting, Chief Williams defended his department.
“While it may appear on the surface that progress has been slow, council will hear that this is not the case,” he wrote. “The police chief and VPD are rebuilding the department from the bottom up, while having to respond to unacceptable crime trends, simultaneously.”
According to VPD, violent crime in 2020 was up 11 percent over 2019, and 9 percent over five years. Homicides were up 133 percent last year, and 75 percent over five years.
The chief is sure to go into great detail on Tuesday evening, but he will cover standards of conduct and the code of ethics, use of force, and department reorganization. The chief says that use of force issues “get to the heart” of what the department must improve on.
To view the 7 p.m. council meeting, go to cityofvallejo. net and click on “Agendas and Videos” near the middle of the page.
Input from the community has offered up the “old” Walmart location on Sonoma Boulevard, but it is not correctly zoned for a police station, nor is it for sale.