Managers of Troubled High-Rise to Pay Fine

The managers of the Great American Building agreed Monday to a settlement with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The agency had cited the downtown high-rise for a series of electrical problems that caused the office tower to be evacuated several times.

Coldwell Banker Real Estate Management Services, manager of the 24-story bank building at 600 B St., agreed to pay a $2,000 fine--less than half the $5,000 originally proposed. In addition, three of the safety citations were modified or deleted after an informal conference last week between OSHA administrators and Coldwell Banker representatives, OSHA spokesman Jack Rhodes said.

Coldwell Banker and Great American Savings Bank were both cited for safety violations Nov. 28 that stemmed from a rash of electrical difficulties that caused two small fires and prompted the evacuation of the building six times in October.

The two violations attributed to Great American were minor and pertained to the evacuation plans the bank used for its employees, who occupy about half the building. Great American was not fined, and the shortcomings in its evacuation plans were quickly rectified, Rhodes said.

Coldwell Banker originally faced five violations termed “serious” and one “less than serious.” However, OSHA officials have since agreed to modify their findings, resulting in two serious and two less-than-serious violations, Rhodes said.

One of the serious citations--the alleged failure to provide electrical ground fault protection in the building--was dropped entirely, Rhodes said. “We dropped that item because we could not show they had knowledge of the violation,” Rhodes said. To qualify as a serious violation, OSHA would have had to prove that the company knew of the safety hazard, he said.

Another item was moved from the serious to less-than-serious category, negating any financial penalty, according to Rhodes. The management company had been cited for failure to provide adequate emergency exit markings from the stairwells--the route the building’s occupants had to take during each evacuation. Although it was originally believed that the exit signs erroneously directed the evacuees into the bank’s first-floor lobby--where the danger was greatest during the two fires--further interviews with employees prompted OSHA officials to change their minds, Rhodes said.

“We found they were able to get out of the bank lobby safely,” Rhodes said. “Also, they have since abated the violation by changing their marking in the stairwell so people will not exit on that floor but will go down to a parking garage exit, which is outside the building.”

The third change in the original citations was to condense two serious violations into a single one, Rhodes said. The building management had been cited for failure to provide adequate emergency lighting in the stairwells--on at least one occasion employees had to grope their way down from the top floors in the dark. That citation was combined with another serious citation for turning off an emergency generator, which would have provided the backup lighting in the stairwells during the power outage.

“All of the problems with the emergency lighting were caused by the generator, so we agreed with them on that, and the penalty was dropped completely on that item,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes said two Coldwell Banker representatives and a lawyer for the company met with OSHA officials early last week to present their side and show that they had already taken care of all the safety hazards they were cited for. At that point, Rhodes said, Coldwell Banker could have filed a formal contest to the citations, but chose instead to accept OSHA’s offer of a $2,000 settlement. “They were very cooperative,” Rhodes said.

The building management has two weeks to pay the fine, and has indicated that payment is forthcoming, Rhodes said.

Rhodes said the amount of the settlement was “relatively high” considering the fact that no one was injured in the fires or evacuations. Financial penalties are not levied in most cases involving run-of-the-mill building violations, he noted.

Coldwell Banker spokesman Scott Allison said Monday that building-management officials found the settlement agreeable.