CAPPO Comes Through! City of La Mesa Story

On May 29, 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic had changed our world and added extraordinary stress on us, personally and professionally for over two months with no end in sight. We’d seen the tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and then the video-recorded arrest of Amaurie Johnson in La Mesa the week before, which lead to a peaceful protest march in our downtown streets. Unfortunately this event was turned into a violent riot as the evening came and arsonists that had been repelled from the Police Department, broke into City Hall instead, determined to burn the building down. They set a fire in the Finance and City Clerk section of the building, which my coworkers and I could see in the news broadcasts from our homes. It was devastating to watch as the riot moved around downtown, setting fires to multiple buildings and vehicles, resulting in three buildings destroyed. The Heartland Fire Chief responded early to the unrest and entered City Hall to extinguish the fire, saving the building. For his heroism he had his department F-150 torched in the street outside. The rioters were eventually dispersed and the fires died out. However the rebuilding is ongoing.

In the aftermath many staff and hundreds of La Mesans arrived at City Hall and the downtown area to begin cleaning up. I stopped at Home Depot (one of our Master Open Purchase vendors) to purchase three wet-dry vacuums and plastic bins needed for the clean-up using my p-card. Arriving at City Hall I had to pass through a checkpoint manned by National City Police Officers and then got to work assessing what needed to be done around our building and vacuuming up broken glass. So much glass! Rocks had been thrown through many windows at the Police Department and the entire City Hall complex (consisting of the main facility and two annex trailers) had damage and debris throughout. Some staff tried to return to work almost immediately under restrictions for footwear (closed shoes only!) but even then the air quality in the main building kept us out for nearly two weeks. Most departments shut down temporarily but mine could not. The Finance Department was still responsible for employee paychecks, purchase orders and vendor payments. By Tuesday, three days after the riot, we had moved into the Fire Administration and Emergency Operations Center (EOC) two doors down the street, which thankfully only had some minor window damage.

One issue that we faced immediately was a lack of proper seating. In the EOC we were using classroom-style chairs, padded but not designed for nine-hour days. The City Hall complex had glass fragments that were on and in everything. People thought that they could brush them off but a department head was cut when his chair that he thought was clean still had glass embedded in it. We needed a lot of chairs in a hurry or people wouldn’t be able to work. I had a few surplus chairs but not nearly enough. I checked with our chair supplier but it would be a month or more for new chairs to be delivered.

Could the CAPPO San Diego Chapter help? I sent out an email asking to borrow surplus chairs from other agencies and the responses were immediate. I had offers from several agencies and appreciated each and every one, but ultimately decided to go with three that could provide the quantity needed right away, with the City of El Cajon and the Port of San Diego both delivering surplus chairs. The Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) offered their boardroom chairs, recently purchased but barely used as the pandemic had shut down in-person meetings. I just needed to pick them up. The Community Services Department has a cargo van and I was off, playing furniture mover. I drove to downtown San Diego to the MTS bus yard, met the staff and we brought a dozen chairs down from the second floor by many elevator trips. Back in La Mesa I began distributing chairs to my department at the Fire facility and others in immediate need. Our backs were saved! New chairs were ordered. Our supplier had also reached out to the chair manufacturer and they donated seven of the initial order that we considered “emergency need”.

Ultimately we purchased 50 replacement task chairs, 22 conference room chairs, 21 side chairs and 64 audience chairs for the Council Chambers. The City Hall complex was completely re-carpeted, the exterior repainted, windows replaced and the interior deep cleaned. The seven 30-plus-year-old cubicles in the Finance/City Clerk area were considered damaged and removed. The ceiling and light fixtures were replaced and all cabling redone. We reconfigured the space for efficiency and installed all-new cubicles with motorized sit-stand desks and a printer/water cooler area (previously located in walking spaces) utilizing an OMNIA contract for the pricing. Most of the repairs and replacements were covered by insurance but we still utilized the contracts and piggybacks as we do for new furniture. While other departments began moving back into City Hall in June my department was out until October, four months after the fire, when the new furniture was installed.

While the entire project took many months it was the first few weeks that tested us the most. The support of a group like CAPPO was invaluable! Coming through in a pinch was an amazing demonstration of the camaraderie that we have. I let every agency that offered their help know that I would not hesitate to return the favor if asked. I hope that they never have the kind of extreme circumstances that we did, but I am here and will drop everything if asked. That’s how much it means to me, because CAPPO comes through!

Scott Munzenmaier
CAPPO Director South
Purchasing Officer, City of La Mesa