EBALDC is in violation of Oakland’s Fire Marshal imposed Fire Watch at Effie’s House

EBALDC is in violation of Oakland’s Fire Marshal imposed Fire Watch at Effie’s House

By Lynda Carson - December 28, 2019

This Christmas and New Year holiday season has been hard on the low-income tenants at Effie’s House that have been left in the cold because the steam heating system has not been operating for the most part in the past 10 days or so, and property management at EBALDC have not been able to get it operating properly. As a result, some of the tenants use their gas stoves as a source of heat for their apartments which is not safe, while the steam heating system has been malfunctioning.

Making matters worse, during the past week one of Oakland’s largest nonprofit housing developers known as the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC) had a feud with BALL Security Inc.

According to sources, EBALDC owes money to BALL Security Inc., and is behind on paying the money that is owed for the BALL Security Inc., invoices that are due for providing security guards at Effie’s House for the Fire Watch that has been ordered by the Oakland Fire Marshal.

As a direct result, BALL Security Inc., has suspended their services to EBALDC and Effie’s House since December 24, 2019, until the present. This means that EBALDC is in violation of the Fire Watch that was ordered by the Oakland Fire Marshal at Effie’s House, which places the tenants at risk because there is no one patrolling the building for the Fire Watch.

Based on the information provided in the latest 990 tax filing for EBALDC, after subtracting their liabilities from their assets, EBALDC had $29,059,184 in net assets or fund balance, and it appears that EBALDC has enough resources to pay their bills.

Fire Watch At Effie’s House Ordered By The Fire marshal:

During the past year, the Oakland Fire Marshal has had Effie’s House under a Fire Watch on two different occasions because of problems with the fire alarm system in the building that is managed by Cintas Fire Protection Company.

This means that during a Fire Watch someone has to patrol the building 24 hours a day as a look-out for fires, and they keep a log check list of their activities while on watch.

In the event of a fire, the fire watch is supposed to knock on the doors of the tenants in the 21 unit building, to alert them of the danger of a fire in the building. The fire watch is also supposed to keep track of the computer read out from the fire alarm system at Effie’s House on an hourly basis, and take notes of what the read-out is in case it it is Trouble status again.

The first Fire Watch occurred for around a week at Effie’s House during the past year, and according to the former resident manager, Bethenia Tolson, EBALDC and Cintas Fire Protection had a feud going on over a mere $50.00 during the first Fire Watch.

As a result, the Fire Watch dragged on for a week or more because Cintas suspended it’s activities at Effie’s House to maintain the fire alarm system until EBALDC and Cintas came to an agreement over the $50.00.

The second Fire Watch during this past year at Effie’s House was ordered by the Oakland Fire Marshal around 3 months ago or more, after the fire alarm system was acting up again by chirping an alarm sound that meant the fire alarm system was in “Trouble Status.”

The Oakland Fire Department was contacted after EBALDC did not respond to the concerns of the tenants at Effie’s House when the fire alarm system was chirping for a day in a Trouble Status.

As a result, the Fire Marshal placed Effie’s House on Fire Watch. The problems with the fire alarm system have not been resolved since then, and Effie’s House has been on a Fire Watch ever since.

During the Fire Watch that has lasted three months or more at Effie’s House, at first EBALDC hired Solutions in San Francisco to provide security guards for the Fire Watch.

However, EBALDC replaced them a few months ago with BALL Security Inc., when it became apparent that the personnel from Solutions did not show up for work at Effie’s House at times, which placed Effie’s House in violation of the Fire Watch.

The security guards from BALL Security Inc., have been punctual, and have been an asset to protect the tenants at Effie’s House during the current Fire Watch. It is very disturbing that EBALDC is having a feud with BALL Security Inc., over payments due to BALL Security Inc., which has resulted in Effie’s House being in violation of the Fire Watch, ordered by the Oakland Fire Marshal.

Due to a lack of transparency and the failure of EBALDC management at Effie’s House to provide information or documentation to the tenants as to why they are in presently in violation of the Fire Watch that was ordered by the Oakland Fire Marshal, it is clear that the tenants have been placed at risk, and it is advisable that EBALDC needs to resolve this problem immediately.

If a fire were to occur at Effie’s House and people were to die or become injured as a result because EBALDC is in violation of the Fire Watch, EBALDC would be liable for damages, and criminal negligence.

EBALDC also needs to get the steam heating system working immediately, so the tenants do not have to use their stoves to heat their apartments.

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com

Note: For the sake of transparency, it should be noted that Lynda Carson is a long-time tenant at Effie’s House.

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