ELEVATORS FAIL, COUNCIL RAILS AT CITY HALL.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

Less than a year after taxpayers spent $300 million to renovate City Hall, as few as two of the building's eight public elevators are working, leading embarrassed council members to blast city officials Tuesday and demand an audit of the project.

Although the elevator cabs were restored to their original appearance as part of the massive renovation, the elevators' mechanisms - just like the leaky roof that was recently fixed - were not included. City officials estimate it will cost $1.6 million more to get all the elevators in working order.

``It's ludicrous,'' Councilman Dennis Zine said. ``You spend that much money on a project and now these problems are coming forward. Why do the taxpayers have to spend more money to take care of what was supposed to be taken care of in the first place?''

The elevators are the second major element of the building to need work after the renovation was completed. In December, officials spent $800,000 to repair a leaky roof that also was not part of the renovation project.

Zine plans to ask the council to request City Controller Laura Chick to audit the $300 million City Hall renovation, which was primarily intended to earthquake-proof the building and restore it to its original appearance.

He also said he will ask for a report on other work needed on the building.

Chick said she would be interested in conducting the audit, if the council can provide the financial resources to help sort out the multiple funding sources.

``It doesn't make sense to have elevators in office buildings where thousands of people need to get their work done not functioning properly, especially when we did a major project in the building,'' said Chick, who was a City Council member during the $300 million renovation.

She added that the elevators in City Hall East have had maintenance problems for years.

Jon Mukri, general manager of the Department of General Services, which is

responsible for building maintenance, said he has known for some time that the elevators needed work, and that the matter was brought it up during discussions of the City Hall renovation project.

Officials with the Bureau of Engineering, who oversaw the project, could not be reached to comment on why the elevators were not included. But Mukri said he believes it was because of the cost and because the bond that funded most of the work was designated for seismic retrofit purposes.

Councilman Hal Bernson tried to get the council to suspend its normal rules and approve an elevator renovation project on an emergency basis - without advance notice on the agenda - but he failed to get the six votes needed. The issue is expected to be discussed again today.

When the building first reopened last summer, all eight elevators were working properly, officials said. Since then, however, the elevators have experienced a series of maintenance problems and minor mishaps, including an incident in December when an elevator car fell a few feet before the brakes kicked in, causing minor injuries to 13 passengers.

That elevator was repaired, but later shut down again because of an unrelated problem, Mukri said.

Another car was shut down briefly last month after a water pipe in the building burst and began leaking into one shaft. Other cars have had a variety of minor maintenance problems.

To deal with the elevator shortage, the city has made a freight elevator available to the general public - although it, too, only works sporadically - and has assigned an employee to stand on the first floor and direct people to the proper local or express elevators for their floor. Still, the cars are often jammed, especially during peak hours, adding to an already slow process entering the building through the newly installed metal detectors.

The elevator system hasn't had any major work done since the mid-1980s. One of the reasons for the deterioration is that the elevators sat idle for more than three years during the renovation and were exposed to moisture and dust without regular maintenance.

Mukri said consultants believe the elevators need a major overhaul but do not have to be replaced - a project costing $4 million to $6 million.

``You get motors that burn out, you have controllers - the software that runs it - that burn out,'' Mukri said. ``You have ropes in there that need replacing. You have bearings, you have other sensors that go out. It's just normal wear and tear. It's nothing major, but they all need to be repaired.''