Greetings Mayor Nash, Council and City Manager,
I am Tom Prussing and I have lived at 194 Ravenswood Avenue since October 1977.
I retired from Stanford in 2015 after 41 years in facilities engineering and management and as a certified OSHA Safety Inspector during the last nine years of my tenure at the University.
I swim daily at Burgess Pool and realize how blessed we are in Menlo Park to have such a facility available to us, funded by our taxpayers.
Thank you for your measured approach to the Pool Operator contract for the next year. I would like to see great care taken for the RFP after this one-year contract concludes.
From a facilities point of view and a safety inspector point of view, I would like the council and city manager to consider these points of oversight for the CURRENT Burgess Pool Operator. I would also like the council and city manager to consider these points for the FUTURE Pool Operator RFP for following year:
• Impart to the current and future Pool Operator that the pool is a community facility paid for by Menlo Park citizens and it is not their personal property for profit only considerations
• Impart to the current and the future Pool Operator they are the steward of a community pool that is made available for all residents of Menlo Park, including those who live east of Highway 101, especially now that the Belle Haven pool is being renovated
• Facility best practices for contracted services advise a three-year contract with a quarterly review and audit to inform the Menlo Park citizens and to seek patron input for improvement
• To ensure a safe pool environment, provide monthly in-service training (which is not currently taking place) for all lifeguards to review best practices, review pool issues and rules, review the schedule, practice in-pool rescues, reinforce the use of a whistle as an effective form of communication, practice FRS communications, improved 911 notification and most importantly discuss recent rescue activity to improve lifeguard and community safety (the current lifeguard cadre is strong AND needs to stay so)
• Post and enforce pool rules for adults and children alike
• Provide CLEAR and concise signage in at least English, Mandarin and Spanish
• Adhere to Cal OSHA, Red Cross and liability insurer pool operations guidelines
• Maintain adequate staffing
• Provide access to “Open Swim” via stairs for the elderly, children, pregnant women and parents with children
• Schedule pool lanes that meet ALL the community swimming needs (the current schedule is optimal – thank you Menlo Swim and Sport (MSS))
• Complete an AUDIT over the last four years of Menlo Park Public Works (MPPW) maintenance, repair activity and upgrade projects to evaluate the RFP process to obtain vendors/contractors, to assess the extensive number of project delays and their causes, and to evaluate the cost to the taxpayers for a pattern of project change orders, the examples of which include:
Family restroom upgrade – a two-week project took four+
weeks and required a complete restroom redo because the
wrong grout was used at what cost overrun?
Men’s shower head replacement – 10 months
Instructional pool pump replacement – one week project took eight week (Public Works and Burgess staff knew the pump was failing at least two months before it failed but Menlo Park PW waited until failure to respond) at what cost overrun and loss of income for MSS?
Instructional pool chemical upgrade project – one month took
four months at what cost overrun and loss of income for
MSS?
The Belle Haven Pool project is months behind schedule
with no urgency to resolve for the residents of District 1;
where is the oversight and what is the current cost overrun
as it pertains to the Menlo Park taxpayers?
• Ongoing health and safety issues include and require immediate remediation:
Continual complaints about Burgess restroom sanitation
issues by patrons and MSS disregarded by Public Works
Men’s restroom right sink faucet out of service going onto
two weeks
Instructional pool retraction chair is water hazard (attractive
nuisance) without proper padding on sharp edges in the
water at shallow end where children play (for nearly two
years)
Instructional pool retraction chair not tested monthly to
guarantee functional use (for over two years)
Performance pool retraction chair has been malfunctioning
for over a year and a half with patrons in the lift (observed by
me)
On one occasion a patron was left out over the pool for
twenty minutes before the chair could retract him to the deck
(observed by me)
Mobile pool retraction chair has a battery not charged on a
regular scheduled basis and was required for a patron
extraction with less than 20% charge (observed by me)
Mechanical and chemical room doors left open during camp
hours
• Plan and vet operations, maintenance and upgrades a year in advance to reduce cost overruns
• Pool inspections should not be telegraphed in advance or pre-arranged otherwise pool health, safety and operational effectiveness cannot be CLEARLY determined
• Prioritize the Belle Haven Pool project so we can provide for the children and adults in District 1 who may be without a pool for at least two years
• Correct what appears to be the unintentional but pervasive absence of Black, Hispanic and Pacific Islander children from Burgess swim lessons and swim camp, especially since the Belle Haven pool will be closed throughout 2022 and 2023 (other patrons beside myself have also observed this absence)
• Quarterly oversight and review by City Council and City Manager of Burgess Pool operations budgeting
• Rebate patrons when pool is unavailable due to MPPW or Pool Operator caused outages
• Investigate why no RFPs have been placed before the community for pool operations when contracts have expired, and the current operator has been given automatic extensions; this represents the questionable optics of favoritism
• Investigate why the Library Community Services department delay until the last minute to resolve this contract renewal issue and allow the current operator to hold the Menlo Park community hostage with bully tactics.
• Establish an affordable monetary rate for equitable Burgess Pool participation by the entire Menlo Park community.
Menlo Park is one of the affluent cities in America. Its municipal operations should be one of the most efficient and effective in at least California given the taxpayer base that it supports. We are blessed to have Burgess Pool and we must keep it at optimum operation and available for all Menlo Park residents.
Thank you very much, Tom.
