Council orders immediate safety measures after City Hall elevators fail

The Los Angeles City Council on May 1999 adopted an amended special motion directing the Department of General Services to implement immediate safety measures for City Hall after a sudden, unexplained failure of the building’s elevators during the meeting.

The council first voted on findings that an urgent need to act had arisen; the clerk recorded the finding vote (12 ayes). The substance of the motion asked General Services to carry out the elevator safety steps listed in the motion and to ensure stairwells and emergency egress routes remain accessible when elevators are not functioning. “This motion is dealing with the sudden, unexplained, and definitely unscheduled failure of all the city hall elevators today, and it's raised serious safety concerns that must be addressed immediately,” the motion-maker stated when introducing the item.

Council member Feuer, who handled the matter on the floor, drew a distinction between occasional malfunctions and the public‑safety problem of inaccessible stairwells when elevators are out of service. He said the council should ensure stairwells are accessible at all times and urged tests of systems be scheduled outside normal business hours when feasible. Council member Sivanich reported that some stairway lights were burned out during the outage and called for a holistic review of emergency lighting and ingress/egress in City buildings.

Councilmember Holden and other members noted concerns about Y2K testing rumors and emphasized that any operational tests that might disrupt access should be scheduled so as not to endanger the public. After an oral amendment to direct General Services to conduct tests during business hours only when absolutely necessary and at times least likely to disrupt, the council approved the amended motion (clerk announced 12 ayes). The motion was approved forthwith and staff were directed to report back on procedures and a proposed plan for broader assessment of building safety protocols.