San Mateo County officials are investigating what has been described as a process breakdown that led to millions of dollars worth of safety equipment and cleaning supplies to be potentially damaged by rainstorms over the past few months.
“Clearly this was an error and we’re going to examine the entire process as to why this occurred. It’s something that’s certainly not our standard, not the way we operate. I think we handled the pandemic exceptionally with the staff that we had and this was a very unfortunate exception to our standards,” County Manager Mike Callagy said.
Nonmedical-grade face shields, gowns, goggles, mops, water buckets and bottles of bleach amounting to roughly $7 million were left out to soak in the San Mateo County Event Center parking lot during a series of rainstorms late last year after the items were moved outdoors to make way for another event in September.
Callagy said the items were surplus equipment purchased early in the pandemic before officials knew how long the health crisis would last and were stored indoors at the Event Center.
In 2021, the county began working with the California Office of Emergency Services to distribute the materials at no cost to agencies such as schools, health care providers and other states as well as local businesses, according to a statement released by the County Manager’s Office.
But officials have struggled to find groups who were interested in receiving the items because of their size, quantities or other reasons that make the products “less appropriate,” the release read.
It’s unclear how much of the equipment is actually damaged given that many items were double packaged and portions of the items were distributed before storms drenched the Bay Area. Callagy said the items have since been moved indoors and the county has enlisted the assistance of salvage experts who will sample the items and assess which products can still be used. Results will likely take time to be produced, Callagy said, calling the process “tedious.”
“Our hope is that since it was individually wrapped that hopefully most of it is salvageable,” Callagy said, noting the county has taken “excruciating pain” to spend emergency and local funds with care.
Additional supplies like KN95 and N95 masks, gloves and other medical-grade materials purchased by the county have been stored in a separate storage space and were not damaged, Callagy said.
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The county manager said he was recently made aware that the products had been left out in the rain. Standard protocol would have been for the items to be taken back indoors after the event and before rainstorms could occur.
Callagy said he wishes he was alerted to the incident sooner but shared confidence in and appreciation for the employees from a number of departments and the Event Center who were looking into how to deal with the damaged items.
After the first storm occurred in October, Callagy said employees left the soaked boxes outside while they worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to determine whether the county could be reimbursed for the cost of the items. He said employees were unsure whether the agency would require an inspection before providing the assistance and opted to not move the items.
Callagy took full responsibility for the incident and shared praise for his staff who he said has been busy staging vaccination clinics, testing events and providing other gravely needed assistance over the past two years.
Moving forward, Callagy said he plans to investigate how the incident occurred to ensure staff can prevent it from being repeated.
“We have done a lot of great work and these employees have done a lot of great work. … We’re in the business of humans providing services and mistakes were made along the way,” Callagy said. “I give praise when things go right and own responsibility when things go wrong. I fully accept responsibility for this and will work to make sure this never happens again.”
This is just a “process breakdown” so nothing to see here – move along. Did workers think the pile of supplies was a homeless tent - so left it alone? But don’t worry this is just a $7million mistake using taxpayer dollars. Let’s not forget that $7million is peanuts compared to $31billion lost by the state via EDD fraud. BTW, if Mr. Callagy fully accepts responsibility for the incident will he reimburse taxpayers for $7million? I’m sure a payment plan can be worked out. Actions speak louder than words.
The article does not mention how the PPE supplies, packed on a few hundred pallets, ended up in the parking lot of the Event Center. That was directed by its CEO, Dana Stoehner, who had to make space for an event. She then forgot about the supplies and left them in the rain during the early storm in September. When asked by the ABC 7 reporter why the supplies had been been left outside she dismissed that as not being her job. With a person like that and a County Manager whose organization did not secure these supplies, one wonders how well our County is managed and why no heads are rolling.
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This is just a “process breakdown” so nothing to see here – move along. Did workers think the pile of supplies was a homeless tent - so left it alone? But don’t worry this is just a $7million mistake using taxpayer dollars. Let’s not forget that $7million is peanuts compared to $31billion lost by the state via EDD fraud. BTW, if Mr. Callagy fully accepts responsibility for the incident will he reimburse taxpayers for $7million? I’m sure a payment plan can be worked out. Actions speak louder than words.
The article does not mention how the PPE supplies, packed on a few hundred pallets, ended up in the parking lot of the Event Center. That was directed by its CEO, Dana Stoehner, who had to make space for an event. She then forgot about the supplies and left them in the rain during the early storm in September. When asked by the ABC 7 reporter why the supplies had been been left outside she dismissed that as not being her job. With a person like that and a County Manager whose organization did not secure these supplies, one wonders how well our County is managed and why no heads are rolling.
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