Elevators lift, permits lag

The expired permits in all 25 lifting mechanisms on the Malibu campus might cause students and faculty alike to question the safety and reliability of the elevators they ride every day.

A recent Graphic investigation discovered all elevators at Seaver College are displaying expired permits. The elevators have undergone inspection every year, including early this November, according to the District Office of Glendale. However, because of issuing agencies’ delays, the permits have yet to be updated. One elevator in the CCB contains a permit that expired more than 32 months ago in 2007. This reality may be misleading for some riders.

“It’s a little disconcerting knowing [all the permits] are out of date,” senior Joanne Baldwin said.

Others don’t quite feel the same way.

“I don’t feel threatened,” senior Sam Pike said. “I don’t feel that anyone is in any real danger.”

Although the perception may be that equipment is unsafe, Pepperdine’s associate vice president of Human Resources, Lauren Cosentino, assures students that the elevators are all up to date, maintenance-wise, and that safety is a top priority. 

“[Facilities Management & Planning] gets those elevators checked out on schedule,” Cosentino said. “The county doesn’t mail out the permits until months later, but it causes us problems because people call and say the elevators haven’t been inspected.”

Due to the backlog of elevator maintenance requests and issuances of permits that the state and county still need to process, Pepperdine has not received the updated ones.

The FM&P office started the process of obtaining new permits on Sept. 3 this year for elevators that expired between Oct. 21 and Oct. 31.

Inspections conducted by the district office did not occur until between Nov. 2 and Nov. 4.

“Because all of our units are inspected weekly as FM&P goes about its normal activities and monthly by our service contractor there is no danger in using any of the units on campus,” FM&P Managing Director Bob Bullard wrote in an e-mail.

Updating the permits is now up to the district office. Bullard said FM&P is “in the pipeline” for receipt of all the new permits.

“Even though we submit our request for inspection prior to the date of expiration of the permit, we are at the mercy of the state with respect to when the inspections occur,” Bullard said. “Irrespective of the receipt of the permits, our elevators are absolutely safe.”