Vallejo park district workers allege they face violence, unsanitary conditions at work

VALLEJO – Two Greater Vallejo Recreation District employees allege that they have faced unsafe working conditions, including violence and threats from people throwing parties at district facilities, inadequate handling of potentially hazardous chemicals, and inadequate safeguards for workers from bloodborne pathogens. They told the Vallejo Sun that the district hasn’t taken necessary steps to address the problems.

The workers, Jessicca Blanco and Safari Harris, who were both hired in 2023, said that they’ve repeatedly complained to management about the conditions but that management has only addressed the complaints when pressured by state agencies. 

The district maintains 33 parks and four community centers in Vallejo, and employs about 200 mostly part-time workers. Both workers manage events which residents hold at district centers, such as birthdays, baby showers, and weddings. 

Blanco and Harris said the events they manage can be unsafe because they regularly get out of hand and that the district’s unarmed security guards are often unwilling or unable to help when guests threaten them with violence. Harris said she’s threatened often.

"I get threatened a lot when people are drunk,” Harris said. “It’s scary because we’re outnumbered. Say I get hurt? I’m a single mom. Who’s going to take care of my kids?”

Occasionally, Blanco and Harris said, guests have even attacked staff.

Blanco and Harris also said they are tasked with doing weekly deep cleaning of the spaces, which they said often includes handling cleaning agents with potentially dangerous chemicals and cleaning up others’ bodily fluids, despite that the district has a separate janitorial staff.

“Some of the unsanitary items I've had to clean include feces, vomit, urine, and period blood,” Blanco wrote in an email to a manager in November. “I'm concerned because these tasks are typically handled by janitorial staff who are trained to manage such situations. I'm worried about the risk of contracting illnesses like AIDS or hepatitis, especially since we are not trained to properly handle or use the chemicals in the cleaning closet.”

District general manager Gabe Lanusse said that the district has been making adjustments to its safety policies and reviewing others in response to the complaints.

In an email to the Vallejo Sun, Lanusse said when the issues were brought to his attention, he “immediately began investigating what was going on, and making adjustments.” 

Lanusse said that he hasn’t heard of any requests for armed security, but he said that the district plans to adjust its alcohol policy.

“After recently being made aware of an employee being injured and alcohol issues on the rise at events, we are already in the process to rework our procedures,” Lanusse said. 

But Blanco and Harris said that it took pressure from state agencies for the district to take action. They filed a complaint in January with California’s Labor Commissioner’s Office, which then informed the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health, which is commonly referred to as Cal/OSHA 

In response, Cal/OSHA sent a letter to the district in mid-February stating they’d received complaints indicating it may be in violation of state safety laws. The allegations included not properly training workers to handle potentially hazardous chemicals and bloodborne pathogens, not giving workers adequate safety equipment, and not storing cleaning agents properly. 

Harris told the Vallejo Sun that she thinks insufficient training and improper storage of a cleaning agent have caused her health problems.

“I almost passed out and had a really bad headache due to using a chemical in a bottle that had no proper label on it,” Harris said. “It just had hand-written sharpie writing saying what it might be.”

The agency did not cite the district, but gave its management 14 days to dispute or begin correcting the issues.

In early March, the district sent Cal/OSHA a report in which district manager Ryan Allen said the district had removed unlabeled cleaning agents, provided workers with all necessary protective equipment, such as gloves, masks and goggles, and has provided training to properly deal with bloodborne pathogens and to use cleaning agents safely. 

While the district contends that it began addressing the issues before Cal/OSHA became involved, Blanco and Harris said that they had been complaining for months before then.

“We said in staff meetings that we wanted proper training,” Harris said. “If OSHA didn’t get called nothing would have happened.”

Both workers confirmed that cleaning agents are now being stored properly, and said that the district has begun delivering protective equipment to sites. But Blanco said efforts to train her and her co-workers on safely using cleaning agents have been insufficient.

“There’s not been any training,” Blanco said. “They just read from a piece of paper and some of our staff couldn’t even understand some of the complicated words.”

Harris said the bloodborne pathogens training was an online training that she felt was lacking. Both Blanco and Harris said they want hands-on janitorial training, which they haven’t yet received. 

Lanusse said that the district is currently coordinating both hands-on and online trainings, because “people learn in different ways.”

The employees said that less has been done to address the threats and violence against staff members. Blanco shared an email with the Sun showing she messaged a manager  about an incident in November in which she claimed guests at a children’s birthday party yelled at and pushed her and other staff members, injuring a security guard’s finger, when they stopped allowing a bartender to serve alcohol after 10 p.m., per the district’s rules. Blanco said that the district’s security is unable to handle violent confrontations. 

“It's clear that our security team is not equipped to handle such situations,” Blanco wrote. “Our guards are unarmed and don't even have basic tools like a baton for self-defense. If someone at the event were armed with a weapon, such as a knife or gun, they could easily cause harm.”

This month, Blanco submitted an incident report where she claimed a guest who appeared intoxicated threatened her, shoved her, and struck her in the face. Harris said that a guest also aggressively pushed her at the same party.

Blanco and Harris said they want improved safety measures, such as security that can carry a baton or mace, or self defense training for all workers. They also want the district to reconsider its alcohol policy, especially at events where children are present, as underage drinking is common.

Blanco said that, due to speaking out about work related issues, the district has retaliated against her. Earlier this month, she filed a complaint with the Labor Commissioner’s Office in which she claimed that the district’s HR director harassed her by demanding to know what agencies she had been reaching out to about her concerns.

“I want the harassment and questioning to stop,” Blanco wrote in her email. “I want the district to be held accountable for their actions, and take things seriously.”

Lanusse said the district is investigating the alleged harassment.