March 31, 2005


General Services Department helps city obtain more
competitive bid from Nortel Networks Corporation for
new City Hall computer-and-phone network

Department maintains city’s fleet of 2,800 vehicles and
more than 300 municipal buildings

Editor’s Note: The following is the 24th and final article in an ongoing series about the city’s departments and appointed officials. Next: An overview of the entire San Jose City Hall series.

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

The city’s Central Service Yard is almost inconspicuous along Senter Road in East San Jose right across the street from History San Jose Park.

James Harbin, left, the city’s general services contracts maintenance supervisor, chats with James McBride, interim director of San Jose’s Department of General Services, on a recent morning. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

Occupying the former Beech-Nut baby food plant, the yard is the home of the city’s Department of General Services. It also houses portions of San Jose’s Department of Public Works.

The large facility is comprised of a three-story building and six warehouses located on a 22-acre plot of land that stretches from South 10th Street to Senter Road.

The department was created in 1980 to do the city’s receiving, storage and security of maintenance supplies and equipment.

From here, city workers are charged with the responsibility of ordering materials to keep the city running smoothly and efficiently while reducing the number of requisitions and purchase orders and taking advantage of bulk purchase rates.

The facility provides centrally controlled support services including receiving of non-storage items.

Interdepartmental mail and postal services are also sorted here to provide the city with a centrally controlled mail service. The department also coordinates printing and copying services.

The warehouses also serve as storage facilities for three nonprofit groups—Christmas in the Park, Fire Muster Team and the History San Jose Museum.

The department, with about 175 employees and an annual budget of $37 million, also supports and maintains the city’s vehicle fleet and equipment.

Don Beams, the city’s fleet manager since 1991, is responsible for maintaining, acquiring, repairing and managing the city’s diverse fleet of 2,800 vehicles, including the San Jose Police Department’s 350 marked patrol cars and the more than 100 pieces of first-line fire apparatus that require a staff of 81 employees assigned to eight maintenance facilities throughout the city. Of those, 57 are mechanics and mechanic assistants. The department also does the maintenance of the Environmental Services Department’s Water Pollution Control Plant.

“We’re a behind-the-scene department. We provide support to all the other departments,” Beams says, who’s worked for the city for more than 22 years. “It’s critical that the specialized equipment that the city owns is properly repaired, safe and reliable to support those programs.”

Occupying the former Beech-Nut baby food plant, San Jose’s Central Service Yard is the home of the city’s Department of General Services and also houses portions of the Department of Public Works. The large facility is comprised of a three-story building and six warehouses located on a 22-acre plot of land that stretches from South 10th Street to Senter Road. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

James Harbin, the city’s general services contracts maintenance supervisor, oversees a staff that manages contracts and contractors who repair municipal buildings. He says the department is a critical piece of the city.

“Without this department things would start to fall apart,” Harbin says, who’s worked for the city for 15 years. The department also purchases all city supplies, including all the systems furniture that will fill the new City Hall building.

Civil Engineer Ken Tanase, the city’s facilities division manager, is responsible for maintaining 350 municipal buildings totaling 1.8 million square feet. He says well maintained facilities are critical to ensure that citizens are getting the services that they need from libraries, fire and police stations. “The services that those folks provide are connected to our ability to keep their buildings functioning properly,” Tanase says.

Interim director
As city officials look for a permanent director to head this department, Jim McBride is the man who came out of retirement to lead it during one of its most challenging times.

The department lost its former director last August—Jose Obregon—in the wake of the Cisco Systems scandal due to the improper bidding of a computer-and-phone network for the new $345.7 million downtown high-rise City Hall being erected on Fourth and West Santa Clara streets.

San Jose Deputy City Manager Kay Winer asked the 59-year-old McBride to serve as interim director when Obregon was demoted.

City officials began recruiting for the position at the beginning of the year.

Applications were due March 15. More than 40 people applied for the job. A formal appointment is expected in the next six weeks.

When the new director is selected, McBride jokes that he’ll return to retirement and change his phone number.
From his third floor office of the yard’s main building, McBride says the department’s backup crew consists of mechanics, carpenters, painters, electricians and custodians who maintain the city’s vehicles, buildings and other infrastructure.

“It’s been rewarding to be here,” McBride says, praising the department’s staff for being receptive to his leadership. “They’ve stepped up to the plate and have done a good job.”

McBride says Obregon’s departure was difficult, but his temporary assignment was eased by his knowledge of the department’s mission and experience with its employees as the former acting director of what was then called Department of Conventions, Arts and Entertainment, now called Convention and Cultural Facilities, now run by the nonprofit Team San Jose.

After the Cisco Systems scandal, McBride found the department’s employees with low morale and saddened and concerned by Obregon’s reassignment.

The city re-designed and re-bid the converged network for the new City Hall. On March 15, the San Jose City Council unanimously approved a $5.6 million contract with Nortel Networks Corporation, including all hardware, software, installation, and one year of operation and maintenance support of the new network.

The new voice and data network for the new City Hall is said to be more powerful and less expensive than the previous $8 million contract illegally awarded to Cisco.

To ensure that the system meets the city’s requirements, two acceptance tests of the new network will be conducted, with the goal of having the system up and running by June 9, in time for the move into the building to be phased between June and August.

Under the new contract, if Nortel can’t meet the date due to its own fault, then it will pay the city $20,000 per business day that the delay continues. The agreement also provides for the training of end-users, as well as call center supervisors and agents.

Jim McBride
Jim McBride was born in Nebraska but grew up in San Carlos. After World War II his mother went home to give birth to her first son when her husband was away in the Navy.

Department of General Services interim Director James McBride stands by the sign that easily identifies the city’s Central Service Yard along Senter Road in East San Jose right across the History San Jose Park. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

He attended San Jose State University where he studied social science. He served for six months as an active duty U.S. Army Reservist.

McBride started working for the city on a part time basis in 1965 in the recreation department, working on the after school playground program, the teen program and the senior center program. In 1975 he became a full-time employee working as an analyst in the city’s parks and recreation department. He was there for four years.

In 1979, he became an analyst for what was then called the Conventions and Cultural Facilities Department. He worked in various positions in that department seeing the San Jose McEnery Convention Center built in 1989.
McBride retired in August of 2004 with nearly 30 years of public service.

“I always wanted to work for a public agency,” McBride says. “The city is the closest government organization to the citizens.”

McBride is married and has two adult children. His wife, Diana, served for more than 30 years as a kindergarten teacher for the San Jose Unified School District. He’s lived in the same house in the Cambrian area for 27 years and is an avid golfer who enjoys spending time with his family.

For more information on the Department of General Services, 1661 Senter Rd., San Jose, Calif., 95112, call (408) 938-2000 or visit www.sanjoseca.gov/generalservices.