At a time when Oakland is dealing with everything from growing homeless tent encampments to the coronavirus, it’s also facing a crisis at City Hall: an unprecedented exit of top administrators.

The city’s police chief, fire chief and city administrator are out — or are about to be out — of City Hall.

And while former Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick’s firing without cause by the Police Commission and Fire Chief Darin White’s decision to leave next month for the same job in San Rafael made the news, it’s the quiet exit last week of City Administrator Sabrina Landreth that has insiders worried.

“She was the adult in the room focusing on providing services to the citizens and treating the workers fairly when dealing with the Oakland City Council and mayor,” Oakland Police Officers’ Association President Barry Donelan said in a news release. “Her departure should be a cause for concern for every Oaklander.”

Landreth’s decision to exit after five years as administrator followed repeated clashes with City Council members.

Her resignation followed an incident at a council committee meeting when an audience member accused Joe DeVries, the city’s point man on tent encampments, of having “caused deaths” among the homeless. DeVries tried to leave the meeting, but another audience member blocked his exit.

Landreth apparently was incensed at the behavior, especially the reaction from the council members.

“The silence from the council members at that meeting to control the inappropriate behavior was deafening,” Landreth said in an email to them that was obtained by The Chronicle.

For now, former Lafayette City Manager Steven Falk is keeping an eye on Landreth’s old responsibilities until a permanent replacement is found.

But Oakland isn’t leafy Lafayette.

“The interim administrator is very smart, but he has got a lot to learn in a short amount of time,” City Councilman Larry Reid said. “We have the new A’s ballpark, the Ghost Ship fire lawsuit, the homeless and now the coronavirus. Plus, we now also have the search for a new police chief, a new fire chief and new city administration.”

Mayor Libby Schaaf put a somewhat more positive spin on the situation.

“Every day, I see leadership in this organization stepping up, and we will definitely keep things moving,” Schaaf said. “This is certainly a confluence of events, but if there is one thing Oakland is great at, it’s dealing with crisis.”

Sometimes, the crisis is of one’s own making.

Coal burn: Richmond Mayor Tom Butt is accusing the Sierra Club of reneging on a promise to help the city fight off suits resulting from its law banning the storage and handling of coal within city limits, including the Port of Richmond.

“When I voted for this ordinance, I believed that the Sierra Club, a national organization with a $100 million annual budget, would provide financial assistance to the city for defending the lawsuits. The Sierra Club was the principal drafter of the ordinance and the prime mover in advocating for its adoption,” Butt said in an email blast Thursday.

He backed off a bit in a subsequent interview with The Chronicle.

“To be fair, they were a bit murky about it,” he said. “They didn’t come out and say that they would write us a check, but I was led to believe that they would be there for us. But now that the lawsuits have started, the Sierra Club has bailed out.”

Butt was part of the 5-1 Richmond City Council majority that voted for the ban in January.

He said he called Aaron Isherwood, the Sierra Club’s attorney, about helping out and was told the organization never promised financial help for any lawsuits.

“They said they only talked about helping with legal research in drafting the ban and supporting us,” Butt said.

In an email, Isherwood said “the Sierra Club never offered to provide free legal services to the city. Rather, I made clear that the Sierra Club intends to intervene with our own lawyers in any litigation to help the city defend the ordinance in court.”

Butt said the city attorney estimates Richmond’s legal bills will be “well into the seven figures.”

“You know, we are a city that doesn’t have a lot of money, so defending the coal lawsuits could result in fewer cops on the streets, shorter library hours, and less street and park maintenance,” Butt said.

Sierra Club or not, Butt said he is ready to go ahead with defending the ban.

“Right now, I’m just trying to embarrass the Sierra Club into putting their money where their mouth is,” Butt said.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KGO-TV morning and evening news and can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @philmatier