Citing a scary encounter in a skyway restroom, the daughter of one of downtown St. Paul’s biggest property owners is asking the city to let her close her skyway doors early. But the city’s not too keen on the idea.

“In the 27 years I’ve been here, this has been by far the worst,” said Jaunae Brooks, who manages the Railroader Printing House, which is owned by Dave Brooks and is home of the Bulldog and Barrio bars.

On Wednesday, Brooks appeared before the St. Paul City Council to again plead for a variance to close her skyway doors six hours earlier than the city-mandated closing time.

But Rebecca Noecker, Brooks’ council member, wants the council to deny that request. The council voted Wednesday to address the matter in three weeks. In that meeting, council member Amy Brendmoen drew applause when she said she didn’t know why skyways were even open late nights.

Late one night several months ago, Brooks said in an interview, she and one of her maintenance workers paid a visit to the skyway restrooms at the Railroader Building, at 235 E. Sixth St. They were sick of having the lock jimmied open and people evidently sleeping there, as had happened “dozens of times,” she said, so she went to install some added security.

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St. Paul to clear homeless encampment along I-35E near downtown But when she opened the door with her keys, she found a man inside, holding a knife. Brooks said the action appeared to be defensive, and that the man looked startled by strangers disturbing him.

Over the past year, Brooks said incidents of homeless people sleeping in her skyway has dramatically increased, with some bringing suitcases and plugging hot plates into wall sockets normally used by maintenance staff to power their vacuums.

“They poop, they pee, there’s hypodermic needles, used condoms,” Brooks said. “I was not getting any help from the city or police. It was a crazy show going on in my building.”

In a letter to the city, Brooks noted that “my tenants aren’t always able to get to their offices due to a homeless person sleeping naked in the elevator … this situation happened just this morning for the second time in a week.”

In March, she started closing her skyway doors at 8 p.m. — six hours before the 2 a.m. closing mandated by the city. In place of an open door, she installed a keypad for access by building residents.

In January, the “skyway governance committee” of the CapitolRiver Council, the downtown area’s district council, was packed by dozens of residents and property owners who aired concerns about security, citing a marked increase in transients and loitering teens.

But that same committee has adopted a resolution opposing Brooks’ proposed hour change. Part of it relates to a charge by Brooks, outlined in her variance request to the city, where she states, “I have not had one response to a call placed to the police after hours.”

In a letter to the council, CapitolRiver noted that during a hearing on Brooks’ request, a St. Paul police officer denied that officers would simply ignore calls for service in the skyway. Only responding officers can clear calls, which means that an officer would have to lie and say police responded when they didn’t.

Police spokesman Steve Linders said that while “she did share her concerns with downtown command staff, they looked into it and they weren’t able to find any instances where officers did not respond. … We respond to all calls.”

Although the variance Brooks is seeking covers only the Railroader, she said she hopes it will start a trend.

“In the long haul, I would like to see all the buildings close their doors. All you need to do is lock your doors, you don’t need to spend money (on cameras), just lock your doors.”

In her letter to the city, Brooks said she already installed six cameras covering her section of the skyway. When asked if she had talked to Noecker, Brooks laughed.

“She formed another committee,” Brooks said. “Nothing they do is immediate. That’s my problem.”

Noecker did not return a call for comment Wednesday.

Noecker, along with Deputy Mayor Kristin Beckman, is co-chairing a “skyway vitality work group,” which includes “discussion on skyway hours of operation.” As part of its justification for coming out against Brooks’ request, CapitolRiver said in its letter to the city that it believed the work group was making progress.

Added current CapitolRiver chair John Mannillo: “I think if we really want to be open for business downtown, we have to think about everybody who’s there because of the skyway system. Including the patrons of bars and restaurants, and the condo owners, who invested in living downtown to be part of that system.”

The city’s Department of Safety and Inspections, which also recommended denying Brooks’ request, said that as a result of the city work group, the agency will propose changes to city ordinances that mandate how much property owners are responsible for skyway security in their own buildings.

When asked whether those ordinances would equate to building owners having to invest more in security themselves, DSI deputy director Dan Niziolek said that “we expect the recommendations will fall well below what some property owners are providing, but above others.”

Mara H. Gottfried and Lisa Legge contributed to this report.

