Retrofitting of Portola Valley town buildings would cancel liability insurance Retrofitting of Portola Valley town buildings would cancel liability insurance (December 15, 2004)

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

A blunt ultimatum to the town of Portola Valley could well ground the efforts of a group of cost-conscious residents who support seismically retrofitting the 50-year-old building complex at Town Center rather than rebuilding nearby at a cost of $15 million.

In a December 3 letter to the town, Marcus Beverly, who handles the town's liability insurance, said that retrofitting the complex -- which sits within an active earthquake rupture zone -- would cancel the town's insurance.

"A retrofitted Town Center will not be covered," Mr. Beverly said in the letter, calling the use of "such high-risk structures" imprudent, immoral and a violation of the public trust.

Mr. Beverly is the risk manager for a group of 32 Bay Area governments -- including Portola Valley -- that pool money to self-insure themselves.

"The town would bear the entire (insurance) risk," he said, which could include bankruptcy should a catastrophe occur. A new building complex at Town Center -- presumably located on safer ground -- would be covered, he added.

Former mayor Bob Brown, a vocal retrofit advocate and a community activist on the topic, said the risk was "sort of hypothetical" and that he hasn't changed his mind. "I don't think that what (the council is) doing is very smart," he said. "I don't think the people of Portola Valley are willing to pay for it."
Lecturing the retrofitters

Mr. Beverly attended the December 8 meeting to answer insurance questions, but used the opportunity to admonish retrofit advocates.

"The first priority of government is to protect its citizens," he said to a council firmly behind the redesign plan. "There are people's kids in that library over there. It saddens me to think that any person who is a citizen of this town would place dollars over their lives."

Plan opponents -- particularly Bob Brown and his brother Allan -- have argued that the risks of everyday activities, such as driving a car, far outweigh the risk of earthquake-related injury or death in a Town Center building. Allan Brown brought it up again with Mr. Beverly.

Mr. Beverly accepted Mr. Brown's general point, but said that the proper analogy for the current buildings' occupants would be that of riding without seatbelts in a Ford Pinto.

Allan Brown said retrofit could prevent death and provide a pad that would serve as a "bridge to safety."

Mr. Beverly went on to criticize "a former mayor" who had helped craft an acclaimed earthquake safety ordinance, but who now supports retrofitting. "I would be ashamed of myself, frankly, for ignoring an ordinance that I championed," he said. "I could not live with myself."

The ordinance increased the building setbacks around earthquake faults, said Mayor Ed Davis. But Bob Brown -- who acknowledged that he is probably the former mayor Mr. Beverly referred to -- disputed the idea that he ardently supported the ordinance. "I don't remember championing (it)," he said. "I think he's mistaken in his facts."

Mayor Davis said Mr. Beverly's comments reflected views held by other Bay Area government officials, some of whom he said recently asked him -- "wide-eyed" -- whether there was truth to the rumor that Portola Valley was considering retrofitting buildings located in an earthquake rupture zone -- an area particularly vulnerable to sideways-shifting of the ground surface.
Related business

At the December 8 meeting, Town Administrator Angie Howard outlined proposals related to the Town Center for the next six months, all of which the council agreed to, including:

** Hiring a licensed appraiser for $8,000 to determine the value of the buildings. The appraisal would help determine whether the complex could be upgraded to current building codes at a cost of less than 50 percent of the appraised value, as required by state law when a building is located within 50 feet of an active fault.

** Commissioning schematic diagrams of the redesign plan and an environmental impact study, costing $350,000 and $65,000, respectively.

** Beginning a detailed discussion on how to finance a project estimated to cost about $15 million. The town's reserves are $4.25 million.

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