PUBLIC FORUM : WARNINGS ON QUAKE INSURANCE WENT UNHEEDED.

Politicians critical of the proposed rate structure for the California Earthquake Authority are finally coming out of the woodwork, now that they see it as politically advantageous to do so (``Quake rate battle looms,'') Daily News, Oct. 12.

But where were Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, former Congresswoman Bobbi Fiedler and City Councilwoman Laura Chick when consumer groups stood virtually alone in opposing the CEA?

Consumer advocates and a handful of legislators, like state Sens. Herschel Rosenthal, D-North Hollywood, and Tom Hayden, D-Los Angeles, had been warning this would happen for over one year now.

It is now becoming quite clear that the rates proposed by Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush, who along with the state's three largest insurers concocted the CEA, are not based upon seismic risk, but on the insurance industry's whim.

If politicians who stood idly by while the industry ramrodded the CEA through the Legislature want to really do something, they would call for its immediate repeal before it's too late and consumers are stuck with a multibillion-dollar bailout after a major quake.

- Philip Roberto

Los Angeles

On behalf of our approximate 6,000 members, the San Fernando Valley Association of Realtors has strongly urged Insurance Commissioner Charles Quackenbush to overrule the recommendation of insurance rates recently proposed by the California Earthquake Authority's three-member board. Our members are outraged, as is the public in general, regarding their inequitable rate structure.

It is apparent the entire San Fernando Valley, with the exception of Sylmar and the city of San Fernando, is being treated unfairly as compared to the rest of the state and other parts of Los Angeles. What justifications can possibly exist for levying lower rates for isolated parts of the Valley when, in fact, they are an integral part of the Valley scene?

The San Fernando Valley Association of Realtors, along with the California Association of Realtors, promoted the passage of this legislation only to receive the brunt of these unjust rate recommendations.

We call upon the San Fernando Valley community to urge Quackenbush to be fair and just in his deliberations and to reduce the board's recommended rates before Dec. 1, thereby protecting San Fernando Valley homeowners from the additional financial burden of these inequitable rates, in addition to the already tremendous suffering caused by the 1994 earthquake.

- John Maquar, president

San Fernando Valley

Association of Realtors

Van Nuys

Most insurance companies are not known for their ability to communicate with the public, consequently people are complaining about the new California earthquake insurance program without any fundamental knowledge of a very complicated undertaking.

The basic requirement of any form of hazard insurance - fire, windstorm, flood, earthquake - is to obtain a spread of risk. In other words, have enough policyholders spread out over a large geographical area so that if there is a major occurrence, a large percentage of those insured will not suffer a loss. In such a scenario, the insurance companies will have received enough premium income to cover the claims, expenses and, hopefully a reasonable profit. This large group of insureds also will reflect varying rates based on the location and structural damageability.

Insurance underwriters are also concerned with what is known as adverse selection. One of your readers recently observed that if people knew they were not in a known earthquake zone, then they probably wouldn't buy earthquake insurance. This is an illustration of adverse selection.

If only those who are in earthquake-prone zones and/or whose properties are very susceptible to quake damage are willing to purchase coverage, the insurance underwriters may either decline to provide coverage at all, or will, of necessity, charge much higher rates.

The insurance industry paid billions of dollars in earthquake losses yet the public still views them as the bad guys for not continuing to provide earthquake insurance at the lowest rates.

The only way to reduce earthquake insurance premiums would be an earthquake-peril surcharge on every dwelling in California or, better yet, every structure in the state that carries fire insurance.

Insurance companies are not public utilities. They are privately owned, for-profit businesses. California needs their participation in the new state earthquake insurance program. Otherwise, it will never succeed.

- Harlan Campbell

Tujunga

Stalling on Ward Valley

The Clinton administration's mishandling of the U.S. nuclear technology enterprise continues unabated, unaffected by the election campaign.

One of the worst of its recent misdeeds has been the appointment of John Garamendi as assistant secretary of the interior. He's the former insurance commissioner and unsuccessful candidate in the 1994 Democratic gubernatorial primary. The Clinton administration has obviously appointed him to stop California's Ward Valley project by any and all means.

The project has successfully met every technical and legal challenge made against it by its well-funded opponents.

The most recent approvals came from a special committee of the National Academy of Science, which found the site met radiological safety requirements, and by the California Supreme Court, which declared that the construction license for the Ward Valley facility was legally issued by the state.

By law, the California Department of Health Services issues licenses for and supervises the handling of low-level radioactive waste.

There are over 2,000 licenses. In the absence of Ward Valley, waste has been and is being stored at about 800 locations in California, many in populated areas. This situation constitutes a real, ongoing hazard, not a fanciful, imagined one.

For several years California has been trying to acquire 1,000 acres of the Mojave Desert from the Interior Department. Most of the area is for a buffer zone for the less than 100 acres to be occupied by the Ward Valley facility. Garamendi is now holding up this acquisition.

Many Californians recently saw and heard President Clinton say ``if you think you're not better off than you were four years ago, you should vote for Dole.''

Well, four years ago the then-secretary of interior, Manuel Lujan, was in the process of transferring the Ward Valley land to California. The Clinton administration reversed this. So, tens of millions of Californians have had to endure about four years of the hazard of widespread storage of accumulated waste.

Clearly, we were better off four years ago.

It's time to reverse this administration's reversal of the land transfer.

- Harry Pearlman

Northridge

Furs losing favor

the cold weather fast approaching, the debate on fur coats takes precedence once again. The furriers are, however, having a much harder time this year.

Increasing numbers of consumers are turning their backs on fur as they become aware of the horrendous suffering and cruelty involved in the trade.

The creation of every fur coat is a product of immense pain and suffering. Animals killed for fur are obtained in one of two ways, either by trapping or from fur ranches. Animals caught in leg-hold traps will endure a slow and excruciating death.

Fur ranching, no more humane, is characterized by barren cages, isolation, and environmental deprivation so severe that the animals often go insane.

Fur is indeed a dead investment. Don't be fooled. There's nothing fashionable or humane about cruelty and pain.

- Ms. Marion Winkler 

Sherman Oaks

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Photo

Photo: Chuck Quackenbush

Insurance commissioner