Seismic Report Delayed Again by State Panel : Quakes: Commission decides to reopen debate on its recommendations. Some members express new reluctance to cede authority to other officials.

The state Seismic Safety Commission on Wednesday halted publication of its long-delayed report to Gov. Pete Wilson on the Northridge earthquake, deciding instead to reopen debate on some key recommendations already made to the governor.

Striking a new attitude since the destructive urban earthquake in Kobe, Japan, one commissioner after another said it was vital that the commission retain leadership of California’s effort to mitigate quake damage rather than cede responsibilities to other state agencies.

Wilson had originally called for the report to be submitted last Sept. 1, but it has been repeatedly delayed by the complexities of the subject matter and disputes among commissioners.

“In effect, we are saying, ‘Stop the presses!’ ” said commission Chairman Paul F. Fratessa. He called a new public hearing for March 3 in Sacramento to consider dropping a recommendation that the governor convene a high-powered colloquium of experts to discuss what would constitute acceptable seismic risk levels for California buildings.

Instead, the commission may decide to organize such a colloquium itself. One key issue is whether building codes should be revised to keep buildings functional after strong earthquakes, rather than just to prevent them from collapsing. The functional standard would be more expensive to builders.

Other recommendations that commissioners said might go by the boards are those urging the governor to vest responsibility for carrying out seismic programs in other state agencies and to order the establishment of independent seismic safety advisory panels in many other agencies.

On Wednesday, several commissioners who had not objected to these ideas at a Dec. 8 commission meeting said they were unaware of precisely what would be recommended. They said they now felt that dispersal of responsibility for such matters would jeopardize the state’s quake mitigation efforts.

Commissioner Jerry C. Chang said he would seek to reopen other issues, expressing the view that the commission’s previous recommendations on bridge retrofits and base isolation protection systems for buildings have serious weaknesses.

Fratessa did not rule out expanding the hearing, although he expressed concern about long delays. He asked Chang to submit his views in writing.

State Sen. Alfred E. Alquist (D-San Jose), the author of the law that created the commission two decades ago, sent a letter to the commission Wednesday in which he said the panel already had the authority to do much of what it was recommending that others do. He said that implementing some of the proposals could lead to the elimination of the commission itself.

Alquist said it would be better to strengthen the 17-member commission’s clout by adding four legislators--a Republican and a Democrat from each house--to its membership.

A former commission chairman, Caltech engineering professor Wilfred Iwan, said, however, that he felt that vesting responsibilities in the governor’s office and powerful state agencies could advance the agenda of quake damage mitigation by placing better-known people in charge.

He criticized commissioners for second-guessing the report to the governor, but said that under the circumstances he saw no alternative to a public hearing on certain issues.

Commissioner Lloyd S. Cluff said the Northridge and Kobe earthquakes have moved quake mitigation to the forefront in California and that the seismic commission is the best means of providing a public forum and pushing reforms.

The commission last week released 36 pages of what it said would be a report of more than 200 pages.