Camarillo State Hospital to Get Retrofit Funds : Seismic safety: Approved after the 1989 quake, Prop. 122 targets weak public buildings, but as money has been slow to materialize, the state program has been criticized.

Five years after passage of a $300-million bond act to retrofit seismically weak public buildings, money is finally starting to break loose for the Camarillo State Hospital and other state-owned structures ranked as risky in a big quake.

The seismic retrofit program, approved by voters as Proposition 122 in the aftermath of the devastating 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, has been the target of criticism for its sluggish progress.

Even with this year’s allocation, no money will have been released for construction--only for sketching out preliminary plans and drawings to outline work yet to be done.

In the case of Camarillo State Hospital, construction is still about two years away. But state budget negotiators have signed off on allocating $414,000 to draw up plans to strengthen nine connected concrete buildings as part of the $9.5-million project.

The buildings house patients, medical and surgical units, an X-ray lab, dental clinic and an operating suite, said Lanette Castleman, a hospital spokeswoman.

Castleman said that even though state engineers have deemed the buildings potentially hazardous in the event of a strong temblor, hospital administrators believe the structures are sturdy enough for patients to continue residing there.

In addition to the earmarked Camarillo hospital funds, a legislative conference committee has signed off on another $700,000 or so in grants for six Ventura County projects ranging from fire station upgrades to emergency operations systems.

The allocations are folded into the state spending plan that budget negotiators are whipping up to present to the full Assembly this summer.

Although highly politicized pork-barrel projects are likely to spark rancorous debate, the Proposition 122 funds are expected to be spared and win easy endorsement by lawmakers and the governor.

In fact, the state budget that Gov. Pete Wilson outlined in January envisioned spending the entire $165 million currently available under Proposition 122. About $9.5 million of that was tagged for Camarillo State Hospital.

But the Legislature’s independent analyst, Elizabeth Hill, recommended tighter controls on the money by paying for projects only one step at a time.

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Consequently, the gusher in Wilson’s budget was reduced to a trickle that amounts to $15 million to $28 million--enough to cover plans and drawings to retrofit 25 state-owned buildings identified by structural engineers as the most seismically vulnerable in California.

Meanwhile, as the public was waiting to see results from a program it approved in 1990, at least $7 million was spent on administration, consultant studies and engineering reports, said Joel McRonald of the Office of State Architect. Of that, $3 million went to the Seismic Safety Commission to compile state-of-the-art data on earthquake strengthening.

Seeing the funds get tangled in a thicket of reports and contracts while buildings stood untouched proved frustrating to some members of the commission.

“To me, this is a problem,” said Robert Wirtz, a Santa Monica Fire Department captain who is a commissioner. “I say, let’s get on with upgrading the buildings. The money is just sitting there and we are into analysis paralysis.”

Last year, not even the scare of the Northridge earthquake moved legislators to act. A bill to unhand the funds failed, pushing the task forward into the current fiscal cycle.

To avoid a snag again this year, state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) resurrected last year’s legislation and vowed to kick it into gear if state budget talks run aground.

“We don’t want any more delays,” Polanco legislative aide Mark Carrel said. “The senator felt that, even if the budget is stalled, this bill can go through and make sure we’re protecting human lives.”

Of the original $300 million approved by voters, $50 million was set aside for grants to cities and counties to fix up local government buildings.

The grants are expected to include $96,875 to upgrade Ventura’s Fire Station No. 2; $102,446 for an emergency operations center in Ventura; another $123,563 for communications systems for Ventura; $62,306 for a fire department communications center in Camarillo; $265,844 for an emergency evacuation center in a Fillmore school gymnasium; and $59,625 for fire stations in Fillmore.