Quake TV Spot a Blockbuster--in Cost

Call it the $853,184 minute.

A Long Beach consulting firm was paid that sum from a controversial earthquake foundation to make two educational videos and a 60-second public service announcement starring state Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush and Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal.

But the foundation, which is under investigation by California’s attorney general, spent wildly on other projects--including a football camp attended by two Quackenbush children--that drained its funds before the educational videos could be distributed.

So only the 60-second announcement featuring Quackenbush, wearing a whistle and a basketball referee’s outfit, and O’Neal, who donated his time, ever aired. Officials say the rest of the “Quake-Ready” project, which totaled $1.1 million and included an Internet site and an information phone line that have shut down for lack of funds, is a loss. All the public gets for the $853,184 videos is a minute of Shaq and Quackenbush.

“This could have actually been a good product that was distributed to students. Instead they threw away millions of dollars,” said state Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Daly City), chairwoman of the Senate Insurance Committee. Speier said she plans to show the spot at a committee hearing today.

Quackenbush has been subpoenaed to testify, as her committee probes his handling of $12.8 million from foundations he created with insurance company penalties after the Northridge earthquake.

The apparent waste of public money on the “Quake-Ready” project has earthquake researchers, who were promised some of those funds, fuming.

“I think we should have been one of the first organizations standing in a long line of nonprofit earthquake studies and outreach organizations to receive a portion of that fund,” said Jill Andrews, public outreach director for the Southern California Earthquake Center at USC, at a state Senate hearing last month.

After reading a newspaper article in August that reported Quackenbush’s announcement of new foundations to promote “earthquake safety and seismic science,” Andrews thought her organization was a perfect fit. The California Earthquake Center is associated with the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Andrews applied for $75,000 from Quackenbush’s main foundation, the California Research and Assistance Fund, to help pay for an hourlong documentary on earthquakes featuring scientists and other experts.

But after first being promised the money by a senior Quackenbush aide, Andrews said, she was given the runaround and eventually told there was no money left. As a result, she had to scramble to find funds from other sources.

Her 60-minute documentary, which eventually cost $150,000--about one-sixth the price of Quackenbush’s “Quake-Ready” videos--is scheduled to air on the Discovery Channel this summer. It is also slated for prime time on the Learning Channel and for distribution later in American classrooms.

Andrews represents one of at least four Southern California earthquake-related organizations that sought funding but were rebuffed by the Quackenbush organization. Meanwhile, the foundation handed out millions of dollars in grants to groups with little or no connection to earthquake research or education.

Foundation Assets Frozen by Court

Last month, a Sacramento court froze the paltry remains of foundation assets, about $14,000.

Recipients of the rest of the money included the Sacramento Urban League, which got $500,000, and the Skillz Athletic Foundation, operator of the football camp, which received $263,000 at the same time that Andrews was asking for money for her documentary.

“First of all,” said Andrews, who previously was earthquake programs manager at Caltech, “it is an appalling amount of money to pay for a video. With $150,000 I created an hourlong, prime-time video that will also be used for educational purposes all across the U.S. But I’m also angry because as a taxpayer it seems like such a gross waste of resources.”

Helen Holt, president of Summer Productions in Alexandria, Va., which produced the Discovery video, “Earthquakes: Seismic Sleuths,” said $150,000 is a typical budget for educational documentaries. “If you’re tight and plan carefully you can produce a pretty good show for that and still have money for a party when you’re done,” said Holt, whose production included on-location shooting in Turkish earthquake zones and aerial footage along California’s San Andreas Fault.

Among the others to receive foundation money were two Los Angeles organizations, Athletes and Entertainers for Kids, and “911-For-Kids” operated by Elise Kim of Long Beach. Athletes and Entertainers received $70,000 and “911-For-Kids,” an organization that teaches children to use the 911 emergency telephone number, received $45,000.

Kim is also co-owner, along with associate Rick Jong, of the private consulting company, Strategi LLC, that ran the “Quake-Ready” program designed to educate schoolchildren about what to do in an earthquake. Strategi received $1,111,246 from the foundation for the project. According to a detailed accounting provided to the attorney general, $853,184 went to the videos. The two educational films were 12 minutes long, aimed at different age groups. Both were also dubbed in Spanish.

In the production aimed at older children, O’Neal and Los Angeles Fox television anchor Christine Devine act as newscasters while a reporter does street interviews with children, earthquake experts and law enforcement officials. Quackenbush appears early in this video, wearing a suit in his stately Sacramento office.

Videos That Never Ran

The video for the younger age group features extensive animation and is accompanied by a rap song that tells children not to panic in an earthquake. “Don’t be runnin’, cryin’ or squawkin,’ ” the lyrics advise.

After viewing the two Strategi videos, Speier, who has been highly critical of Quackenbush and his handling of the foundations, said they fit a pattern of foundation grants to friends and associates of Quackenbush and his aides. Quackenbush is on the governing board of Kim’s Athletes and Entertainers group. The commissioner’s former deputy, George Grays, is listed as corporate counsel chairman. O’Neal is listed as president.

Grays was also on the board of the “911” organization.

“This is all about taking care of your friends,” Speier said. “Here was an outsider [Jill Andrews] with a sound proposal and a connection with the Discovery Channel, and they can’t even come up with $75,000 for her.”

Strategi attorney Jennifer Dauer said Kim is “extremely disappointed” that the “Quake-Ready” videos have never aired.

“In fact,” Dauer said, “when this whole thing came up Strategi wrote a letter to the foundation saying that they were ready to begin distribution. But that’s when they were told the money was frozen. Elise feels great frustration that this valuable program has been held up.”

*

The 60-second public service announcement featuring Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush and Los Angeles Lakers star Shaquille O’Neal can be viewed on The Times’ Internet site at https://www.latimes.com/quackenbush.