State, FEMA Billions Apart on Quake Aid : Recovery: Repairs at public buildings must wait while officials debate whose standards should be met.

Several billion dollars in federal earthquake rebuilding funds remained in limbo Thursday as federal and state officials continued to debate just what kind of repairs are necessary to make damaged hospitals, schools and other public buildings safe.

State and county officials said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was taking an inadequate “patch and paint” approach that could endanger people in future earthquakes, while federal officials argued that California is trying to get taxpayers to pay for millions more than safety requires.

FEMA officials met Thursday with representatives of Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the city of Los Angeles to try to resolve differences, but the result for the most part was summed up by John P. Carey, general counsel for FEMA: “We have agreed to disagree.”

“There is no sense . . . in spending billions to bring buildings up to a standard where they are as vulnerable as before,” said Richard Andrews, director of the governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

However, Bill Tidball, chief of staff of FEMA, said the agency intends to fund rebuilding at a safe level. “Health and safety is not an issue here,” he said.

Typical of the dispute is the county’s Psychiatric Hospital at County-USC Medical Center. The county and the state’s Office of Emergency Services argue that the structure needs $64 to $65 million in rebuilding, while FEMA says it needs just $1.2 million in repairs.

“At the Psychiatric Hospital you’ll see cracks in the wall,” said Sandra Davis, assistant chief administrative officer for the county. “On the surface it may look minimal. [FEMA is] saying you can fill [the cracks] with epoxy and paint over and it will be fine. We say you have to go into the structure and shore it up.”

Repairs at 14 county and private hospitals, including County-USC Medical Center, UCLA Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai, are at stake in the dispute. About 143 school classrooms remain closed during the debate. About 400 county facilities have structural damage in excess of $2 billion, said Davis, while the city of Los Angeles estimates that its structures need $800 million in repairs.

Both sides agree on this much: Federal law says funding must be made available to rebuild seriously damaged buildings to their pre-earthquake condition, and also up to current local standards that might be higher than when the buildings were put up.

What the two sides cannot agree on is just what those current standards are. The state says it is asking only for building standards that are clearly stated in state law. But FEMA argues that the state is asking for repairs beyond those enumerated in state code--repairs that are interpretations of the code rather than explicitly spelled out.

The state and federal governments also disagree on how extensive damage is at many locations. Damage deemed major would require one type of repair under state law, while minor damage would take a different level of repair.

In the case of LAUSD schools, FEMA says the schools need an additional $2.2 million in repairs; the district says it needs $7 million.

At the Holmes Middle School, the school district claims that one building needs $2.6 million to bring it up to code. FEMA says it needs just $847,000 in repairs.

At Marvin Ave. Elementary School on the Westside, where two buildings are still closed because of earthquake damage, the school district says state code requires new concrete beams installed under the length of the buildings in order to stabilize them. FEMA says that less extensive rebuilding would do the job.

Despite these differences, Francis Nakano, special assistant to the school superintendent, said, “We’re very satisfied” with the results of the meeting with FEMA.

The agency has promised more inspectors to speed up the process of applying for funding.

FEMA and the city remain $100 million apart in their preliminary estimates of how much repair City Hall needs. The city’s Metropolitan Water District has made $28 million in repairs to a power generating station in Sylmar that FEMA so far has not decided to fund.

FEMA has dealt with 650,000 applications for individual disaster relief and distributed $1.4 billion in assistance to individuals and $1.6 billion to public agencies. The bulk of remaining work lies in the public sector, officials said.