New Head of Quake Authority Is Criticized

The governing board of the California Earthquake Authority on Friday named Greg Butler its permanent chief executive officer, drawing an unusually sharp blast from state Senate Democratic leader Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward).

Lockyer called Butler, who has been serving as interim head of the state insurance agency, “a young political hack with little or no expertise in insurance or earthquakes” and charged that the appointment is “a slap to California homeowners.”

“It is outrageous. It is corrupt. It is government at its sleaziest,” Lockyer said.

Butler, 31, and a former campaign manager to state Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush, responded that he was “puzzled” about Lockyer’s remarks. He said his salary of $150,000 a year is commensurate with similar staff positions in state government and noted that he has been performing the job for six months.

“I’ve never even met Lockyer,” he said.

Public hearings begin Tuesday into the earthquake insurance rates being charged by the authority, which oversees the state’s earthquake insurance plan. Rates in Lockyer’s district in the San Francisco Bay Area are among the highest in the state, and Lockyer has long been critical of them, charging that property owners in the Bay Area are unfairly paying much more than those in the Los Angeles area.