After nearly three decades as a baker, Cindy Gershon is not burned out. Her business may be, however, following the smoky failure of the electrical cables that carry the power into her Walnut Creek bakery and an ongoing dispute with PG&E over exactly whose responsibility this is.
Gerson, who cooks free healthy meals for children and senior citizens at the Walnut Creek Jewish Community Center (JCC), was doing what she always does when this whole situation started in February — baking. On the sixth of that month, she noticed smoke billowing out of the metal grate in front of her 26-year-old business -- the Sunshine Bakery. She called 911, and the fire department arrived and summoned PG&E, which cut off power to the bakery on the pole across the street.
It was at that point that Gershon's story took a turn for the bizarre. PG&E claimed the failed underground power cord belonged not to them but the property's landlord, Nancy Nebeker. Nebeker denied that, and a standoff ensued — leaving Gershon's bakery, catering shop and a neighboring pizza parlor without power.
The shutdown triggered a series of unfortunate events for Gershon and Pinky's Pizza owner, Tom Beisheim. The two rented generators to power up their ovens once again — yet after running them for a month at $3,000 a day, Gershon's insurance provider informed her that since it was uncertain that a "fire" knocked out her power, it would not pay off the bill.
What's more, Gershon and Beisheim's triple-net lease with Nebeker — a lease in which the renters are responsible for all taxes, insurance and maintenance expenses in addition to rent — could stick them with responsibility for keeping up underground wires. All told, Gershon and Beisheim have quickly racked up six figures of debt.
"I took out a loan on my house to cover all the excess labor and stuff," said Gershon, who has not yet let go of any of her roughly 70 employees. "It's been like a nightmare."
Complicating matters, Beisheim claims that he witnessed several PG&E workers in a company truck fixing the disputed cord back in 1990. PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno said the company has no record of this fix, which he claims was undertaken by PG&E workers in their own time and with their own truck.
While the City of Walnut Creek has confirmed that it cannot locate any documentation backing PG&E's claim it does not own the underground cords, Moreno suggests the city "dig in its files a little more closely."
He shared with me a Walnut Creek circuit map from 1962 — the year the cord was installed — in which it is clearly designated as "CUG": Customer Underground. Moreno also sent me the original PG&E work order to "connect customer riser" and documentation from Walnut Creek's building department.
But Gerson's laywer, Mark Webb, is not impressed. He even tipped his legal strategy. "I'm planning on ignoring it," he said of the PG&E documents.
"Implicit in the fact you pay PG&E every month is that they're going to fix your problems," said Webb. "And if they're not going to and there's some unique situation, it's not something you talk about 26 years later. They should have said something. They should have put people on notice and not at the time of a crisis where they can look up some obscure record from 45 years ago and say this is not our problem -- it's yours."
Webb complained that PG&E has only aided his client after they appealed to the media. Following a televised March rally for the bakery and pizzeria, PG&E restored power to the shops after it had been out for six weeks. Moreno said that job required 62 man hours, and was done out of "goodwill."
While Beisheim has re-opened his store, Gershon has not as she is currently uninsured. A mediation session between Webb and PG&E's attorneys is scheduled for today.
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