Coastal Commission turmoil finally settles with Clark pick

The right appointee is crucial to conserving California's coast

The process of insuring good appointments to the California Coastal Commission has never been easy. This year, however, that journey had more ups and downs than a roller coaster.

In 2003 several state and regional environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club and the Orange County League of Conservation Voters, supported Debbie Cook from Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach City Council member Toni Iseman as two likely candidates for the Coastal Commission seat.

Cook is a well-know leader who is respected in the Sierra Club and other conservation organizations. She helped with preservation efforts at Bolsa Chica Mesa and other Orange County environmental issues. However, Iseman was eventually picked.

But her two-year term was rocked with poor decisions, including her aggressive support for a destructive housing project at Bolsa Chica and the unprecedented environmental damage unleashed at the Dana Point Headlands. Iseman's Coastal Conservation score was 34 percent out of 100, and over her commission tenure Iseman had the largest single annual conservation score decrease of any sitting commissioner. (For the voting records of the entire Coastal Commission going back over five years, go to www.coastwatcher.com.)

Her low conservation voting score and anti-coast votes on important issues built up a groundswell of opposition from those who were once her biggest supporters. When it came time for her reappointment in early 2005, activists were ready to try for someone better. Iseman still has respect from many environmentalists, however, for her opposition to the destructive Orange County Toll Road and her efforts to protect the beaches in Laguna.

In seeking to fill Iseman's seat, Orange County environmental organizations again supported Cook of Huntington Beach. They lobbied California Senate leader Don Perata and locally through environmental leaders such as state senator Joe Dunn from Santa Ana (who has a 100 percent League of Conservation Voters score) and Assemblyman Tom Umberg. While many supported Cook, it was not to be, and Senator Perata picked Manhattan Beach councilman Jim Aldinger.

The Sierra Club had also supported Aldinger. He had connections with the Ballona Wetland Land Trust and was someone who cared about the environment. However, he was soon asked to resign by Senator Perata for his failure to disclose a restraining order filed against him by a former girlfriend 10 years ago.

Sierra Club and environmental activists again lobbied for Cook, and again Cook was overlooked when in late October Perata appointed Rancho Palos Verdes mayor and Council member Larry Clark to fill the position.

Clark serves on the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy campaign and has spoken out for coastal protection. The Angeles Chapter's Palos Verdes-South Bay Group has enthusiastically supported him. Regarding coastal protection efforts in Palos Verdes, Clark recently stated, 'If we don't preserve this land by acquiring it for public use as open space, there's no question it will be developed. If we're successful, over 6 million people in the L.A. basin will be within an hour of one of the largest open space coastal preserves between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Mexican border.'

The California Coastal Commission was established in 1972 to protect the coast and ocean for environmentally sustainable and prudent use. It is comprised of 12 voting members and four non-voting members appointed equally by the governor, the Senate Rules Committee, and the Speaker of the Assembly. Of the 12 voting members, six are elected officials and six are drawn from the general public. In order to ensure statewide representation, each of the following geographical areas is designated to have one local elected seat: San Diego, South, South Central, Central, North Central, and North Coast regions. Orange County and Los Angeles are grouped into one region.

Having an environmentally aware commissioner is considered crucial by coastal activists since the Coastal Commission will be considering big issues in the future, such as the plan by a developer to destroy more than 17,000 native Monterey pine trees to build a golf course and mansions at Pebble Beach in Monterey County. They will also be deciding the future of several hundred acres in South Laguna Beach with respect to The Athens Group development of Hobo Aliso Ridge and Canyon.

Environmentalists express hope that Clark will do well to protect the coast.

For more information, visit the Great Coastal Places Campaign at www.sierraclub.org/ca/coasts.

Mark Massara, Director of Coastal Programs for the Sierra Club, contributed to this story.