Coastal Commission ignores Assembly appointment

ap on Riverside Press Enterprise ^ | 6/12/06 | Samantha Young - ap

[NormsRevenge]

SACRAMENTO

The Coastal Commission has told an appointee of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez that she should not show up to vote on a high profile Pebble Beach golf development because her appointment was made in violation of state law.

The commission's executive director, Peter Douglas, said Monday that Elizabeth Brem's appointment as an alternate was not sanctioned by the commissioner she would represent. She agreed to skip the meeting, Douglas added.

Nunez last week named four people to serve as commission alternates just days before the panel was set to vote on the Pebble Beach development, which is backed by actor Clint Eastwood, former Major League Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth and retired golfer Arnold Palmer.

Nunez dismissed allegations that his last-minute appointments were made to influence the vote, saying he did not "know what's going on at the commission" regarding the development.

"Somebody is reading into this more than they should," the Los Angeles Democrat said.

He said he made the appointments to add diversity to the commission.

The Pebble Beach Co., which hosts an annual fundraiser for the Democratic Party, is pushing a plan to build an 18-hole golf course, a driving range, an equestrian center, 160 new hotel units, a conference center and underground parking.

But the project has met resistance from Coastal Commission staff members, who wrote in a March report that the projects was "highly problematic" because it would destroy sensitive pine trees in the Del Monte Forest.

Douglas said state law provides that only commissioners can name alternates to vote in their absence. And those alternates "serve at the pleasure of the member who appointed him or her," he added.

Nunez appointed Brem to serve as an alternate to Commissioner Steve Padilla, the mayor of the city of Chula Vista, who plans to skip Wednesday's vote because his daughter is graduating from the sixth grade.

In an interview Friday, Padilla said his existing alternate, David Allgood, the Southern California director for the League of Conservation Voters, would vote in his place.

Brem, an Orange County attorney who handles commercial and securities litigation, did not return a phone call seeking comment Monday, but Douglas said she had agreed not to attend Wednesday's commission meeting in Santa Rosa.

Nunez also appointed San Diego public consultant Adi Liberman and Seaside Mayor Ralph Rubio as alternates and reassigned Allgood to another commissioner.

The Legislature in 2003 changed the rules governing Coastal Commission appointments in response to a lawsuit that challenged the legitimacy of legislative leaders appointing eight of the 12 commission members.

In that legislation, lawmakers set fixed terms for the commissioners, reducing the likelihood that legislative leaders could influence their decisions by threatening to remove them from the commission.

"All of our appointees are fixed terms to avoid the appearance and the possibility of a commissioner being threatened with removal if they did not vote a certain way," Douglas said.

A spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, which represents the commission, said state lawyers were evaluating the statute.

Douglas said Deputy Attorney General Jamie Patterson had informed the commission staff she would not swear in Nunez's appointees unless they were backed by the commissioner they were named to represent.

The commission, established by ballot measure in 1972 and made permanent by the California Coastal Act in 1976, makes key decisions on coastal development, public access, offshore drilling and marine habitat protection.

The agency has made its share of enemies, especially among seaside residents and real estate developers who say the panel routinely tramples on private property rights and harbors an extreme environmental agenda.

[DB]

Dump the coastal commission in its entirety.