A debacle for coastal controls
When hundreds of people travel to a coastal hamlet to plead the case for a little- known environmental official, it catches attention. When that figure, Charles Lester, is fired behind closed doors, the outcome produces worries about what’s next at a state agency that controls coastal growth.
Until Wednesday night, Lester was the executive director of the Coastal Commission, the voterapproved agency charged with metering building and assuring access along the state’s 1,000 mile Pacific edge. Now there’s a second description of the commission: a factionalized group of appointed overseers who don’t want to discuss their direction.
By a 7 to 5 vote, the commissioners fired Lester, announcing the outcome after a secret session in Morro Bay on the Central Coast and following an hours- long public hearing with over a hundred speakers demanding Lester be saved. Thousands of letters poured in beforehand from environmental groups, past commission members and elected officialdom. The don’tdoit message fell flat.
Good luck finding his replacement. The next director will need to be a commission mind- reader, expert phone- call returner, and deft in- house politician to appease the members who prefer working in the shadows.
Those skills are likely required for any powerful job, but they also suggest that a compliant hack not a genuine professional will fit in. The coastal panel won’t quite say that or explain where he went wrong. That leaves a bigger, more troubling realization: Lester, a committed and maybe slightly tone- deaf defender of environmental policies was chewed up by demands that the flow of building permits move faster.
Since passage of the Coastal Act in 1976 that set up the commission, the state’s coastal future has become more complicated, varied and expensive. Everything from Navy sonar testing to beachfront parking meters comes under the commission’s sway. So do pricey coastal enclaves and access to private beaches in Malibu and San Mateo County.
The voters back then could hardly conceive of all these demands. But it was clear that they wanted a legal brake on coastal growth even if the red tape spooled out. Lester’s firing misreads this intention in a fundamental way.
Missing from the turmoil is leadership. Gov. Jerry Brown’s studied avoidance and the commission’s refusal to explain themselves are disturbing. Choosing an independent- minded successor could go a long way to restoring the now- tarnished agency. The governor, who controls four seats on the commission, was missing in action, fending off the furor as a personnel issue that didn’t merit his involvement.
Lester’s firing damages the commission’s work in profound ways. But there’s a consolation prize. The outpouring of anger and concern show that California wants vital and vigilant coastal protections and won’t stay silent.