Brown Expected to Oust Head of Coast Panel

Melvin L. Nutter, chairman of the California Coastal Commission and an avowed environmentalist, is soon expected to be forced off the panel by Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown Jr.

Environmentalists and some lawmakers, who view Nutter as the commission’s conscience, are livid and charge that the move could jeopardize the agency’s current delicate balance between maintaining coastal safeguards and further development.

“We feel if we lose Mel Nutter, we lose the commission,” said a highly placed member of the Sierra Club, who declined to be identified.

A combination of circumstances, some going back at least two years, appear to be leading to Nutter’s demise on the commission.

Among them are increasing unrest among developers that Nutter has been taking an unbending view of the environmental protection provisions of the state Coastal Act, a perception by the Speaker that Nutter does not keep confidences with Brown’s office, and a charge that Nutter has gone behind Brown’s back to orchestrate highly visible support for his retention on the agency, something that Nutter vehemently denies.

Some lawmakers say, however, that Brown has told them that Nutter, a commission member since 1981, has simply served long enough.

Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) said that Brown was adamant about Nutter’s removal.

“Willie has decided to remove Nutter,” Hayden said. “He told me that five years was long enough. . . . His position was firm.”

Expires Monday

Expiration of Nutter’s current two-year term--next Monday--comes at a time when the commission is facing some of the most critical coastal development decisions in its history, including Malibu’s controversial Land Use Plan, which is scheduled for a vote this month.

“I haven’t heard anything encouraging (about reappointment),” Nutter, 45, said in a telephone interview from his Long Beach law office. “I haven’t heard from (Brown) on what he’s going to do. (But) I think it’s a nice time to take a trip to the islands.”

Brown also is expected to replace Carolyn McNeil, the Coastal Commission’s vice chairman and a Los Angeles real estate agent who has backed Nutter’s enthusiastic support of the state Coastal Act. McNeil also is highly regarded by environmentalists.

The Coastal Commission has 15 members whose appointments are divided between the governor, the Senate Rules Committee and the Speaker of the Assembly.

Brown refused to return telephone calls from The Times inquiring into Nutter’s reappointment. But his press office said that reports that Brown would not reappoint Nutter were “accurate.”

Brown was “incensed” over the campaign recently mounted to retain Nutter, according to both a member of Brown’s staff and a knowledgeable Coastal Commission source.

That campaign was organized by Madelyn Glickfeld, a member of the Malibu Township Council, and other pro-Nutter interests concerned over the proposed Malibu local coastal plan. Glickfeld and her allies contacted such show business people as Ali McGraw, Cicely Tyson, Jack Lemmon, Jeff Wald and Mrs. James Garner and asked them to get in touch with Brown and urge him to retain Nutter.

Hayden defended such lobbying, saying it was more than what some might dismiss as a “wealthy entertainment elite” trying to protect their land from further encroachment by developers. “It’s the focal point of development politics on the California coast,” Hayden said.

Loss of Support

Environmentalists fear that if Brown does oust Nutter, it will be a signal to them that they are losing the support of powerful legislators at a time when Republican Gov. George Deukmejian is trying to dismantle the Coastal Commission.

Adding to their apprehension was Brown’s recent appointment to the Coastal Commission of David Malcolm, a Chula Vista city councilman. Malcolm, who has ties to the mortgage banking business, supported a controversial plan this year to allow coastal development in a San Diego County area containing valuable wetlands. Nutter opposed the plan.

Hayden was one of several assemblymen representing coastal districts who signed a letter urging Brown to reappoint Nutter.

“We simply wanted to voice our strong feelings . . . that we felt he should be reappointed,” said Assemblyman Dan Hauser (D-Arcata), who circulated the letter.

But one legislator said that although lawmakers have not heard from the Speaker since the letter was delivered a month ago, there were no plans to meet with him on the issue.

“We made our views known . . . and if the fire’s getting any hotter, we don’t want to get any closer,” he said. This was a reference to Brown’s obvious consternation with the campaign on Nutter’s behalf.

Brown could appoint someone else with equally strong environmental views or even delay the appointment of a new commissioner until after crucial commission votes later this year. Or, he could surprise many by finally deciding to keep Nutter.

But not even Nutter suggested he would be reappointed.