6 County Oil-Drilling Foes Learn to Play the Washington Game

Pacing the towering marbled halls on Capitol Hill makes Laguna Beach City Councilman Robert Gentry “feel like a small-town kid going to the mountain.”

“You feel like a nobody waiting outside on the marble--waiting for the big boys inside to determine the future of your community,” Gentry said Wednesday out side a congressional subcommittee hearing on a disputed plan to open 1,350 square miles of California coastal waters to oil exploration, including 54 square miles off Orange County.

Seeing oil industry officials packing the rear rows in the hearing room showed “the power of their Goliath to our David,” said Gentry, one of six Orange County coastal officials to fly to the nation’s capital this week in an effort to persuade Congress to spare their shores.

All say it has been a whirlwind three days of nonstop meetings, of taxi shuttling and buttonholing officials on the run. While it has been exhausting, they believe it has been effective--Tuesday’s collapse of the tentative agreement between Hodel and the California congressional delegation notwithstanding.

“We made a gut-level decision last Friday that we ought to be here this week when all the negotiations would be going on, and I believe that’s why we are included in the agreement,” Laguna Beach Mayor Bobbie Minkin said of assurances made by senators and congressman that Orange County will be protected in any final agreement on offshore drilling.

“I’m hearing that from everybody,” Newport Beach Councilwoman Evelyn Hart said with glee. “Even Interior Secretary (Donald P.) Hodel made the comment in the hearing that everything south of Long Beach appears to be politically unacceptable. He was definitely, in my opinion, talking about Newport Beach.”

“That idea is catching on because six small-time elected officials are getting lost in the bowels of government,” Gentry said.

The group--two city council members each from San Clemente, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach--was the only such coalition of cities to pound the pavement here this week and was unusual for the size of the group, lobbyists for local government and environmental groups said.

“We’re playing the ‘Washington game’ --being strong, being present and being articulate,” Gentry said.

Playing that game has meant learning new techniques, he pointed out.

“I’ve learned what the term ‘Washington meetings’ means: They’re either in the men’s room, a hallway, under a tree or as one is exiting a room and must pass by you,” Gentry declared.

For example, as Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) headed toward a meeting between Hodel and the California congressional delegation Tuesday, Gentry grabbed his arm, introduced himself and thanked him for his work on the offshore drilling issue. He urged Panetta to help protect the Orange County coastline. “Panetta said: ‘Thank you. I’ll try my best.’ ”

After the same meeting and a stormy news conference, Gentry and Minkin collared Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) to discuss their concerns and ask questions. “Suddenly the lights went on and a national television crew started interviewing him,” Gentry said.

“There we were, on national television with our conversation interrupted. But both of us realized we’d better stay right there if we wanted to have our ‘Washington meeting.’ When the reporter was finished and the lights went off, Cranston didn’t miss a beat with us.”

Then there is the waiting, and such inconveniences as sitting on the floor because there aren’t any chairs.

“I’ve also learned the difference between terrazzo and marble,” Gentry said. “Marble is colder when you sit on it and harder when you walk on it. I’ll need a new pair of shoes when I get back. We’ve left a lot of California leather in the halls of the Cannon, Rayburn and Longworth buildings . . . .

“And I finally discovered where the ‘Members Only’ garment label came from. Everywhere you go here, there’s a sign that says “Members Only,” on the elevators, the parking lots, the bathrooms, even on building entrances. I didn’t know if it was a dress code or a rule.”

San Clemente Mayor Robert D. Limberg said there was nothing glamorous about the work or the pace the group has kept since arriving late Sunday.

“I’ve lived out of hotel rooms and suitcases for years, so this is no thrill,” said the retired marine colonel and development executive.

‘It’s No Thrill’

Minkin agreed. “It’s no thrill being in Washington if you see nothing but the tunnels under the buildings,” she remarked.

“It’s work that is not unpleasant, though, because I feel we’ve accomplished a great deal,” Limberg said. “It’s given me, at least, a perspective on the oil-leasing program that we never would have gained back home. Now, it is clearly being regarded as a national-resource issue, not just a California issue.”

San Clemente officials remain opposed to a plan to move five Oceanside-area tracts to the unpopulated shores of Camp Pendleton in northern San Diego County.

“We are not at all pleased with that because it simply moves the Oceanside tracts to our doorstep--they’ll be just four miles away from us,” Limberg said.

But recognizing that many of the parties to the negotiations already have agreed to the exchange, including the Department of Navy, Limberg said his council wants to ensure that no Orange County tracts are swapped with additional tracts off Camp Pendleton.

Limberg’s colleague, San Clemente Councilman Ken Carr, rushed into an office near the subcommittee hearing Wednesday, puffing on a cigarette and pacing. The coalition representatives already had canceled a meeting with Rep. Edward Roybal (D-Los Angeles) because the hearing was behind schedule. Attention quickly turned to making their afternoon plane at Dulles International Airport about 40 minutes away, traffic permitting.

Worried About Flight

“I don’t want to miss that flight,” Limberg told Carr.

The hectic schedule has left the group little time to stand back and assess their situation, they said.

“It’s been a blur of faces to me,” said Limberg. “I have 20 pages of notes on a legal pad and a pocket full of calling cards. On the way home, I’ll spend the whole time consolidating my impressions for my report to the council and the local press.”

Newport Beach Councilwoman Hart said she would be doing the same because she has to report not only to her mayor but also to the local chapter of the League of Cities, of which she is president.

“It weighs rather heavy on me whether we’re using the taxpayers’ money wisely, but I think this trip has been important,” Hart said. “I think the members of the coalition being here is making a difference.”

Minkin, asked what Laguna Beach residents would think of the cost of the trip to the nation’s capital, said: “The cost is infinitesimal compared to what will happen to our tourist economy if there is drilling off our shores . . . .

“We were not here when the other agreement was made in July. We should have been. If we had been, maybe we would have been included.”

Whether they have made a difference remains to be seen. But the coalition’s Washington lobbyist, E. Del Smith, observed that their low-key, yet persistent approach has been well received.

“For such a feisty group, these people have really held back. They’ve stayed very conservative --which is a good thing around here,” Smith said, adding:

“The main thing is that they’ve come here. The squeaky wheel is the one that gets the grease.”