Senator Seeks Ouster of Air Quality Officer

An influential state senator is mounting a drive that lawmakers and environmentalists said Wednesday may lead to the ouster of one of the most outspoken clean air advocates on the South Coast Air Quality Management District board.

Sen. Ruben S. Ayala (D-Chino) said he wants to remove Sabrina Schiller as the Senate Rules Committee’s appointee on the AQMD because she angered local politicians by going into their communities and criticizing their voting records on air pollution issues.

“We don’t need anyone coming into our area and agitating the troops, and that is exactly what this lady does,” said Ayala, who is chairman of the Senate Agriculture and Water Resources Committee. “I think she’s a problem.”

Schiller acknowledged that she had appeared at meetings in San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties to report on the “bad” votes of fellow AQMD members, many of whom are also city and county officials.

But Schiller, an official of the Santa Monica-based Coalition for Clean Air, said that she is the victim of a “political vendetta” mounted by local officials. Two of the five members of the Rules Committee, Sen. William A. Craven (R-Oceanside) and Sen. Henry J. Mello (D-Watsonville) said they are inclined to go along with Ayala.

“I think I would be inclined to support my colleague, Sen. Ayala, on any nominees he may suggest,” Craven said. Mello agreed.

Representatives of some environmental groups, who normally support Schiller, have privately informed lawmakers that her “all-or-nothing” approach has set back the clean air cause.

One Sierra Club official, who asked not to be identified, said: “She has not worked real well or real closely with a lot of air quality activists in Southern California. She has been somewhat abrasive in her approach and not able to bring people together to accomplish a goal.”

Ayala has written Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), who is chairman of the five-member rules committee, asking that Schiller be replaced.

While Roberti would not comment, his press secretary, Robert Forsyth, offered assurances that anyone who replaced Schiller would be “a strong, committed environmentalist.” A decision is expected before the Legislature adjourns in August.

Schiller was appointed as a public representative to the AQMD board in 1983 by the rules panel. Other members of the district board, which enforces air pollution laws in Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties, are appointed by the Speaker of the state Assembly, the governor and local government agencies.

Mentioned by lawmakers and environmentalists as Schiller’s possible successor is Jane Hall, 36, chair of the department of economics at California State University, Fullerton. She is a director of the Planning and Conservation League and former assistant executive officer of the state Air Resources Board. Hall said she is interested in the appointment.

Schiller angered some local officials by publicly objecting to their votes on the AQMD against a proposed mandatory ride-sharing program to reduce smog. Schiller has long supported the program, which was defeated.

Ontario City Council member Faye Myers Dastrup, who sits on the AQMD and voted last fall against ride-sharing, said: “I’ve been offended by her coming in here and lobbying the people that I represent . . . trying to get them to lobby me to support something she supports. But I’m an elected person. I can’t afford the luxury of seeing something just from one point of view. I call that tunnel vision.”