West Covina : Advisory Panelist Ousted

The City Council has voted to remove Nancy Adin from the Transition/Waste Management Commission in response to a letter she wrote to a local newspaper criticizing a proposed plan for the BKK landfill and adjoining property.

Councilmen Kenneth Chappell, Forest Tennant and Robert L. Bacon voted to remove Adin from the commission. Mayor Chester E. Shearer and Councilwoman Nancy Manners voted against the action. The council had voted earlier asking Adin to resign from the advisory oversight panel, but she refused.

A planning firm hired by the cities of West Covina and Walnut has proposed constructing office buildings, homes, commercial buildings and a golf course on 1,207 acres owned by the BKK Corp. in the two cities. The property includes the 583-acre landfill, which is to be closed in nine years.

Adin had criticized the BKK plan for its emphasis on development to produce “financial gains,” saying planners should consider recreation and other uses that would enhance the lives of residents.

Adin called her dismissal “nothing more than a blatant action against freedom of expression.

“It is apparent that the (council) does not want ideas, technical or otherwise, that might cause a slight disruption of plans that probably have already been mostly agreed to, particularly if those plans involve agreements between BKK and the council,” she said.

But Bacon said there were other things that prompted the city’s action, including her conduct at commission meetings.

“In the past, she’s been most disrespectful with people who disagree with her, using very crude language, and I didn’t see any improvement in that,” Bacon said.

Shearer said he voted against Adin removal because “the controversy that it may well cause could be more negative than leaving her on the commission.”