Acting Head of AQMD Offered Job on Permanent Basis by Split Board

James Lents, who has been acting executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, has been offered the job permanently by the AQMD board on a split vote after an all-day closed session Friday.

Lents, 43, was among five candidates under consideration for the top job, including Mary D. Nichols, former chairwoman of the state Air Resources Board who emerged as the second favorite.

Board members said they voted 8 to 5 to offer Lents the job, the bare minimum required on the 14-member board. Later, in a public session, the board voted 12 to 1 to confirm the initial vote.

Pleased by Offer

Lents said after the vote that he would not decide on the offer until he meets with the board’s personnel committee after Thanksgiving. He currently earns $75,000. Lents, however, said he is pleased with the offer.

“I came here because there was a big job to do, and I certainly intend to accept the job if I believe I can be a positive force in solving the problems,” Lents said. “I think we’re at an important juncture here at the district.”

Lents was director of Colorado’s Air Pollution Control Division from 1979 until he joined the AQMD in April, 1986, as acting executive officer.

The board’s offer comes at a time when the four-county district has come under increasing fire from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies for failing to live up to its plans to implement additional emission-control measures.

EPA Audit

The district is participating in an audit by the EPA and state Air Resources Board. In addition, state Assembly and Senate committees have either held or are planning oversight hearings into the 10-year-old district’s operations.

The AQMD enforces state and federal clean air laws in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Two board members who voted for Nichols said they will support Lents, but added that they would have preferred “new leadership” under the present mandate to implement new emission controls. Those two board member are Larry Berg, an appointee of Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), and Norman Zafman, an alternate to Los Angeles County Supervisor Edmund D. Edelman.