For Once, Drilling Foes Play Tough

State Sen. David A. Roberti’s last-minute firing of a recalcitrant member of the California Coastal Commission, who was expected to vote for Occidental Petroleum’s Pacific Palisades drilling application, was not the obnoxious and arrogant display of power that some people are suggesting it was.

Nor is the legitimacy of Roberti’s dismissal of Commissioner Gilbert Contreras diluted by the fact that, in the end, another commissioner’s change of vote allowed Oxy to win approval of its drilling plan.

Roberti’s severe action, all but unheard of in the annals of state commissions, was an appropriate exercise of the popular will within a democratically established decision-making process. If there has been a singular abuse of process, it is in the manipulation that allowed Oxy to gain approval of its plan three years ago in Los Angeles City Hall against opposition from almost all elected officials who represent the Palisades and adjacent districts.

The 10-5 City Council vote in favor of Oxy in 1984 is remarkable because it was one of the extremely rare instances of council members forcing a project on a colleague--Marvin Braude--who clearly did not want it.

After being outmaneuvered in the council by Occidental, Braude had counted on Mayor Tom Bradley to stop the drilling project by vetoing it, just as the mayor had done in 1978. As it turned out, Braude’s reliance on Bradley was a bad bet. Unfortunately for Braude, his Maginot Line--the Coastal Commission--also folded.

Twelve members serve on the Coastal Commission--four each “at the pleasure” of the governor, the Assembly Speaker and the Senate Rules Committee. As the Senate president pro tem and the chairman of the Rules Committee, Roberti thus had effective control over the selection of the four commissioners.

It is not surprising that Roberti, whose district includes Hollywood, exercised that power in an attempt to stop Oxy. His protege and former staff member, Councilman Mike Woo, made opposition to the Oxy plan a centerpiece in his campaign to win the Hollywood council seat.

Roberti’s Senate colleagues and allies who represent the Palisades and nearby areas, Herschel Rosenthal and Gary K. Hart, also strongly oppose oil drilling there. The Palisades’ congressman, Mel Levine, flew in to plead with the commission to reject the application because approval would severely hamper congressional efforts to limit federal oil leasing in coastal waters.

Braude submitted a resolution from a majority of the City Council, including newly elected Ruth Galanter, asking that the application be returned to the city on procedural grounds. Even Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy and State Controller Gray Davis asked that the oil bid be denied.

With so much opposition, how did Occidental and its wily chairman, Armand Hammer, make its slow but steady progress toward drilling?

Oxy forces effectively exploited two favorable conditions. One is that the jurisdictional lines for land-use decisions do not change from project to project to reflect the constituency that will be affected. A recent Los Angeles Times poll suggests that if the Oxy project were put to a vote in West Los Angeles--where many residents will be subjected to its landslide risks, added traffic congestion, noise and increased smog--it would lose decisively. But these residents are allowed only one representative at City Hall--Braude, who had been dealt out of the picture by his council colleagues in 1984.

The second, related, Oxy advantage is that politicians at a distance from the Palisades drill site have little reason to vote against it. Neither Speaker Willie Brown nor his San Francisco district is affected by the project; had Oxy wanted to put oil rigs under the Golden Gate Bridge, we might have seen a different vote. As it was, three of Brown’s appointees--including commissioner Robert Franco, who had been expected to vote “no”--joined Gov. George Deukmejian’s appointees in a 7-5 vote for Oxy. Even Palisades Assemblyman Tom Hayden was unable to motivate Brown to help, even though the Oxy victory was a considerable loss of face for Hayden.

The Coastal Commission, established by voters in 1976 as the arbiter of the Coastal Act, was seen by Braude, Hayden and other drilling opponents as one of the last lines of defense against Oxy. Surely, they argued, the people of California did not pass the Coastal Act envisioning that the commission would allow oil-drilling operations to be situated in tourist and residential areas of the coast.

Roberti agreed. Before the vote, when it appeared that Senate Rules Committee appointee Contreras was going to support Oxy, Roberti replaced him with a sure “no” vote. He had the same compelling reason, protection of the coast from further degradation--which is what motivated the area’s local, state and congressional representatives to fight the project. But, unlike these other politicians, Roberti seemed to have the power to bring Occidental’s bid to an end--but only for a moment.