Reasons for Anti-Edmiston Vote

Serving on the board of Save Open Space, I feel compelled to explain my reasons for voting to request the removal of Joe Edmiston from the directorship of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

I believe Edmiston has abused the powers of his office and has acted in direct violation of the state Legislature, which established the conservancy.

Edmiston’s job is to uphold the Santa Monica Mountains Comprehensive Plan, protecting lands within the Santa Monica Mountains Zone as a single ecosystem, to be held in trust for present and future generations. Instead, he is endorsing and lobbying for acceptance of a land-swap deal that will result in highway construction on national parkland and massive urban development on protected land.

The National Park Service lists the Jordan Ranch as a highly desirable acquisition. Development of the Jordan Ranch will mean destruction of a valuable, ecologically sensitive area, obliteration of the region’s last remaining oak forest, negation of the NPS ever acquiring the whole property and inestimable damage to the adjacent Cheeseboro Park (both from the highway construction and proximity of dense urban development).

Edmiston seems to be operating from the premise that the Jordan Ranch development is inevitable and that he should negotiate the “best” deal possible. I cannot understand how the director of the conservancy could be operating from such a premise. The Jordan Ranch is protected under federal, state and county legislation. Edmiston ought to be fighting to uphold the laws that protect it, not advocating the developer’s position.

I concede that there have been positive accomplishments under Edmiston’s directorship. But recent history has exposed two glaring examples of what can happen when a public figure refuses to let the laws constraining the powers of his position get in the way of fulfilling personal ideology.

I believe that public officials must operate within the bounds of the law and that Edmiston must be held accountable for his actions. In the letter to Gov. George Deukmejian, SOS cited the specific sections of legislation we believe Edmiston has violated. We believe he has no authority to be entering the conservancy into agreements that ignore federal and state legislation and that aid in the destruction of protected lands. This is why I voted to respectfully call for his removal.

VIRGINIA M. POLLACK

Agoura