Deukmejian’s O.C. Nominee to New Board Drawing Fire : Politics: Selection of a former can industry member for an environmental post on a panel created to promote recycling infuriated environmentalists.

Infuriated environmentalists on Wednesday accused Gov. George Deukmejian of betraying them--and possibly breaking the law--by appointing an Orange County retiree from the can industry to a post reserved by law for an environmentalist on a new state board created to promote recycling.

Deukmejian’s announcement that he appointed John E. Gallagher of Orange to fill the “nonprofit environmental protection” post on the new California Integrated Waste Management Board brought a barrage of protest from members of the Sierra Club, the Planning & Conservation League, and Californians Against Waste, all of whom decried Gallagher’s background in the beverage container industry and his past attempts to defeat environmental initiatives.

In particular, environmentalists identified Gallagher, a former executive director of the Industry Environmental Council, as the driving force behind a successful campaign by the nonprofit consortium of bottle, can, beer and soft-drink manufacturers to defeat a 1982 initiative aimed at encouraging recycling through a 5-cent deposit on all beverage containers.

They also said Gallagher, as current chairman of the waste management board that is being terminated, was responsible for directing a usually obscure government agency that came under criticism last year for being so ineffective and industry-dominated that the Legislature was forced to scrap it and start over again as a way to get a grip on the state’s solid waste crisis.

“Calling John Gallagher an environmentalist is like calling Exxon a coastal conservation group,” said Rod Miller, spokesman for Californians Against Waste. “John Gallagher is no environmentalist.”

Added Corey Brown, general counsel of the Planning & Conservation League, a statewide coalition of 120 environmental groups: “Gov. George Deukmejian has shown extreme bad faith. This is a position the law says is for the environmental perspective, and the governor is placing a former industry representative in it.

“It’s clearly against the letter of the law and Gov. Deukmejian’s own promises,” said Brown, adding that his group will fight Gallagher’s confirmation in the Senate.

But both Gallagher and a Deukmejian spokesman on Wednesday defended his appointment for the full-time job that pays $90,852 a year. The new appointment, good until January, 1993, comes with a significant raise over his $75,882 annual salary as chairman of the old board.

“I guess you have to define for me what is an environmentalist,” Gallagher, 75, said in a telephone interview from his home in Orange. “I don’t see anything that dedicates the job to a particular organization. Hell, I was in involved in voluntary nonprofit recycling before any of the environmentalists were born.”

Last year’s law revamping the waste board requires the agency, now given high-profile status, to cut the state’s solid-waste stream by 50% in 10 years.

It also gives the governor power to appoint four of its six members and requires one of his nominees to be someone from a nonprofit environmental group “whose principal purpose is to promote recycling and the protection of air and water quality.”

Gallagher said he “fits the bill 100%,” despite his industry background. He said that during his 47-year career at the Continental Can Corp., he helped direct tin can recycling efforts during World War II before working his way up to manager of public affairs, from which he retired in 1979.

He also owned a public affairs consulting firm between 1980 and 1985, during which his clients included the Can Institute and the Glass Packaging Institute, according to his appointment’s application form filed with the governor’s office.

Gallagher was also elected executive director of the Industry Environmental Council, the nonprofit container business group, from 1970 to 1982. It was his service to the group, which involved itself in recycling issues, that he said makes him qualified to hold the spot reserved for nonprofit environmental representative.

Robert J. Gore, a Deukmejian spokesman, agreed. “We feel that he fulfills the specific statutory requirements of the seat he was appointed to,” Gore said.

But members of generally recognized environmental organizations differed sharply with that interpretation, citing Gallagher’s opposition to the 1982 initiative. In fact, they say, it was only after Gallagher left the industry group that beverage container manufacturers agreed to the current state law setting a deposit of 2.5 cents per bottle and can.

“The Industry Environmental Council’s main purpose (under Gallagher) was to fight bottle bills and fight solid waste laws that environmentalists report,” said Mike Paparian, state director of the Sierra Club.

“So what the governor is doing is making a mockery of the new solid waste board that is supposed to include an environmentalist member,” he said. “Mr. Gallagher is not an official of any bona fide environmental group that I’m aware of.”

Gallagher said he decided on his own to submit his name to Deukmejian for the environmentalist nomination on the new board. He said he will “vigorously” fight to have his nomination approved by the state Senate despite opposition from others.

In addition to Gallagher, Deukmejian also nominated Sam A. Egigian of La Habra, who fills the post set aside for the solid waste industry. Wednesday’s appointments are the first two to the new board, which will go into effect as soon as Deukmejian makes his final two choices.

The other two spots on the board will be filled by selections made by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and the Senate Rules Committee.