Killea Denies She Lobbied Speaker on Appointment

State Sen. Lucy Killea said Monday that she never lobbied Assembly Speaker Willie Brown to appoint Chula Vista City Councilman David Malcolm to the California Coastal Commission.

Killea, a San Diego Democrat, was responding to an article in the The Times on Sunday in which Brown was quoted as saying that Killea and other San Diego Democrats pressured him to name Malcolm, a Republican and a real estate developer, to the panel that regulates land use along the state’s coastline.

Malcolm, described to the FBI by convicted San Diego businessman Richard T. Silberman as a “bagman” for Brown, was first appointed to the commission in 1984 by the Assembly leader and was later reappointed.

Brown told The Times that he twice rejected Malcolm when Malcolm was nominated by city officials in San Diego County but that “Lucy Killea . . . lobbied me to accept the recommendation, and I did, and I’m really glad I did.”

Killea, who served four terms in the Assembly before moving to the Senate, said Monday that she wanted Brown to appoint Chula Vista Councilwoman Gayle McCandliss to the job. She said she “acquiesced” to the selection of Malcolm only after McCandliss failed to win the support of San Diego-area officials.

“I wanted to get a woman, and she was a good environmentalist,” Killea said. “She didn’t make the cut, and I didn’t pay much attention to it after that.”

Malcolm, she said, “was not someone I was advocating. I had another candidate. I’d have liked to have had someone who was a stronger environmentalist.”