Selection for Waste Board Job Protested : Appointments: Environmentalists urge state Senate to block Gov. Deukmejian’s choice of former Councilwoman Nan Drake.

Representatives of the Sierra Club and other environmental groups are urging the state Senate Rules Committee to reject the appointment of former Ventura City Councilwoman Nan Drake to a position on the state’s Integrated Solid Waste Management Board.

Members of the groups say that Drake, who was defeated in her bid for council reelection in 1989, is unqualified to fill the $90,000-a-year job because she has never served as an official of a nonprofit environmental group, as required under board bylaws.

“Nan Drake is a fine person and is familiar with sanitation issues,” said Mark Murray, the policy director for Californians Against Waste. “But she does not have an impressive record on the environmental issues . . . and she does not meet the criteria for serving on the board. We can’t turn the other cheek.”

Drake could not be reached for comment Friday. A spokesman for Gov. George Deukmejian said the governor is standing by his appointment and is urging the Senate committee to confirm Drake’s position when it meets on Monday.

The governor appointed Drake to the board Oct. 17 after the state Senate failed to confirm John E. Gallagher of Orange because environmentalists said he also did not meet the criteria.

Spokeswoman Anita MacKenzie said the governor believes that Drake’s involvement in Ventura’s recycling program as well as other local sanitation committees would make her a valuable member of the board, which oversees the state Waste Management Department.

“We are going forward with the process,” MacKenzie said.

But Murray and Gordan Hart, the Sierra Club’s California recycling lobbyist, said the appointment is a “slap in the face” of environmentalists and the Legislature.

“We don’t understand what the governor is doing,” Hart said. “His animosity seems to stretch so far that he can’t bring himself to appoint someone who meets the criteria. This is a grossly irresponsible act by the governor.”

But Ventura City Manager John Baker on Friday defended Drake’s appointment. Although she might not be an environmentalist, she would do a fine job on the board, Baker said. He said that without Drake’s dedication, Ventura would not have the comprehensive recycling program it has today. She served on the Ventura City Council from 1985 to 1989.

“Given her background and her intensity, she would do a good job,” he said.

Nevertheless, Ventura County environmentalists say while they respect Drake for her recycling efforts, that does not mean she should be appointed to the board.

“That slot is supposed to be filled by an environmentalist,” said Cynthia Leake, member of the Los Padres chapter of the Sierra Club. “Nan never was an environmentalist and she never will be. She is just not the right person for the job.”

Other groups that have come out in opposition to Drake’s appointment include: The League of Women Voters, the California League of Conservation Voters, the Environmental Council of Sacramento and the Environmental Coalition of Ventura County.

“We’re hoping Deukmejian will give Pete Wilson a shot at appointing someone to the board,” said Neil Moyer, the president of the Environmental Coalition.

The state board was recently established under a comprehensive recycling bill sponsored by Assemblyman Byron Sher (D-Palo Alto). It includes six full-time positions--four appointed by the governor and one by each house of the Legislature.

The bill specifies that one of the governor’s appointments be a representative of the trash-hauling industry and that another “has served as an elected or appointed official of a nonprofit environmental protection organization whose principal purpose is to promote recycling and the protection of air and water quality.”