Conservancy Leader, Board Reach Accord Over Lobbying

Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, has agreed to consult more closely with the chairwoman of the state park-buying agency, heading off enactment of explicit restrictions on him.

Edmiston was criticized recently for lobbying on behalf of two builders who agreed to deed property for parks.

Madelyn Glickfeld, one of the conservancy board’s nine members, proposed imposing restrictions on Edmiston after he was publicly scolded by a state Coastal Commission member at a hearing last month for testifying in support of a Malibu luxury development. The project, which was vetoed, was a key element in a proposed land exchange that would create 5,700 acres of new parks.

Glickfeld urged that the board formally vote for approval before Edmiston is allowed to testify before another regulatory agency on a developer’s behalf.

At a conservancy board meeting Tuesday, a representative of two prominent Edmiston political allies--state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles)--said they strongly oppose Glickfeld’s proposals.

After meeting with Chairwoman Carole Stevens, Edmiston said he agreed to stay in “constant communication with the chair where policies are ambiguous,” such as negotiations with developers over the circumstances under which the conservancy might support their projects.

Stevens said the agreement with Edmiston means “the board has resumed, after several years, the policy-making authority at this agency quite clearly.”

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy oversees parkland in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.