O.C. Appointee Cuts Swath of Political Controversy

For Roger D. Slates, last week’s meeting of the California Coastal Commission offered a forum to display his considerable political skills on his hometown stage.

During the four-day session, Slates--a Deukmejian appointee to the commission--had a busy agenda. To the alarm and outrage of environmentalists, he successfully led moves to keep controversial Pierside Village alive, to kill a commission staff proposal to toughen restrictions on illegal housing encroachments at Sunset Beach, and to delay action on commission staff proposals for tougher protective zoning of former wetlands in Huntington Beach.

“Roger, because he’s an alternate commissioner, doesn’t get to come to many commission meetings--maybe once a year--but when he does, he knows coastal issues, and he knows the process, and he’s effective,” said Steve MacElvaine, Coastal Commission vice chairman

Most everyone agrees with MacElvaine’s assessment. But critics charge that Slates, who is also a member of the Orange County Planning Commission, uses his talents against the environment.

Said Debbie Cook, spokeswoman for Huntington Beach-based Save Our Parks: “Roger Slates is very effective. He’s the hub of a lot of political spokes in Orange County, and it’s through him that a lot of back-room dealing gets done. I think he’s the worst kind of politician.”

Tom Pratte, former executive director of the environmental group Surfrider Foundation, called Slates a “political power broker. He makes arrangements,” Pratte said. “And as you could see from his results on this week’s meeting of the Coastal Commission, Roger Slates is very effective.”

Slates, 61, is a semi-retired realtor who has cut a controversial swath through Huntington Beach and Orange County politics for more than 20 years, usually because of his pro-development efforts.

Critics say one of the bitterest ironies in the state is that Slates, who opposed the initiative that led to formation of the state Coastal Commission, is now a member of that body. In a 1972 interview, Slates conceded that he had opposed Proposition 20, the initiative that led to the Coastal Act and creation of the commission.

Mel Nutter, a Long Beach attorney who was chairman of the Coastal Commission from 1982-85, said Friday that Slates “never liked the Coastal Act.”

“I remember him well,” Nutter added. “My memories of Roger are of his wheeling and dealing . . . favoring massive and formidable (development) projects.”

Nutter charged that former Gov. George Deukmejian--a frequent critic of the Coastal Commission--appointed Slates to the commission in 1983 to try to reign in that body. Slates refused to be interviewed for this article.

Admirers of Slates said he is leery of some journalists because of what they call “unfair” news stories about him in the past.

Slates figured prominently in the news last year because of a controversy over a private dinner at which he and another member of the Orange County Planning Commission were said to have solicited campaign donations for a candidate for the Legislature.

Those attending the private dinner included representatives of Orange County developers, at least one of whom had a project pending before the County Planning Commission.

Critics charged that Slates was guilty of a conflict of interest--trying to get campaign funds from developers who needed Planning Commission support. The Orange County district attorney, however, found insufficient evidence to warrant criminal charges.

Nonetheless, Slates drew rebukes, including some from County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, who appointed him to the Planning Commission. Wieder, in a letter to Slates, wrote: “It was totally inappropriate and poor judgment for you to have been involved in such a political activity.”

It was not Slates’ first brush with controversy. He is a veteran of the Huntington Beach Planning Commission as well as the County Planning Commission, and he has battled opponents in both posts.

In the early 1970s, then-Councilwoman Norma Gibbs charged that Slates bent over backward to accommodate developers who had business in Huntington Beach.

“He’s not sensitive to other person’s requests unless they are developers,” she said. In 1971, a group of citizens petitioned to have Slates removed from the panel, but the City Council rejected the request by a vote of 4-3.

Having survived that scrape, Slates was appointed to the County Planning Commission in 1972. The appointment was protested by a group called the Environmental Coalition, which also charged that Slates was excessively pro-development.

“Maybe people disagree with me--that’s the name of the game,” Slates said in response to the environmental group’s criticism. “But I’m nobody’s man. Nobody’s going to tell me what’s what.”

Slates kept his post.

In 1989, a complaint was filed with the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission alleging that Slates, while on the Huntington Beach Planning Commission, violated state conflict-of-interest laws. The complaint charged that Slates had voted on a matter that financially benefitted Huntington National Bank, of which he is a stockholder.

A spokeswoman for the FPPC in Sacramento said Thursday that the accusation against Slates remains under investigation and has not been resolved.

While Slates has his critics, some observers praise his work.

“I respect the guy as a professional,” Mike Adams, Huntington Beach’s director of community development, said in an interview Friday. “When he was chairman of the (city) Planning Commission, the commission ran better than probably under any other chairman because he would move meetings right along.”

But critics of Slates said his “efficiency” in public office comes at the expense of ordinary citizens.

Doug Langevin, a Huntington Beach businessman and a founder of the slow-growth group Huntington Beach Tomorrow, charged that Slates was “efficient” in shutting down the possibility of public debate over Pierside Village at the Coastal Commission meeting last week.

“Roger Slates took control of the Coastal Commission meeting and forcefully crammed development, including Pierside Village, down the throats of the people of this city,” Langevin said. “He gave the people absolutely no ability to respond.”

Pierside Village is a highly controversial project that calls for building a complex of restaurants on ocean-facing land next to the city’s pier. Environmental groups have vehemently opposed it for five years, and they hoped the Coastal Commission would kill the project at its meeting here last week.

Instead, Slates engineered a procedural vote on Wednesday so that no new citizen testimony on Pierside Village could be heard by the Coastal Commission. Slates moved that “no substantial issue” existed and that thus a public hearing was not needed.

Many Huntington Beach residents who had waited all day to testify before the commission were outraged.

But many members of the Coastal Commission praise Slates, even if they disagree with him.

For instance, Coastal Commission Chairman Thomas W. Gwyn, said on Friday that while he disagreed with Slates’ move to prevent a public hearing on Pierside Village, he nonetheless respects him.

“He is a charming man,” Gwyn said. “I enjoy his sense of humor. I was disappointed in that (Pierside Village) issue, and I disagreed with him. But it’s a majority process, you know. If he convinced them, he convinced them.”