VanderKolk May Have Hurt Bid to Get on Coastal Panel : Politics: Some observers say Gov. Wilson may pass over her for failing to give him credit when she announced the Ahmanson-Jordan land deal.

Ventura County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, a catalyst in a deal that preserves 10,000 acres of local parkland, may have hurt her chances for appointment to the California Coastal Commission by failing to mention the governor’s role when announcing the land deal last month.

VanderKolk, a 26-year-old Republican, has sought Gov. Pete Wilson’s appointment to the Coastal Commission since she took office in January. She was interviewed for the job in Santa Barbara last week, along with six other candidates.

VanderKolk said Saturday that she does not think that past differences with the governor’s staff will carry over to Wilson’s appointment of a coastal commissioner. “If I’m not appointed, I think it will be because my experience is limited,” she said.

Richard Sybert, the governor’s point man on the land deal, agreed. “These two items are not related,” he said. “I don’t do appointments.”

But local political veterans and other commission candidates said that VanderKolk’s failure to initially give Wilson some credit for the land deal may have been a costly error.

“I understand she shot herself in the foot,” said veteran Santa Barbara Mayor Sheila Lodge, a commission candidate who appears to have a solid chance despite being a Democrat. And Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn, whose efforts in the parkland deal were praised by the governor, said he does not think that VanderKolk stands a chance of being appointed.

“I tend to think she does not,” Flynn said. “I think the governor played a fairly strong role (in the land deal) . . . and she failed to give him credit.”

It was VanderKolk who broke a stalemate in discussions between county officials and the developers of the massive Ahmanson and Jordan ranch projects in August by suggesting a single combined development.

On Oct. 14, VanderKolk announced that developers had tentatively agreed to cluster the two housing projects on Ahmanson Ranch near Simi Valley while turning 10,388 acres of mountain property--including entertainer Bob Hope’s Jordan Ranch--into public parkland.

The announcement, made late in the day after a reporter questioned the supervisor about the deal, did not mention Wilson. In news briefings the next morning, the supervisor praised the governor for intervening last March and forcing her to rethink her opposition to the projects.

But Sybert, the governor’s planning director, blasted VanderKolk in interviews and in a news release, saying she was rushing to grab credit for the deal and had put it in jeopardy instead.

“There should be no doubt that we are where we are because of the governor’s personal intervention,” Sybert said.

After Hope, who owns most of the parkland, signed off on the deal this month, the governor’s office praised Flynn and other officials for their cooperation--but did not mention VanderKolk. VanderKolk’s office found out about Hope’s signing from reporters, staff members said.

The snub of VanderKolk was noted by principals in the deal, who emphasized the importance of her role. She was the first to suggest that combining the projects would make sense environmentally and give them a better chance of approval by the County Board of Supervisors, the developers said.

“I think she is deserving of substantial credit, along with the governor’s office . . . in shaping this transaction,” said Hope’s attorney, Payson Wolff.

Indeed, even before VanderKolk intervened directly with the developers in August, her staff had gone to Sybert to see if the governor would propose the combined project to Hope’s developer and the Ahmanson Co.

Sybert confirmed last week that VanderKolk’s staff had made the suggestion. “My response was that was something the two developers should talk about,” Sybert said. So VanderKolk carried the initiative herself.

VanderKolk has repeatedly refused to comment on her exchanges with Sybert. But sources said that Sybert called the supervisor after she first announced the deal in October to scold her and tell her to keep quiet about it.

Relations have improved in recent weeks.

“We continue to work with Rich Sybert, and really, for the most part everything has been fine,” VanderKolk said. In fact, VanderKolk said, Sybert called her last week to apologize for statements that he’d made about her in a recent newspaper report.

“This is the rough-and-tumble of politics, and all’s well that ends well,” Sybert said recently. “Seriously, there’s no hard feelings.”

Nor does VanderKolk see a link between Sybert’s insistence that Wilson get full credit for the land deal and Wilson’s selection of a coastal commissioner.

“That’s Sybert’s style,” VanderKolk said, “and I don’t look at his actions as being representative of who Gov. Wilson is. There’s something wonderful that’s happened. . . so there’s plenty of credit to go around.”

During her Nov. 18 interview with Wilson’s representatives, the land deal was not discussed except in passing, she said.

“It wasn’t an issue at all,” she said. “I think I have as good a chance as anybody.”

VanderKolk, who was elected on an environmental platform in 1990, said her views on coastal development seem to jibe with Wilson’s. A spokesman for the governor said recently that Wilson is “committed to beefing up the commission.”

The governor appoints four of the 12 coastal commissioners. The other eight appointments are divided between the Assembly speaker and the Senate Rules Committee.

Gubernatorial appointees must be local elected officials, and nominations for the posts are made by county supervisors or by a committee representing local cities. The commission seat VanderKolk is seeking represents Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Ventura County supervisors have nominated VanderKolk, Moorpark Mayor Paul W. Lawrason Jr. and incumbent Commissioner Dorill B. Wright.

Wright, a veteran Port Hueneme councilman, has held the commission’s south-central coast seat for all but two years since 1976. But Wright said he has not heard from the governor’s staff for three months, and he was not interviewed last week along with the other nominees.

“There has been some feedback from the appointments staff that they want to make a total change from the Deukmejian Administration,” Wright said.

The Mayors Selection Committee in Ventura County, which includes top officials from 10 cities, has endorsed Wright and Thousand Oaks Mayor Frank Schillo.

Mayor Lodge is Santa Barbara County’s only nominee, having been endorsed by that county’s Board of Supervisors and a cities’ committee. As a member of Santa Barbara’s City Council since 1974, Lodge helped draft that city’s local coastal plan and has led fights against offshore oil drilling.

A Sierra Club representative said Lodge has a good environmental record, and several public officials in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties said she has a good chance of being the new coastal commissioner.

“I feel confident about my qualifications,” Lodge said. But she noted that she is a registered Democrat while Wilson is a Republican.

In San Luis Obispo County, a cities’ committee has nominated the mayors of three small coastal cities--Chuck Comstock of Grover City, Rosemary Sheetz of Morro Bay and Dick Morrow of Pismo Beach.

San Luis Obispo County supervisors made no nominations. But Lodge said she has received the endorsement of board Chairman David Blakely.

Several candidates said they were told that Wilson will make his selection by mid-December after a second interview with finalists.