Panel Proposed to Gauge AQMD Role in Economy

In another response to complaints by business about the cost of clean-air rules, the vice chairman of the South Coast Air Quality Management District has proposed a special commission to hold hearings on the local economic impact of AQMD regulations.

The call comes on the heels of an AQMD announcement of bureaucratic reforms designed to make permit processes easier for industry. In addition, several state legislators have taken an interest in easing the regulatory burden because of the recession.

Assemblyman Byron Sher (D-Palo Alto) held a hearing in Sacramento last week on the California Clean Air Act, including its financial impact on businesses statewide. Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) plans hearings in January on the economic effect of local and regional air quality districts throughout the state.

“I am certainly willing to acknowledge that air quality (regulation) is a factor” in decisions by companies to leave the state, said Wedaa, a Yorba Linda councilman, “but I don’t know whether it’s 5% or 50%.”

He will ask the AQMD board today to establish a 37-member panel with representatives from the air district, businesses, local government, environmental groups and labor. He also wants the commission to include delegates from regional, state and federal agencies.

Some believe the timing of his proposal is related to the fact that Wedaa’s four-year term on the AQMD board as a representative of Orange County cities expires Jan. 9. His renomination bid has been under fire from conservatives there, who have complained that AQMD rules have cost Orange County jobs. The Orange County League of Cities decides who fills the seat.

“I would be flabbergasted if this commission didn’t have a connection to his term being up in a month,” said Dana Reed, a Wedaa critic who serves on the Orange County Transportation Authority board.

In 1989, Wedaa abstained from voting on the AQMD’s 20-year clean-air plan, because he favored it but the Orange County League of Cities opposed it.

There is little love for the air district in Orange County political circles. Orange County Supervisor Don Roth has taken to referring to air quality officials as the “airheads on the air board.” This week, Orange County supervisors rejected a resolution commending the AQMD on its new building in Diamond Bar. They had already signed and presented it, so AQMD officials had to take the framed resolution off a wall beside a similar one from Los Angeles County.

Three weeks ago, the five members representing city governments on the Orange County Transportation Authority board sent a letter to their colleagues on city councils criticizing Wedaa’s position favoring delay of some commuter rail lines until they can be electrified, as opposed to running on highly polluting diesel fuel.

Wedaa said, however, that “no one has pressured me to be more conservative.” He said his commission proposal was prompted by newspaper articles about studies that link business flight with clean-air rules. “We’re really all tired of this (air) district bashing,” Wedaa said.

He wants the AQMD to charge the special committee with holding hearings in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties--the area of AQMD jurisdiction--and report its findings next May.

Reaction to the proposal has been mixed.

AQMD Board Chairman A. Norton Younglove said he was “in total support of the concept,” although he would like to see a smaller committee. “If ever there was a time to re-examine assumptions, certainly this kind of economic condition is the time to do so,” he said.

Robert A. Wyman, an attorney who represents many businesses in their dealings with the AQMD, said the idea “sounds constructive to me. This group would go literally to the people and I don’t think that’s been done.” Public hearings on the AQMD’s 20-year clean-air plan, he said, “are too technical. This will create an opportunity for more local input from some new people.”

On the other hand, “I question the need for further hearings,” said Tim Little, executive director of the Coalition for Clean Air--though he said his group would provide a representative for the commission, if it is approved.

“How could we not?,” Little asked. “But I think we know the economy’s in tough shape and I think we know we need clean air. “