ORANGE COUNTY VOICES : AQMD Pro-Business Rhetoric Just Hot Air : Board’s true attitude surfaced when it spurned regulatory reforms proposed by its own Special Commission.

“Our outreach to business is particularly impressive.”

--Air quality district Governing Board Member Norton Younglove to Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce

“We are making AQMD more sensitive to small business concerns.” --District’s “New Directions In Air Quality Management Brochure”

Over the last several months, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has brayed about its commitment to working with business to clean the air. On Aug. 7, the SCAQMD Governing Board had the opportunity to really put its money where its mouth is and adopt substantive regulatory reforms proposed by its own Special Commission on Air Quality and the Economy. Instead, the board voted for a bundle of watered-down changes--many of which are already in the works--recommended by the SCAQMD staff.

Thrust by their own devices into the crucible of real reform, the district governing board crumpled, demonstrating its recent pro-business rhetoric to be so much hot air.

The Special Commission was formed several months ago in response to a growing chorus of criticism of SCAQMD policies from the Southern California business community. Its mission: Listen to the concerns of the business community regarding air quality regulations and recommend any needed reforms.

During the series of public hearings, testimony given corresponded to what I’ve been hearing from Orange County business owners: district regulations are making it increasingly difficult for them to operate profitably.

The Special Commission’s response: 44 recommendations for reforming the often heavy-handed manner in which the SCAQMD regulates businesses.

The most controversial proposal was to make the Office of Public Advisor completely independent of the district’s regular staff and answerable only to the Governing Board. The OPA would be directed to carry out business retention efforts, conduct or supervise all reviews and audits of district procedures and programs, undertake small business advocacy and, most importantly, act as an ombudsman for the “regulated community.”

This proposal was vehemently opposed by the SCAQMD staff and their leftist alter-egos in the environmental movement.

District Executive Officer James M. Lents sputtered that he didn’t understand why business needed its own advocate to the governing board. Lents even threatened to quit if the board adopted the ombudsman idea; a good trade in my opinion.

Few actions by the SCAQMD governing board would better demonstrate real substance behind the pro-business rhetoric than the adoption of this worthy and sensible proposal. By refusing to do so and instead bowing to the wishes of its staff, the district board has shown itself not only unable but unwilling to undertake true reform.

Rhetoric notwithstanding, the district obviously wants no interference with its bureaucratic growth and regulatory empire-building.

I can testify to this from recent experience. This year, I introduced two quite reasonable bills directly pertaining to the SCAQMD. One, Senate Bill 1855, would require the district to devote the majority of revenue from fining businesses toward a voluntary program to buy back and destroy pre-1971 vehicles. While constituting only 10% of vehicles on the road, these automobiles account for half of all car emissions. It’s a very direct way of improving air quality, and more cost effective than the district’s compulsory ride-sharing schemes.

Out of the district’s rapidly growing $115-million budget, the car buy-back program requires a mere $3 million. Yet, the SCAQMD lobbied against this bill on the ridiculous grounds that it would de-fund their small-business program!

SB 1352, currently in an Assembly-Senate conference committee, would exempt businesses with fewer than 100 employees at any one site from complying with the district’s costly and ineffective ride-sharing regulations. The bill’s intent is to head off the SCAQMD’s intended lowering of the threshold to 50 employees by 1994.

SB 1352 is supported by, among others, the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Assn. of Independent Business and numerous local chambers of commerce in Orange County.

Yet, the district--while trumpeting itself as the friend of small business--lobbied vigorously against this bill from the get-go.

It therefore comes as no surprise to me that at the moment of truth, the governing board (with the exception of members Mike Antonovich, Harriett M. Wieder and John Mikels) said “Not!” to real reform.

Obviously, we cannot look to the current board for meaningful reforms: It is dominated by anti-business liberals and weather-vane moderates incapable of resisting pressure from left-wing environmental activists.

The staff is little better. In his presentation at the Aug. 7 hearing, Lents spit into the wind of common sense and asserted that district regulations play little or no role in the current exodus of jobs from Southern California. He said that not only do small businesses not fear the district, they actually think very highly of it.

I realize our economic troubles are the result of several factors: spiraling workers’ compensation costs, high taxes and general over-regulation. But to pretend that the district’s regulations play no role verges on the surreal.

The proposed reforms were not radical. The Special Commission itself said it was not proposing “fundamental changes in the district’s goals. Rather, it has made recommendations that . . . would more directly involve the regulated community in district programs, provide for more checks and balances in the district’s procedures, and mitigate economic hardships on smaller business.”

Yet even this was too much for the we’ll-have-clean-air-even-if-it-kills-us board majority, as well as the environmental agitators who packed the hearing room to denounce the Special Commission and demonize the business community.

Since the SCAQMD has spurned regulatory reform, others must take the initiative.

I, for one, intend to introduce legislation to create an independent ombudsman to give the business community an advocate at the SCAQMD. It would be better for the SCAQMD to reform itself. However, until there is a change in the governing board’s makeup and thinking, reform at the South Coast Air Quality Management District will only come from the top down.