Senate Panel Rejects Nominee for AQMD Board
Hugh Hewitt, a Newport Beach attorney and Southern California broadcast personality, was rejected Monday as Gov. Pete Wilson’s appointee to the board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
The three Democrats on the five-member state Senate Rules Committee voted against him. The two Republicans voted for him.
Hewitt, a former Reagan administration official, had served on the board since last May without confirmation. He was opposed by environmental groups, who said he was biased in favor of businesses regulated by the clean-air agency. No witnesses testified in his support.
Hewitt, an attorney whose firm represents many major California landowners and businesses whose operations are regulated by the air quality district, is a co-host of “Life and Times,” a weekly public affairs program on KCET-TV, Channel 28, in Los Angeles.
Hewitt was selected by Wilson to fill a slot requiring the member to have experience as an “air pollution specialist.” But committee chairman Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), president of the Senate, challenged whether Hewitt met the requirement.
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