Democrats Name 4 to Coastal Panel

Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante appointed four people to the California Coastal Commission on Monday, returning control of the body to Democratic appointees and winning praise from environmentalists.

Bustamante’s appointments won environmentalists’ praise even though he did not make his selections from any of 10 names suggested earlier this year by a coalition of major environmental groups.

“I’m trying to find those milquetoast, wishy-washy, moderate, thoughtful people who just do the work,” Bustamante said Monday. “I wanted to find people who did the work and were thoughtful, [and don’t] have some ideology that they somehow had to protect. I want them to protect the coast.”

The appointments are in contrast to those made last year by former Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove). Pringle selected two people who had battled the Coastal Commission over development issues on their property in the Malibu area and questioned the need for a Coastal Commission.

Pringle’s short-tenured appointees joined Gov. Pete Wilson’s four appointees, briefly giving the commission a majority of Republicans for the first time since it was created 25 years ago. The Democrat-controlled state Senate also gets four appointments to the commission.

But any major shift in the commission’s direction was thwarted in November’s election when Republicans lost their Assembly majority to Democrats.

Pringle reserved judgment on Monday’s selections, saying “only time will tell” whether Bustamante named moderates or sided with more liberal members of the Assembly and named “out-of-touch radical environmentalists.”

But Sierra Club lobbyist Michael Paparian praised the nominees, saying that overall, Bustamante’s move “gets us back on track of having a Coastal Commission dedicated to preserving the coast.”

The new appointments include San Diego City Councilwoman Christine Kehoe; Monterey County Supervisor David Potter, a general contractor; Andrea Tuttle, a forest practices consultant from Arcata in Northern California; and Santa Barbara lawyer Pedro Nava, a longtime friend of the speaker.

“The speaker has made it clear he wants a balanced and issue-oriented approach,” said Kehoe, 46, the first openly lesbian elected official from San Diego County.

Tuttle, 50, said her goal will be to get the commission “back on track,” saying the commission “had a year of diversion from its main mission.”

“People in California like the coast,” Tuttle said. “This is one of the few things that is important to all Californians. It crosses party lines and ideology. They want to know it is in good hands.”

Tuttle, Kehoe and Potter have records of working on environmental issues or winning political endorsements from environmental groups. Nava, however, is “just a guy,” Bustamante said.

“[He’s] a real public member, sort of a wild card in this whole process because he has not been affiliated with any environmental group, not affiliated with a business group, and has no legal challenges before the commission,” Bustamante said.

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Nava said in an interview that he believes the “coastline to be an incredible resource that deserves to be protected” but said he does not “have an agenda.”

Nava, 49, works for the Santa Barbara law firm of Bauer, Harris, McEvoy & Clinkenbeard, representing defendants in medical malpractice lawsuits.

He has known Bustamante since 1977 when they worked for a government-funded job training group in Fresno. Nava left the organization in 1981 to become a deputy district attorney in Fresno and later in Santa Barbara County. He has been in private practice since 1985.

“I don’t mean to sound corny, but in about a month I’m going to have a granddaughter . . . and I want [her] to be able to enjoy the coast as I did,” Nava said.

One immediate result of the new commission is that longtime Executive Director Peter Douglas’ position appears to be secure. Last year, Wilson’s commissioners led an effort to oust Douglas. The move died after environmentalists mounted a major protest.

Douglas predicted Monday that the new commission will be “the strongest . . . dealing with the substance of the Coastal Act” since 1981, when appointees of former Gov. Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown Jr. controlled the commission.

“I’m really excited about the new commission,” Douglas said. “It’s a new dawn on the coast.”