3 Vying for Appointment to Coastal Commission

One is a Port Hueneme lawmaker who started her career by fighting a proposed ocean-side RV park. Another is a seasoned, sharp-tongued county supervisor from a landlocked district. A third is a first-term Ventura councilman who spent a month of his college years collecting signatures for the state Coastal Act.

Toni Young, Judy Mikels and Brian Brennan are vying for a spot on the California Coastal Commission--the 12-member panel charged with the delicate task of guarding one of the state’s most precious resources: the 1,100-mile swath of land where sand meets sea.

Ventura County’s candidates will compete against nominees from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties for a single spot on the commission. After receiving nominations by Aug. 18, Gov. Pete Wilson will select the South Central Coast District delegate to the commission.

The open commission seat was vacated when Santa Barbara Supervisor Tim Staffel resigned after being appointed a Superior Court judge. Up to four people may be nominated in each county, two by the Board of Supervisors and two by a panel of mayors.

Mikels, whose supervisorial district comprises Simi Valley, Moorpark and Somis, believes a strong pool of local contenders has emerged. “I’m equally as qualified as any applicants from Ventura [County],” she said. But “what’s most important is that we get someone from Ventura County on the Coastal Commission. I happen to believe the more [local] names out there, the better.”

At stake is having someone who knows County Line Beach from Emma Wood State Beach on the powerful commission, which fights for coastal access, enforces blueprints for shoreline growth and considers beachfront building permits.

During meetings that move around the state and often last several days, the Coastal Commission, composed of political appointees serving part time, weighs issues requiring a balance between preservation and development.

Commission members are often thrust in the midst of heated development issues, taking flak from conservatives and environmentalists alike. The commission has had a series of budget and staff cuts over the years and frequently is accused of bending to political pressure.

Among recent controversies are plans for development of Hearst Ranch in San Luis Obispo County, rejected by the commission, and a proposed expansion of Soka University’s campus in a valley of the Santa Monica Mountains, approved in April by the commission in a decision challenged by environmentalists.

The three Ventura County candidates say their greatest selling point for the commission is the ability to balance often competing concerns. Each has varying degrees of fluency in the vernacular of beach erosion, urban runoff and water monitoring.

But from there, interests diverge among Mikels, the property-rights advocate; Brennan, the avid surfer endorsed by two counties; and Young, the real estate agent.

Mikels is a Republican lawmaker with better than a decade of experience in the drier points of planning. She is known as a consensus builder for her work on Calleguas Creek water issues.

But her candidacy has attracted skepticism from environmentalists.

“Coastal issues and Supervisor Mikels?” asked an incredulous John Buse, a lawyer for the Environmental Defense Center in Ventura. “It’s a disconnect right there. . . . The Coastal Act absolutely bars wetlands development; that’s not supposed to be a matter of interpretation. But [Mikels] seems to view the whole Ventura County General Plan as a matter of interpretation when it comes to development. It’s troubling.”

Mikels and her backers, however, believe the opposition to her Coastal Commission aspirations may be politically motivated--payback for the fact that she does not support the county’s Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiative. Instead, she advocates less restrictive measures to manage growth.

“She is a believer in balance,” said Mikels’ aide Jason Oliver. “She doesn’t want to pave every mile of coastline or drop an oil well off every mile of shore.”

According to Supervisor Frank Schillo, Mikels’ role as chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors helps her think regionally, not parochially.

“She would go all out to preserve our coastline and be an excellent representative,” said Schillo, who nominated her for the post. “I also think we have another excellent person promoting Ventura County, and that’s Toni Young. I can’t speak about Brian Brennan, because I don’t know him at all.”

Those who know Brennan will tell you he has a long history of involvement in coastal issues.

A registered independent and political newcomer, he is embraced by environmentalists and serves on a beach-erosion task force.

When he attended college in San Diego, Brennan was among the scores of people who collected signatures for the ballot initiative that, in 1972, created the Coastal Commission.

He has served as chairman of the Ventura County Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and the Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau. For several years, he was a board member of the Ventura Chamber of Commerce.

Brennan, general manager of the Chart House restaurant, entered elective politics last fall by winning a seat on the Ventura City Council. He campaigned as a centrist seeking to build a bridge between environmental and business interests.

Brennan also serves as vice chairman for a joint-powers authority dedicated to preventing beach erosion in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. His involvement with that agency earned him a nomination from both counties.

“If we only get to pick one [commissioner], it’s got to be Brian,” said Surfrider member Bruce MacDonald.

“If possible, he puts preservation of the coast ahead of other things,” he added. “However, Brian has been in many tourism-industry positions and he understands economics. His biggest trait is he tries to balance economics and the environment. Pure environmentalists don’t like to hear that, but it’s the real world.”

If asked, Brennan will happily rattle off a dozen coastal issues that concern him. Then, in the next breath, he’ll propose that the governor host a surf-off to pick the next South Central Coast commissioner.

“I’m acutely aware of how important the coastline is as a financial resource, an aesthetic resource and a recreational resource,” he said. “And I know the problems we need to be aware of: Beach erosion is numero uno. Coastal access is also up there. Water-quality monitoring is of grave concern too.”

Mikels and Young echo many of those concerns.

Young, a real estate agent and council member who previously served as Port Hueneme’s first woman mayor, also believes the coastline is an important ecological resource--home to delicate tide pools and seal-pupping grounds.

“It’s a special natural habitat,” Young said. “We should preserve it. But some people think every piece is pristine natural habitat, and that’s not true either. I’m not shy about these things. I’m willing to speak up.”

Despite serving on the Port Hueneme Water Agency, Young, a former Republican Assembly candidate, was passed over for a Coastal Commission spot when former Port Hueneme Councilman Dorill Wright left the panel in 1995 after 16 years.

She entered politics by opposing an oceanfront RV park in 1994, and says she isn’t as swamped with other duties as her competitors.

“I think Judy is awfully busy as a supervisor,” Young joked. “Coastal Commission meetings can take five days. She’s a wonderful supervisor, and I admire her, so I’d hate to see her take that much time away from her job.”