Endorsement May Not Win Parks Post on Coastal Panel

Although Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson recently endorsed Thousand Oaks Councilwoman Linda Parks for the state Coastal Commission, a Santa Barbara councilman is the apparent front-runner to fill the vacant Central Coast position.

Jackson wrote Gov. Gray Davis three weeks ago to support Parks’ candidacy, she said.

But Jackson also earlier endorsed Gregg Hart, who was an aide to state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo) for seven years and was reelected to the Santa Barbara council this month.

“I think either one of them would be a very good choice,” said Jackson, a Ventura lawyer who lives in Santa Barbara and whose 35th District stretches over the two counties.

The new commissioner will represent Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties on a board created to protect the coast and its fragile natural assets from overdevelopment.

Parks, 42, a key backer of the SOAR open-space initiative last year, is one of three local public officials nominated by a committee of Ventura County mayors last summer after Davis considered the first group of candidates, then requested more nominees.

Parks said it looks like Hart, 40, also a second-round candidate, has the inside track for the job that had been held by San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Mike Ryan until the newly elected Democratic governor removed him in January.

“I know that Jack O’Connell’s former assistant is an applicant, and the fact that he is supported by Jack O’Connell says a lot,” Parks said. “Perhaps, if I don’t receive this slot, I’ll have an opportunity as an alternate” on the commission.

The Coastal Commission has 12 voting members and four nonvoting alternate members appointed by the governor, the Assembly speaker and the Senate Rules Committee. Two of the alternate spots are vacant.

In all, nine candidates have applied from the three counties, a Davis spokeswoman said. She would not speculate on when the governor will make his selection.

From Ventura County, a so-called city selection committee nominated Parks, Port Hueneme Councilman Jon Sharkey and Moorpark Mayor Patrick Hunter. In an earlier round, Ventura Councilman Brian Brennan, Oxnard Councilman John Zaragosa and Port Hueneme Mayor Toni Young were nominated.

The governor’s appointments office interviewed Brennan, a former president of the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, Parks said.

“I wrote Brian a letter of recommendation,” she said. “He’s also very supportive of me.”

It is Hart, however, that O’Connell--a powerful Democratic lawmaker--is pushing for the job.

“I met with the governor’s appointments secretary and he seemed very enthusiastic,” Hart said. “He said they’d like to make this appointment sooner rather than later, and that was the last I heard.”

Hart said the delay may have occurred because the governor wanted to make sure the councilman was reelected Nov. 2 before appointing him.

“That was the theory,” he said. “And Jack sent a letter to the governor right after my election asking him to consider me again. So my sense is that something will happen fairly soon.”

Hart owns a preschool child care center with his wife but said he works full-time as a councilman.

“I grew up here in Santa Barbara, so environmentalism is part of my basic value system,” Hart said. “My introduction to politics was on environmental issues.”

Recently, he has focused on cleaning up ocean pollution by pushing for public purchase of land along Santa Barbara creeks so toxic runoff can be reduced, he said.

Parks, a trained planner, councilwoman for three years and planning commissioner for four more, received the Environmental Defense Center’s Carla Bard Award this year for “integrity in public service” in Ventura County.

“I understand the development process,” Parks said. “And I’ve worked on a very big scale advocating open-space preservation with SOAR and the [Thousand Oaks] parks initiative.”

But the governor’s representative has not yet called for a meeting, she said.

Jackson said she wouldn’t prejudge the selection.

“I know Jack likes [Hart] a great deal, and I would suspect that a strong letter by Jack carries a great deal of weight,” Jackson said. “But I know the governor likes to meet with these people and make the selection himself.”