Coast Panel Drops Bid for Role in Habitat Plans

In a blow to environmentalists, the California Coastal Commission backed down Wednesday from a request to have a say in shaping landmark habitat conservation plans.

The surprise move came days after an alternate commissioner just appointed by Gov. Gray Davis, who could have cast a deciding vote, was yanked from her post.

With several commissioners saying they feared a precedent-setting denial by the outgoing U.S. Commerce secretary, a sharply divided commission voted 6 to 5 to withdraw its request to the Commerce Department. Ten other states have won routine approval for such requests.

Habitat conservation plans allow developers to set aside large chunks of land in exchange for being able to kill endangered species and pave over their habitat elsewhere. The commission can and has made case-by-case requests to be involved in habitat conservation plans, but it was seeking an automatic role.

California Resources Secretary Mary Nichols recommended withdrawal, saying she had learned that Commerce Secretary Norman Y. Mineta was poised to deny the request by the end of the day Wednesday because of concerns voiced by developers, landowners, local government and wildlife officials.

Representatives from the Building Industry Assn., the California Assn. of Realtors, Sempra Energy and San Diego Gas & Electric all testified Wednesday that California should withdraw its request. But numerous environmentalists urged the commissioners to stand their ground, saying their oversight was needed to protect the state’s 1,100-mile coastline, especially under a new Republican administration.

Mineta, who has been nominated by President-elect George W. Bush to be transportation secretary, was in Japan on Wednesday, aides said. Attempts to reach Commerce Department officials familiar with the issue were unsuccessful.

Last month, Mineta’s chief of staff said that if California officials, including Nichols, agreed on the commission’s role, he would probably approve it.

Environmentalists were outraged by the vote to withdraw the request, which came after a two-hour public hearing rife with accusations of political impropriety.

Kitch Eitzen, an alternate commissioner appointed by Davis in December who supported the commission request, was removed from her post last week.

Eitzen, of Humboldt County said, “The facts speak for themselves. Beyond that I have no wish to comment.”

Environmentalists said that her dismissal was the “warning shot,” and that other commissioners appointed by the governor and Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) were threatened with removal if they did not vote to withdraw the request.

Hertzberg’s office did not return phone calls seeking comment. The governor’s office referred questions on the allegations to Nichols, who flatly denied the allegations of political influence: “This administration is not in the business of punishing commissioners because of their votes.”

She said Eitzen was removed because she was not appointed properly: The paperwork was filed, but she was not sufficiently interviewed in advance.

Commissioners can be appointed and removed at will by the governor, the Assembly speaker and the president pro tem of the Senate, who each appoint four.

The three Davis appointees who were present and all but one of Hertzberg’s appointees voted to withdraw the letter. All four of Senate President Pro Tem John Burton’s (D-San Francisco) appointees voted against withdrawing it. Had Eitzen voted against withdrawal, as expected, there would have been a tie, meaning the request would have stood.

Activists said that threatening commissioners with removal from their posts was common under Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, a Democrat, but that it hasn’t happened on Davis’ watch until now.

Ellen Stern Harris, co-author of the ballot proposition that created the Coastal Commission, said the situation once again pointed to the need for reform. Coastal commissioners ought to be appointed to terms, she said. “When you know that you have a four-year term, you can afford to vote your conscience,” she said.

Having commissioners removed right before or during key votes is “like the old vaudeville gag where they take a hook and pull you off the stage. That’s how government is not supposed to be conducted. It has made a mockery of the entire process.”