Wrongly terminated

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has shown a heartening propensity to install independent-minded people on various state commissions. The problem is that he also shows, from time to time, a dismaying propensity to jettison them as soon as they act independently.

The latest case in point: the dismissal of Bobby Shriver and Clint Eastwood from the state parks commission after they rightly objected to a toll road through one of California’s most popular parks.

Shriver, the governor’s brother-in-law, and Eastwood, the governor’s equal when it comes to tough-talking cinematic sound bites, were simply doing their jobs when they forcefully opposed the Foothill South toll road. The road wouldn’t just cross San Onofre State Beach; it would bisect the length of the narrow, pristine canyon that constitutes most of the park and further threaten endangered species. The $100 million offered as mitigation doesn’t begin to make up for the damage. It wouldn’t purchase new parks to make up for the parkland destroyed.

Note to the governor: This is why California has a parks commission, to protect and support its parks, just as the Coastal Commission is supposed to uphold the Coastal Act. Both panels slammed the toll road.

The refusal to reappoint Shriver and Eastwood after their terms expired uncomfortably calls to mind several similar Schwarzenegger missteps, especially the pressure he exerted on R. Judd Hanna to resign from the Fish and Game Commission. Hanna was a hunter, farmer and real estate developer, not a known bird-hugger, but he listened when evidence indicated that lead bullets were dooming the decades-long campaign to save the California condor. He sealed his own political doom by supporting a limited ban on the bullets.

It’s unclear why Schwarzenegger suddenly shifted from neutrality on the toll road to aggressive support. (In the past, his actions against commissioners generally followed complaints from interested parties.) There is a more reasonable way to ease traffic in this case: by widening the I-5 Freeway through San Clemente. A giant new highway would only encourage sprawl and create giant new traffic headaches.

The governor’s “I’ll be back” may have trumped the commissioner’s “Make my day.” For now, though, the toll road project is dead, and that’s enough to make the California public’s day.