The California Coastal Commission (CCC) met last week in Santa Monica for its monthly series of meetings on coastal issues. These were the first meetings since those in February, when commissioners voted to oust former Executive Director Dr. Charles Lester, widely considered a champion of coastal conservation.
Tempers have hardly cooled in the month following Lester’s firing, when hundreds of community leaders, stakeholders and members of the public spoke in favor of retaining Lester. At the Wednesday, March 9, meeting, several more speakers came to urge commissioners to reinstate the former director. However, Wednesday’s meeting agenda instead called for selection of an interim executive director, and commissioners decided on Jack Ainsworth.
Ainsworth’s name may be familiar to Malibu residents, since for years he has served as senior deputy director for the Commission’s South Central Coast District Office, based out of Ventura.
Ainsworth, who has been acting as executive director since Lester was fired on Feb. 9, said that with staff tight, “the consequence” will be that “things are going to take a bit longer, but we’re doing our best.”
Chief Deputy Director Susan Hansch, who will be working with human resources to recruit Lester’s permanent replacement, also said the CCC will not be running at full capacity for the next several months as staff is stretched thin.
“We’re not going to be able to do everything that we were planning to do at the same pace we were planning to do it,” Hansch said. “We’ll try to work those priorities out with the commission, and we’ll do our best to do that.”
Overall, commissioners were in support of Ainsworth, saying he was “one person I can think of who can bring stability to our staff,” according to Vice Chair Dayna Bochco.
Commissioners voted 10-1 to appoint Ainsworth as interim director, despite discomfort over his possible ambitions to replace Lester on a longterm basis.
“I would much rather prefer not to appoint him to this position if he is planning to apply. That would be the best,” Commissioner Roberto Uranga said, citing his own experience with recruiting in Long Beach. Uranga was concerned that having Ainsworth already sitting in the interim position would make outside recruiting harder. He was also the only dissenting vote against Ainsworth’s appointment.
“This will be a wide-open search, we don’t have a particular person,” Commissioner Mary Shellenberger insisted. “This isn’t just a sham of a search, this is a real one.”
CCC Chair Steve Kinsey expressed confidence Ainsworth would not be looking into the permanent position of executive director.
“That is not a light duty. He made it clear he is not interested in it being an unending duty,” Kinsey said.
According to public commenters at Wednesday’s meeting, the commission will have to work hard to build back trust with the community.
“We’re talking about replacing somebody who’s not replaceable,” said Lydia Ponce, a member of the public and Venice resident.