Trying desperately to hang onto its power over Coastal Commission
From the Publisher/Arnold G. York
This week the Legislature is attempting to resuscitate the life of the California Coastal Commission via a bill carried by Assemblymember Hanna Beth Jackson (D-Ventura) and state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-41st District) by making a minor change in the way the coastal commissioners are appointed. Previously, the commissioners were appointed to a four-year term, but they were subject to removal at anytime, for any reason by their appointing authority, the governor, the speaker of the assembly or the Senate president pro tem, who each make four appointments. The Court of Appeals, in its decision, declaring the Coastal Commission unconstitutional, essentially decided the commissioners were serving “at will” and were virtually under the thumb of their appointing authority, and said this was constitutionally unacceptable. The Legislature’s answer to that objection is to give the commissioners a two-year fixed term. No one knows if the proposed fix will work because it’s still possible the court might decide that since the Coastal Commission is an executive agency, with executive powers such as granting permits and prosecuting violators, it’s not constitutionally permissible to have the Legislature appointing eight out of the 12 members. The Legislature could probably solve this problem by giving the majority of the Coastal Commission appointments to the governor but, although in the past they’ve protested they wanted to rid themselves of all the Malibu coastal lobbying, when actually offered an opportunity to get rid of that lobbying they are strangely reluctant to surrender any of their power over the coast to the governor. The Republicans, who are the minority party in the Legislature, are screaming that what’s being proposed is not enough because the Coastal Commission is in need of basic reform to give the local governments more say in the process, but the militant environmental lobby led by the Sierra Club are fighting hard to keep the majority away from the governor for fear that a future governor might be less sympathetic to their position.
After the 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento published its decision upholding the unconstitutionality of the Coastal Commission, Attorney General Bill Lockyer went back to the court and asked for a clarification. What he actually was doing was trying to get the court of appeal to change the coastal commissioners’ terms to a fixed term, but the court made no indication it intended to rewrite the law, so Lockyer had no choice but to appeal. This appeal goes to the California Supreme Court, which has a reputation for being a conservative court. I suspect the Legislature decided to act quickly because it was fearful if it didn’t, the Supreme Court might throw out the Coastal Commission. Both houses of the Legislature are under Democratic control so it can write whatever bill it wants as long as the governor agrees. I’m surmising the governor must be in agreement because he went ahead and called a special session, and although the Republicans are unhappy, they don’t have the legislative muscle to force reform. But no matter what the Legislature does, and no matter what the governor signs, the case is still going to go before the California Supreme Court for a final decision. As I mentioned, that’s a conservative court that reads the newspapers, so it’s a big uncertainty.
It’s still possible that the bill working it’s way through the legislature could be amended to include some reforms but as of now it doesn’t look to probable unless something unforeseen makes it’s way into the process.
What could that be? It could be the budget. The governor needs 2/3 of the legislature to pass a budget, which means that he needs some Republicans to join with the Democrats. What I heard recently when I was in Sacramento is that everything is in play. What that means is that the Republicans may say if you want our support on the budget we want some things also. One of the things they want is Workman’s Compensation reform because the rates have been rising rapidly. If they feel it’s important enough to spend the political capital they could say that they want some reform in the Coastal Commission rules before they go along with the budget. With this budget crises it’s all up in the air and anything could happen.