Editorial: Standing Alone

LBReport.com

Statement by the Publisher / Opinion

Standing Alone

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(February 9, 2016, 8:55 a.m.) -- As of dawn Tuesday (Feb. 9), to our knowledge [and we'll stand corrected if shown evidence to the contrary], not one Long Beach news outlet -- with the sole exception of LongBeachReport.com (www.LBREPORT.com) -- has reported on its news pages a story that has been reported by other California and national news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times: an attempt (scheduled for action tomorrow Feb. 10) by some members of the CA Coastal Comm'n to oust the agency's current Executive Director.

[Scroll down for further.]

The Long Beach PressTelegram has run pieces in its opinion section: an editorial and a third party op-ed also visible in the parent company's co-owned outlets (including the Pasadena Star News and Daily News) supporting the Executive Director but leaving unmentioned Long Beach connections to this story in either its opinion section or news section.

The Executive Director has no vote or veto but oversees Coastal Commission staff whose recommendations Coastal Commissioners frequently follow but can modify or reject. The CA Coastal Commission, a non-elected body with some members appointed by the Governor and others by state legislative leadership, has land use approval authority over proposed developments and modifications along the hundreds of miles of California's coastline.

Long Beach -- as L.A. County's second most populous coastal city -- has much at stake in this. Long Beach has a large coastal zone that some have long sought to develop further. In 1977, the City enacted low profile planned zoning in southeast Long Beach (SEADIP) while accepting dense development downtown, and Long Beach City Hall is now in the process of amending that coastal zoning. If a LB Council majority were to vote to increase density and enable higher building heights, it would require Coastal Commission approval, effectively a last line of defense for coastal protection advocates, a hurdle to be surmounted by pro-development interests.

Consider the following matters:

Long Beach City Councilmember, Roberto Uranga, is a member of the Coastal Commission who can vote on Feb. 10 to retain or oust the agency's current Executive Director. He is on the Coastal Commission because LB Mayor Robert Garcia was forced to exit the Coastal Commission 90 days after he took office in mid-July 2014 as LB's non-voting Mayor because he lost his Commission eligibility that stemmed from his previous status as a voting LB City Councilmember.
In October 2013, Garcia's Mayoral campaign held a fundraiser at the San Fernando Valley home of Coastal Commission member Wendy Mitchell. The Garcia campaign's invitation told recipients that Garcia is "the pro-business candidate, and wants Long Beach to strengthen it's [sic] name, 'The International City,' by making it an economically booming, world-class city that businesses want to be a part of." [The fundraiser was privately organized and to our knowledge didn't use any state or public resources.]
In early 2013, the state Senate Rules Committee appointed Garcia to the Commission in a proceeding closed to the public and the press, not publicly agendized, with no public witness testimony pro or con. The Committee has routinely followed this process for years for its Coastal Commission appointments. Committee staff also denied a request by LBREPORT.com under the Legislative Open Records Act for access to records submitted by Garcia to the Committee in considering his appointment.
The Committee chose Garcia from among other candidates despite his vote as a LB Councilman to approve a controversial, polarizing proposed development in the SE LB coastal zone at 2nd/PCH [Seaport Marina hotel site] that the Coastal Commission's LB office staff warned was procedurally problematic under the Coastal Act. The proposed development was also separately opposed by the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust, represented by LB attorney and former Coastal Commission chair Mel Nutter. Following a bruising Dec. 2011 Council hearing in which the proposed development failed to gain Council approval on a 3-5 vote, City Hall began its now-pending process to amend the city's SE LB zoning, which some coastal area protective residents and environmental groups say is already tilting toward increased density and higher building heights.
In March 2015, the state Senate Rules Committee appointed LB Councilman Uranga to fill Garcia's former Coastal Commission position using the same non-transparent process it used to appoint Garcia. A few months later in July 2015, Coastal Commissioner Uranga candidly acknowledged during a Coastal Commission meeting that he tried to appoint Garcia as his voting Coastal Commission alternate but his attempt to do so is in a "holding pattern" pending enactment of a change to state law. A few months later, the state law was changed...but to date Commissioner Uranga hasn't named anyone as his Coastal Commission alternate.
On Feb. 1, 2016, a letter was released signed by 35 former members and alternate members of the Coastal Commission supporting the Executive Director. Among those not signing the letter were former Coastal Commissioner, now LB Mayor, Robert Garcia and former Coastal Commission alternate member, now LB Vice Mayor, Suja Lowenthal.
On Feb. 2, 2016, veteran Long Beach coastal protection advocate Gordana Kajer came to the Long Beach City Council meeting and used the period for public comment on non-agendized items to address the Council on the Coastal Commission Executive Director matter. Moments before she came to the speakers' podium, Mayor Garcia exited the Council Chamber (see webcast screen save photo below.)

Garcia exits (indicated with arrow). Underlying image from City Clerk webcast screen grab
During Ms. Kajer's testimony, she stated in pertinent part: "More than thirty past Coastal Commissioners have indeed commented, and sadly, not including the two that are sitting here tonight at City Council [Robert Garcia and Suja Lowenthal]." Garcia returned shortly thereafter and said nothing in response; Vice Mayor Lowenthal (presiding during Ms. Kajer's testimony) likewise offered no response.
At the end of the Council meeting, both Garcia and Lowenthal remained similarly mum after Anna Christensen, who identified herself as a member of the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust, used a second public comment period to state: "Both our Mayor and Vice Mayor that did not join other former Coastal Commissioners in this week's letter of support for [the Executive Director]," the speaker said. She added "I respectfully ask you in the short term to support [the Exec. Dir] including Mr. Uranga and Mr. Garcia and Ms. Lowenthal...Let's face facts. You know, the real layering and consolidation of power corrupts..." and reached the three minute speakers' limit, at which point Mayor Garcia said "time's up" and swiftly called for a motion to adjourn the Council meeting without further comment.

LBREPORT.com is proud to have reported on the upcoming decisional -- and potentially Long Beach impacting -- Feb. 10 Coastal Commission item as well as the Long Beach related items that precede it. We remain mindful of the principle articulated several decades ago by Sigma Delta Chi, the Society of Professional Journalists: "If the press didn't tell us, who would?"

On Wednesday Feb. 10, Coastal Commissioner Uranga will be among those voting on whether to keep or remove the Coastal Commission's Executive Director. LBREPORT.com will carry LIVE VIDEO of the meeting on our front page: www.LBREPORT.com.

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