Backers urge powerful California Coastal Commission to keep its executive director

The powerful agency that manages development along Califoia’s coastline considered whether to fire its chief executive Wednesday as it faced a packed room of sign-holding supporters who want him kept on the job.

Hundreds of people filled a meeting room to capacity, with scores more outside, in what amounted to a striking show of support for Charles Lester, executive director of the Califoia Coastal Commission. Many waved signs saying “More Lester” and “Save Our Coast,” and supporters chanted outside: “We want Lester.”

The potential shake-up raises questions about the direction of an agency often caught in a clash between property rights and conservation. The panel has broad sway over construction and environmental issues in coastal areas that include some of the most coveted real estate in the United States.

The biggest question has been what Lester has done wrong: The commission, which met briefly behind closed doors before hearing testimony, has not provided a reason for his proposed dismissal. “This is a hearing in reverse. We haven’t even heard the charges against Charles,” said Mel Nutter, a former commissioner and Long Beach attoey.

Environmental activists suspect some commission members want to push him out to make way for leadership more favorable to development, while a business group has questioned the tactics of the agency’s staff.

The commission heard from more than two dozen witnesses Wednesday, including members of its staff, all supporting Lester’s work. They praised him for his balanced hand in regulation and thorough and independent evaluation of proposed projects along the coastline.

Kathryn Philips, director of Sierra Club Califoia, said Lester is fair and thorough and should be retained. But not every commission decision under Lester was favorable to environmental groups. In fact, the national Sierra Club is suing the commission for approval given to U2 lead guitarist Dave Evans, known as the Edge, to build a five-house mansion on oceanfront land in Malibu.

Philips said the impetus behind the attempt to remove Lester was a political calculation by developers and lobbyists to find a more development-friendly executive director and gradually change the tenor of the agency toward favoring more development along Califoia’s coast.

Susan Jordan of the Califoia Coastal Protection Network waed that Lester’s removal could threaten beach access for the public and open a new era of unchecked development.

“There will always be another billionaire who will block access to the beach,” she waed, alluding to notorious fights over beaches in Malibu and other celebrity enclaves.

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Many from nonprofits along Southe Califoia’s coastline spoke in favor of Lester at the packed meeting.

“We believe everyone — and we mean everyone — in Califoia deserves access to the natural world,” said Elizabeth Lamb, director of the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust in Long Beach. “It is a matter of faiess and environmental and social justice that not just youth from communities of means but from all communities experience the coast.”

Lamb credited Lester with helping keep areas open to low-income and communities of color.

William L. Perocchi, chief executive of the Pebble Beach Co., which owns the famed seaside golf course, submitted a letter to the panel calling Lester “fair, pragmatic, creative, open and reasonable.”

Commission Chairman Steve Kinsey notified Lester in a letter last month that the panel will consider whether to fire him. Lester has held the post since 2011.

The 12-member commission has received about 29,000 letters and emails, virtually all of them supporting Lester’s leadership. Seventy-six environmental groups wrote a letter to the board urging his retention. These included: Sierra Club Califoia, Natural Resources Defense Council, Environment Califoia and Heal the Bay. Thirty-five former commissioners also wrote a group letter in support of Lester.

But a letter from the Los Angeles County Business Federation, an alliance of 155 business groups, faulted the commission’s staff for a lack of accountability and regulatory overreach.

“Califoia Coastal Commission staff attempt to assert control over facilities, projects and land use” outside of their control, according to the letter received by the panel Wednesday.

Lester has aggressively defended his tenure and depicted himself as an able steward of the coast. He has said he and the commission have made strides addressing the effects of sea-level rise tied to climate change, protecting open space and wiing additional funding.

He defended his record for nearly 40 minutes Wednesday, stressing the need for an independent, impartial staff to review projects, with the commission then voting on those recommendations.

“If the two intertwine, then the recommendation or the commission decision ... will be untrustworthy,” he waed.

Staff Writer Steve Scauzillo contributed to this article.

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