AQMD Board to Fight Reorganization Move

Declaring that local control was at stake, the South Coast Air Quality Management District board voted Friday to oppose state legislation that would strip local governments of their authority to appoint the board and cost many or all of the present board members their positions.

The sweeping reorganization bill was introduced in the state Senate in January by Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside) after widespread criticism that the 10-year-old district had failed to carry out its mandate to clean up the air in the South Coast Air Basin, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Presley said the change is needed to restore “accountability” for enforcing tough air pollution controls. Under terms of the Presley measure, the current 14-member board, composed of a majority of locally elected officials appointed by local governments, would be replaced by a seven-member board appointed by state officials.

Demand Local Control

Members of the district board said Friday that they will fight the Presley measure unless it is amended to guarantee that locally appointed members continue to dominate the board.

“The representation of local government on the board is crucial,” AQMD board member Fazle-Rab Quadri of San Bernardino County said.

Reached by telephone in Sacramento after the board’s vote in El Monte, an irritated Presley said the board’s action was “ill advised” and convinced him more than ever that “the Legislature needs to do something.”

Presley said he thought he had agreements with “special interests,” which he identified as local government officials, AQMD officials and representatives of industry, to “hang loose” on his bill in an attempt to agree upon possible changes.

“I can’t imagine what their thinking is, why they think it is so urgent to jump in there and oppose it at this early stage,” Presley said. “Was this vote at their monthly meeting? Did they do anything to clean up the air, or just talk about their turf,” Presley asked.

“I really think the Legislature is going to feel we have to improve that board. It needs restructuring and redoing. . . . We can’t sit around here and fiddle while Rome burns. We’ve got to get on with this program instead of arguing what local government representative sits on the board and who doesn’t.”

The AQMD board voted 8 to 0 with four abstentions to oppose the Presley bill. The measure has already stirred opposition from the County Supervisors Assn. of California and the League of California Cities.

Appointment by Governor

Under the measure, the governor would appoint five of the seven members on the reconstituted board. The other two would be appointed by the Speaker of the state Assembly and the five-member state Senate Rules Committee.

Friday’s board vote came as a second reorganization bill was introduced in the Assembly by Assemblyman Gerald N. Felando (R-San Pedro). Felando’s bill also would create a seven-member board, with five of the members appointed by the governor and two by the Legislature.

However, unlike the Presley bill, Felando’s would require that four of the governor’s appointees be locally elected officials. The governor’s fifth appointee would serve as the full-time chair of the board.