Coastal Commission politics

"Letter to the Editor" published in the SD Union-Tribune Comments section:

As a former Coastal Commission staff member, I was saddened to read about Patricia McCoy's removal from the Commission after being raked over the coals by the Union-Tribune and other publications.  Her unforgivable sin -- to further scrutinize San Diego's secondary sewage treatment waiver -- was voting in favor of coastal protection.

The commonly held perception of the Commission being strongly environmentally slanted ("out of control") is far from the truth, and McCoy's dismissal is but one example of the undue influence that money, power, and politics play on this group.  According to the Sierra Club, McCoy's pro-coastal voting scores for the last two years were only 35% and 47%, and yet this was too much for Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson and his pro-development cronies.

In the late 1990s, when Democrats gained control of the State Governorship, House and Senate, coastal advocates were optimistic that new members on the Commission would finally balance out the environmentally-hostile appointments of the past.  Unfortunately, these hopes have been bitterly disappointed time and time again.  I applaud Patricia McCoy for a job well done, and I hope that Scott Peters can perform equally as well or better on behalf of protecting our beautiful coastal areas.

BRENT MCDONALD
San Diego