Senate Panel Rejects Drake for Waste Board : Recycling: Rules Committee members say the former Ventura councilwoman does not meet the law’s requirements for appointment to the $90,852-a-year post.

SACRAMENTO —  In a victory for environmentalists, the Senate Rules Committee on Monday voted 3 to 2 to reject the appointment of former Ventura City Councilwoman Nan J. Drake to the California Integrated Solid Waste Management Board.

Unless Gov. George Deukmejian withdraws the nomination, the full 40-member Senate is scheduled to vote today on Drake’s appointment to the $90,852-a-year post.

Drake hesitated to predict the outcome of today’s Senate vote but voiced some hope that she could salvage the job.

“There’s a whole bunch of other senators who can vote tomorrow,” Drake told reporters after the committee action.

Drake maintained that she had done her “darndest” before the committee to defend her credentials to sit on the six-member board. But she was also philosophical, saying:

“Life goes on. You cannot get bogged down by things like this. You just move on to something else. I think I gave it a good shot.”

At issue was whether Drake met the qualifications to fill the board slot designated for an official of a “nonprofit environmental protection organization.”

During a 90-minute hearing, Drake repeatedly cited her service on governmental agencies, including the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Ventura Regional Sanitation District, as meeting the qualifications spelled out in the law.

But critics said that while Drake had been active in establishing recycling programs in Ventura, her background does not meet the intent of the law--to give environmental activists a voice on the board created last year to promote recycling.

Sen. William A. Craven (R-Oceanside) said Drake was better suited to serve in one of two public board spots Deukmejian must fill. Another slot on the board is designated for a member of the waste industry.

Sen. Nicholas C. Petris (D-Oakland) said the issue facing the committee was not Drake’s “judgment or track record.” Instead, he maintained, “the issue here is the governor’s inability to read the statutes or a deliberate skirting” of the law.

In another setback for Drake, opponents submitted an opinion from legislative counsel Bion Gregory that said her service on the City Council and other governmental agencies does not qualify Drake for the appointment.

Moreover, Gregory said, there was nothing in Drake’s resume that shows that she had served as an official of a nonprofit environmental protection organization as required by the law, which was the result of a compromise hammered out in the last days of the 1989 legislative session.

Gordon Hart, a Sierra Club lobbyist, said his group is impressed with Drake’s record on recycling. Nonetheless, he said, she fails “to come close” to meeting the qualifications required to provide an environmentalist perspective on the board.

Mark Murray, policy director of Californians Against Waste, told the committee that Drake “meets neither the letter nor the spirit of the law” requiring an environmentalist on the board.

Drake is Deukmejian’s second choice to fill the environmentalist slot on the board. He originally appointed John E. Gallagher of Orange. But faced with environmentalists’ outrage, Deukmejian abandoned Gallagher’s nomination. Gallagher’s nomination was withdrawn before the Rules Committee could take a vote.

Drake was appointed on Oct. 17 and has been performing her new duties ever since. During the hearing, Drake acknowledged having known the governor and his wife for more than two decades but asserted that she has not discussed the appointment with the Deukmejians.

Anita McKenzie, a spokeswoman for the governor, said no action had been taken to withdraw Drake’s appointment.

“Right now it looks like they’re going forward” with a Senate vote, she said.