Activist to Be Named to Planning Panel

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  Newly appointed Councilman Ralph Bauer said Wednesday that he plans to appoint environmental activist Debbie Cook to the city’s Planning Commission.

Cook, 38, was a founding member of Save Our Parks, an environmental organization formed in 1989 to try to halt proposed developments in city parks and on public beaches.

Save Our Parks succeeded in getting enough voter signatures to put an initiative on the city’s 1990 ballot. That initiative, called Measure C, was approved by 70% of the voters. It prohibits the city from selling or leasing any park or beach land without approval of city voters.

Many political observers have said the passage of Measure C heralded a political revolution in Huntington Beach and was the beginning of the end for developer-dominated politics in the city.

Bauer, a staunch environmentalist himself, was appointed Dec. 21 to fill the late Councilman Jack Kelly’s term. He was appointed by an environmental majority on the council created by this year’s city elections.

Bauer said city law allows a Planning Commission appointee of a deceased councilman to continue in office for 90 days. Bauer said that Cook therefore will not be seated on the commission until February, which would be 90 days after the Nov. 7 death of Kelly. Kelly’s appointee on the commission, Susie Newman, will serve through January, Bauer said.

Bauer praised Cook and said she would make a very good planning commissioner.

“I picked Debbie Cook for several reasons,” Bauer said. “For one thing, she is young, and I think it is time for the next generation to get involved. For another thing, she is very bright, and she has paid her dues. She’s worked for many city projects. And finally, a big plus as far as I’m concerned: She’s a woman. I’m a supporter of getting more women into the process of government.”

Bauer, who said he supported Measure C, also praised Cook’s efforts in getting that initiative passed. “I think she did a wonderful job,” he said.

Bauer, who will take his seat on the council Monday, said his appointment of Cook will carry a message.

“The message I want to get across is that the time of the old boys’ network in city government is gone,” he said.

Cook, a geology graduate of Cal State Long Beach, is a manufacturers’ representative. She and her husband, John Fisher, and their 16-year-old son, Jody, live in the Country View Estates area of Huntington Beach, near Central Park.