Tired of the Rules? Fire the Referees

Most employers place a high value on attributes like competence, flexibility, creativity and the ability to work with a variety of people and produce good results. But not the governing board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

On May 9, the AQMD’s 12-member ruling body all but fired its 10-year executive officer, James M. Lents, and five of his top assistants. On what should have been a routine approval of new contracts for Lents and his key staff, the board instead deadlocked, 6 to 6.

The board members opposing Lents’ retention are Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich; Los Angeles Marathon head William A. Burke; Cody Cluff, president of an entertainment company and an appointee of Gov. Pete Wilson; Newport Beach Councilwoman Norma Glover; Orange County Supervisor James Silva and Pomona Councilwoman Nell Soto.

Unless one of these anti-Lents votes has a change of heart and votes differently at the June board meeting, the man whose skills and leadership have produced the best air quality the Los Angeles area has enjoyed will be gone when his contract expires on July 31.

As the most experienced member of this board, with 20 years of service, I see the efforts of the anti-Lents faction as a campaign to destroy the district.

For 10 years, Lents has been an effective leader who has provided the vision to make the AQMD a world-class smog-control agency. Thus the action of the anti-Lents bloc sends only one message: that it’s acceptable to strip the agency of its clout as a regulatory institution and to allow polluters greater latitude to poison the air. That’s the wrong message.

Under Lents’ leadership, the AQMD has dealt with tough issues and solved them creatively. It has set up a special unit to work with small businesses and small cities. It has broadened the access of business, citizens and environmentalists to its staff and has opened the lines of communication to everyone affected by its regulations. It proposes and enforces. These are the hallmarks of a leader who should be prized and retained, not sent packing.

But what’s at stake in the Lents affair has little to do with Lents. It is a major public policy question--whether the agency charged with cleaning the air is going to promote public health or respond to extreme political agendas.

Instead of finding specific fault in Lents’ performance, a bloc of six AQMD board members is intent on dismantling the agency.

One of them, Antonovich, is well known for his long-term and ironclad hostility toward the AQMD. He and the five other like-minded board members have no alternative plan to protect the public health, nor do they state any specific criticism of any of the district’s programs. They are simply in a state of denial; they are pawns of those who want to dismantle all government controls.

Ironically, the AQMD is a world leader in using free-market methods to achieve clean air, rather than command-and-control regulatory methods. The district’s Reclaim program, for example, which uses free-market trading in pollution credits, is acclaimed as courageous and innovative and is praised by business people and many environmentalists.

Southern California should be justifiably proud of its air-quality district, the best in the world. Throwing away 10 years of solid experience and proven accomplishment would be a highly irresponsible action. We need Jim Lents and his team to deal with the continuing challenge of cleaning the air we all breathe and protecting public health.