Governor Begins Refilling Water Boards

Gov. Gray Davis has appointed two new members to a key environmental oversight panel for Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, creating a quorum so the group can meet for the first time since last autumn.

While the delay hasn’t stalled any development or environmental projects so far, the appointments announced Tuesday came after the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board canceled its meeting this Friday for lack of a quorum.

The state Water Resources Control Board and its nine regional panels were created in 1967 by the Legislature to oversee the state’s waters while allowing beneficial uses. Each regional group, which has nine seats, needs at least five members to meet. The Santa Ana and San Diego regional boards share jurisdiction over Orange County.

Davis appointed Jose Solorio, a Santa Ana resident who works for the Orange County Transportation Authority, and former Redlands Mayor Carol Beswick, a business owner and member of the San Bernardino County Flood Control Advisory Committee.

They bring membership of the Santa Ana board to six. It was one of six regional boards that lacked a quorum until Davis began a flurry of 17 appointments in recent weeks. The Colorado River Basin regional board, which has four members, still cannot meet.

Environmentalists, who have been waiting for Davis to make good on campaign promises to protect state waterways, say the appointment process is too drawn out and leaves the state and regional boards dominated by appointees of former Gov. Pete Wilson.

“We elected [Davis] by a landslide a year ago, and one of the things the governor was strongest on was . . . protecting water quality,” said Mark Gold, executive director of Manhattan Beach-based Heal the Bay. “By him not making his allotment of appointments, in essence, we do not have the Davis administration making water-quality decisions for the state of California.”

David Beckman, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the main effect of the loss of quorums is that local boards haven’t been able to meet. “We haven’t seen the vigorous first year that we would have expected,” he said.

Calls to the governor’s press office were not returned.

But state officials say the lack of quorum has had no significant consequences, because the boards’ executive officers have considerable authority to act on their own. The board’s staff can grant extensions for permits and take enforcement actions, said Kurt Berchtold, assistant executive officer of the Santa Ana regional board. However, a backlog may have developed if two more meetings were canceled, he said.

But the members of the San Diego regional board were so concerned about losing a quorum that last year they voted to lower the number of members required to three. The state board overturned that resolution, and last month, Davis boosted the number of board members to five, said Wayne Baglin, chairman of the San Diego board.

Many regional boards still have Wilson-appointed majorities, another sticking point for environmentalists. But developers say whether Davis or Wilson appointed board members is irrelevant.

Paul Kranhold, Irvine Co. spokesman and Wilson’s former press secretary, said politics only come into play with major appointments.

“The further and further you get into the bureaucracy, the more and more technical the positions become and the less and less important political philosophy is,” he said.

Another major developer in Orange County, who asked not to be identified, said developers have an easier time under Democrats anyway.

“Give me a Democratic governor any day of the week,” the developer said. “Democrats already have the environmental vote. Environmentalists have no place to go when the governor wants to support balanced development projects--[they’re] not going to complain and run to the Republicans.”

Lucy Dunn, executive vice president of Hearthside Homes, which is planning a development near the Bolsa Chica wetlands, said, “My sense is the Davis administration prides itself on balance and maintaining the business and economic growth of the state.

“As I watch some of the governor’s appointments . . . I’m convinced that’s one of the reasons he’s been very careful about appointments--because he’s looking for balance.”

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Boards Back in Flow

The Santa Ana and San Diego regional water quality control boards share jurisdiction of protecting Orange County’s waterway. A lack of appointments by Gov. Davis threatened these boards’ ability to meet, until he made a flurry of appointments in the past month.