14 • Feb. 26 - Mar. 10, 2016 • The Log


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California Coastal Commission plays it close to the vest EDITORIAL


A heads up poker hand involving the California Coastal Commission on one side of the table and the state’s electorate on the other would make for stel- lar television. The commissioners would push all in on Charles Lester’s fate while fully decked out with shades to cover their eyes, a sweater with a hood obscuring the head, leaving only earphone wires, a set jaw and pursed lips visible. Is the commission bluffing? Does it have a real hand? Why make this bet now? These are the questions going through the public’s mind in decid- ing whether to call or fold.


Commissioners would be forced


to show its hand in a real game of poker had the public called the com- mission’s bet. We’d know whether the Coastal Commission bluffed in bet- ting Lester’s job or actually had a legitimate hand to play in forcing his ouster. A fold by the public and com- missioners would win the hand, bluff or otherwise. Unfortunately the Coastal


Commission’s public hearing on Feb. 10 in Morro Bay, California was not a poker hand. The hundreds of people who attended the meeting tried to play along with the hand dealt by commissioners, hoping an over- whelming call of the commission’s play would reveal the reason why Lester, a championed environmen- talist who many believed was an ideal roadblock to overdevelopment of the state’s coastline, was being fired. In the end commissioners voted 7-5 against Lester. The vote was con- ducted in private during closed ses- sion deliberations. The vote to hold the deliberations in private was even more convincing – 9 votes in favor of closed session and 3 in favor of dis- cussing Lester’s fate in public. The 9- 3 vote to determine Lester’s fate occurred despite the commission’s top lawyer saying commissioners were free to discuss the issue in pub-


News Briefs From page 5


working with new Tiara, Marquis, Mikelson and Scout boats as well as pre-owned cruising and recreational fishing boats. “I look forward to representing the


great new boat brands that Stan Miller Yachts sells, from local builders like Mag Bay Yachts to major industry titans like Viking and Hatteras,” Blackman said. “Between our sportfishing lines and our cruising lines, like Sanlorenzo, MJM, Sabre and Back Cove…we really have a style to match with most yacht buyers’ needs and wants.” Blackman’s hiring represents a need to meet additional demand in the San Diego area. With a new office at Intrepid Landing, Stan Miller Yacht’s presence in San Diego continues to grow to meet the booming regional boating community. Blackman can be reached at 619-884-


7902 or by email at steve@stanmiller.com. Steve joins the Stan Miller Yachts’ new San


lic because Lester request- ed a public hearing. Perhaps


there were legitimate rea- sons why Lester was ousted. We do not know for sure whether this was a power play by pro-developer lobbyists who influ- enced seven commissioners. Just the same maybe Lester was involved in some sort of illegal activity himself. Could a failure to consistently com- municate with commissioners, as some on the dais alleged, be enough of a reason to fire Lester? If the lack of communication impeded the com- mission from making educated and fair votes on major projects, sure, a lack of communication could be sig- nificant enough of a reason to fire anyone in the private or public realm. There could be hundreds of other


reasons to validate the commission’s firing of Lester. However all we’re given are vague references to Lester’s failure to return commissioner phone calls or whether he could have done a better job at directing the commis- sion to lodge votes based upon a greater mission instead of on a piece-


Diego office, located at Intrepid Landing at 2805 Dicken St., Suite 105 in San Diego.


Boat Ed to be premier sponsor of 20th International Boating & water Safety Summit


SAN DIEGO — Boat Ed has recently been announced as the Premier Sponsor for the 20th International Boating & Water Safety Summit (IBWSS), scheduled to be held March 6-9 at the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay in San Diego. The announcement was made by the National Safe Boating Council (NSBC), the National Water Safety Congress (NWSC), and the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA). The IBWSS is the premier event for training, awareness, meeting and networking for anyone involved in boating and water safety in support of the National Recreational Boating Safety Strategic Plan, 2012-2016. Boat Ed’s long-standing support of the IBWSS reflects the company’s commit-


meal basis. Whatever the reason for firing


Lester, the former executive director’s decision to subject himself to a pub- lic hearing – which some questioned as a ploy to drum up public support – essentially required the entire process to be played out in the open. Yet hours of testimony and hundreds of requests to the commission to not decide Lester’s fate in private was not enough reason for the public agency to delib- erate in open.


The public had no way of knowing if the commission was bluffing or played a legitimate hand. At least in poker the dealer demands a show- down when, at the end of the hand, one player bets and the other agrees to play along. There is resolution. The showdown reveals intent and finality. Both Lester and the commission


share plenty of blame for how the process was perceived by the public. Lester had ample opportunity to inform the public of whether the commission was bluffing or played a real hand. The commission gave Lester two opportunities to speak on Feb. 10, both at the beginning of the hearing and right after he was fired. At both times Lester only mentioned his accomplishments as executive director and gratitude to the com- mission for allowing him to serve. Why did he never once mention, at the very least, what he perceived to be the intent of the firing, even after


ment to promoting education initia- tives and making recreational boat- ing safer. Boat Ed’s support is driven by its dedication to providing print and online boating education courses to boaters in the


United States and Canada. Boat Ed’s history in recreational boat-


ing safety spans more than 20 years. In 1995, Kurt and Cindy Kalkomey incorpo- rated Boat Ed to offer boating safety edu- cation and certification tests. Since then, Boat Ed has expanded across all of North America, now educating in all 50 U.S. states and Canada. The 2016 IBWSS is co-hosted by the


NSBC, NWSC, and NASBLA and it is pro- duced in part with a grant from the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, administered by the U.S. Coast Guard. For more information, visit IBWSS.org.


he was already fired? On the other side of the dais sev-


eral speakers asked commissioners why they were paying more attention to their cell phones or laptops or other electronic devices instead of actively listening to the public testi- mony? It certainly is easy to perceive, whether true or not, commissioners either did not care of the public’s take or already had their respective minds made up before the public hearing even started. In the end whether Lester or the


Coastal Commission was in the right is not the point. A public hearing should be held entirely in public. Lester could have failed at perform- ing certain actions of his job. Perhaps there was a personality conflict. Maybe Lester was accused of wrong- doing or illegality. Commissioners might have played a real hand. They could have bluffed as well. How is a public agency to be trusted by the very people who entrust them with decisions of real consequence if the cards the commission holds are never shown? A poker player who calls a bet and is not given a showdown either results in the game not progressing or a standoff between those involved in the faceoff. Everything comes to a halt until the showdown is resolved. The commission’s vote on Feb. 10 cost Lester his job but the public has no resolution with the system. Lester might have been in the right. The Coastal Commission’s might have been justified. This is not about pick- ing sides. The process failed to play out and allowed the public to distrust the system, making all of us losers. — Parimal M. Rohit


Naos Yachts opens new office in Channel Islands Harbor


MARINA DEL REY — Naos Yachts, Inc., headquartered in Marina del Rey, with an office in Honolulu, Hawaii, announces the opening of an office in Channel Islands Harbor. The new office will represent Beneteau sailing yachts and Lagoon cata- marans, as well as pre-owned sail and powerboats. The new Naos location will also offer


charters on a new Lagoon catamaran and is the local SailTime base. The team from Naos Yachts will be hosting the Beneteau Boat Show from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., on March 5-6 at the docks in front of their office at 3141 S. Victoria Avenue in Oxnard. “We are very excited about the oppor-


tunity to become part of the Channel Islands/Ventura/Santa Barbara boating community,” said Capt. Greg Farah, man- ager of the Naos Yachts office in Oxnard. New sailboats featured at the boat show will include: Beneteau Sense 50,


See NEWS BRIEFS page 15


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