AQMD Chief on Verge of Losing Job

Southern California’s chief smog fighter is on the verge of being ousted as the regional air board failed Friday in a series of tense votes to break a deadlock over keeping him at the helm.

Looking weary and dejected afterward, longtime Executive Officer James Lents said “enough is enough,” adding, “my feeling is that it’s over.”

Lents’ contract at the South Coast Air Quality Management District expires July 31, and he must leave the agency unless a single board member changes his or her mind by then. That seems highly unlikely, because the board members remained firmly split at 6 to 6--just as they have been for a month--after a hearing in which three dozen environmentalists and others urged them to retain Lents, calling him an unparalleled leader in the war against smog.

Lents’ ouster could throw the agency into disarray, at least for a time. If the board members cannot break a deadlock on choosing an executive officer, close observers of the agency ask, how will they agree on what direction to head in battling air pollution?

Over the longer term, no one is certain what a shake-up of the smog agency’s leadership would mean in the decades-long battle to clean the skies over the Los Angeles Basin, which has the nation’s foulest air.

But environmentalists, many agency staffers and officials from Riverside and San Bernardino counties--which have the most severe air pollution and formed the core of Lents’ support--believe his departure will signal the weakening of the agency’s anti-smog effort. They predict the board and staff will yield to businesses and conservative state legislators.

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Many observers doubt that the highly divided board, with its conservative leanings and pressure from legislators, would hire a new executive who is aggressive in regulating the more than 30,000 businesses that contribute to pollution in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

“This is a defining vote, a watershed vote, in the approach for clean air,” said Riverside Mayor Ronald Loveridge, who voted to retain Lents. “A yes vote for Lents is a vote for clean air.”

Several board members, however, deny that their aim is to ease smog control, saying instead that the old leadership is stale and they want someone more energetic, responsive to the board and committed to building stronger coalitions with businesses and city leaders.

Orange County Supervisor James Silva, who voted against Lents, said the AQMD needs new leadership and direction, and if Lents is removed “we would still be moving forward” to clean the air yet protect the economy.

The board first deadlocked on Lents a month ago. Members will try again July 11.

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Although they were unable to agree on Lents’ future, the board members did decide Friday to keep the rest of the AQMD’s top management intact. They renewed the contracts of five top managers, including deputy executive officers Barry Wallerstein and Patricia Leyden, who are expected to stay on for now but whose long-term employment with the agency is likely to depend on who is eventually named director.

Local and state environmental groups waged an intense campaign to persuade at least one board member to switch to support Lents, a physicist known internationally for innovative pollution control at the AQMD for the last 10 years.

Environmentalists pressured in particular two Democrats on the board--Pomona City Councilwoman Nell Soto and Los Angeles Marathon Vice Chairman William Burke, who was appointed by former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.

“We view this as a power play orchestrated to weaken the ability of the AQMD” to clean up smog, said Emil Lawton of the Sierra Club.

“We’re making progress [in cleaning the air]. But we have a long way to go and we’re not going to get there if the board does not retain Dr. Lents,” said Linda Waade, executive director of the Coalition for Clean Air.

But the effort failed. Soto and Burke joined four Republicans in voting to oust Lents. Soto said the board can find someone more effective and diplomatic than Lents. She said the staff is often rude and unresponsive to her and other leaders from the 63 cities she represents on the AQMD board.

Soto said she resented accusations from environmentalists that she is against protecting public health simply because she wants a new executive.

“I care very much about the environment,” she said. “This is not a partisan issue.”

Burke agreed, saying “my vote represents the continued effort to clean up the air in the basin.”

Business leaders are divided.

Many small-business owners say AQMD rules have gone too far and have driven factories out of the Los Angeles basin.

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“Most businesses feel as though [Lents] has neglected them,” said Ed Laird, chairman of the Small Business Coalition, which represents 4,000 business owners. “There is a lack of direction and sound science. . . . It’s time for a change. The hostility and single direction should end.”

Laird was one of two speakers Friday who publicly urged the board to oust Lents.

But some of the area’s largest companies support Lents. Robert Wyman, an attorney for major manufacturers, including Chevron, Shell Oil, Southern California Edison, Hughes Aircraft and Northrop-Grumman, told the board to keep Lents because he has found ways to clean the air while minimizing economic damage. He lauded Lents for “outstanding, unparalleled technical excellence” and for being “honest, straightforward and hard-working.”

As chief executive of the world’s largest and most powerful local pollution agency since 1986, Lents led the AQMD through its most dynamic and aggressive years, when unhealthful smog days declined by over 40%--largely because of state and local regulations.

But he has also presided over some high-level failures, including the en-masse resignation last fall of the AQMD’s scientific advisors, who protested the agency’s turn in the last four years toward less aggressive anti-smog policies.

His term in office has been a fiercely controversial period, when critics say Lents angered business leaders and disrupted the local economy by paying little attention to the costs. In response, in recent years Lents has scaled back the smog battle.

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Lents is supported by four board members who represent Riverside and San Bernardino counties and cities, liberal Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, who retired this month, and Warner Bros. Vice President Mee Hae Lee, appointed by the state Senate.

Orange County’s two appointees--Silva and Newport Beach Councilwoman Norma Glover--voted against him, along with Soto, Burke, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Los Angeles entertainment industry promoter Cody Cluff.

Cluff, who was Gov. Pete Wilson’s sole appointee to the AQMD board, was denied confirmation by the state Senate on Thursday, but he can serve for 60 days.