We Reiterate: Sheila Kuehl For Los Angeles Supervisor

Dorothy Reik is the president of the Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains and you may recall the guest post she did for us last week on the state Senate race pitting Sandra Fluke against Ben Allen on the Westside of L.A. Although there was some backbiting from a few EMILY's List deadeners, overall there was such a positive response that I asked Dorothy if she'd be willing to cover another crucial Los Angeles race for us, the supervisorial race where Blue America candidate Sheila Kuehl is facing off against the less progressive, Big Money candidate, Bobby Shriver. (The L.A. Times and Henry Waxman have also endorsed Sheila.)

Dorothy asked that we run the following letter from Frank Angel. "The environmental community knows Frank Angel well," she wrote. He is our attorney. He sends this important message about the future of our open space should Shriver prevail and become Supervisor. This is a must read and if your friends are thinking about trying 'something new' please send this to them. Shriver is dangerous to us and to our environment. I heard him last Friday-- he was very clear-- CEQA hinders development and he wants to change it to make it easier for developers! And please also send it to those holding a grudge over the 2012 election-- don't cut off your nose to spite your face, as the old saying goes. Sheila is our champion. Our advocate. Sheila is US!! Bobby is THEM in the worst possible sense.

Did you know that last Friday, Bobby Shriver proudly announced his endorsement by pro-development L.A. County Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Don Knabe (Deane Dana’s successor)?  When Antonovich and Dana had a majority on the Board of Supervisors, L.A. County land use plans were being loopholed to death. Growth and destruction of pristine canyons and ridgelines ran amok. If Shriver gets elected, a pro-development majority will be restored on the Board.  Which means old business-as-usual will resume. At the worst possible time. The newly adopted Santa Monica Mountains LCP means little without a Supervisor we can trust. To pay lip service to the new coastal land use plan isn’t the same as going to bat to enforce it.

Shriver also shares Antonovich’s and Knabe’s disdain for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). As the L.A. Times reported earlier this month, at a debate between Sheila Kuehl and Shriver, Sheila noted that CEQA works well. Shriver disagreed, saying the law needs to be reformed because too often it is used as a cudgel to slow or even stop development. He stated: “With rents soaring across the region, more building is necessary to increase the stock of affordable housing. This law, because of the way it's written, can be used in a very aggressive way to stop a project."

You bet! Had we not used this law aggressively, the beautiful parklands of King Gillette Ranch would now be developed with the institutional buildings and dorms of the infamous “Soka University” project and a sprawling new city would have popped up at the former Ahmanson Ranch site, just north of Calabasas. I proudly represented the Sierra Club in the first case, and the City of Calabasas in the latter. Just imagine the traffic gridlock on Las Virgenes Canyon Rd. or the 101 Freeway had these projects not been stopped. There are times when our welfare demands that our local elected representatives stand up to development interests, and stop or cut down on growth plans.

Shriver’s quoted statements use the same code language that CEQA’s foes are using-- foes like the state’s Chambers of Commerce. Shriver is endorsed by the downtown L.A. and the Hollywood Chambers of Commerce, and he benefits from their and developer PAC funding (e.g., an investor behind the Edge project in Malibu). When development interests and their allies in the legislature talk about “reforming” CEQA, they mean to gut it. Many public interest attorney colleagues of mine closely follow the “reform” proposals that Chamber of Commerce-led interests write for friendly legislators. We fight them.

As one who has been and keeps fighting before the Board of Supervisors and in the courts for your environmental rights, I am greatly worried for the future of the Santa Monica Mountains if Shriver gets elected. Shriver is not who you may think he is. With the upcoming Supervisorial election, the future of our mountains and our quality of life hangs in the balance. I will vote for Sheila. She will stand up for our rights and protect our interests on the Board of Supervisors. Guaranteed by Sheila’s impeccable environmental record and her honesty in the Legislature!”

Frank P. Angel