Howard Wins 6-Month Fight, Is Named to Coastal Panel

SACRAMENTO —  The Senate Rules Committee on Thursday appointed Burbank City Councilwoman Mary Lou Howard to the 12-member state Coastal Commission.

The committee announced its decision after a brief closed-door meeting off the Senate floor, ending six months of haggling over the appointment, which had been sought by at least seven other members of city councils in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Howard, 49, will fill the vacancy created by Leo King, a former Baldwin Park city councilman, who was not reappointed in January. He had been targeted for removal by conservation organizations.

As Howard’s alternate, the committee named Jacqueline Rynerson, vice mayor of Lakewood.

The Sierra Club had supported Rynerson and Huntington Beach City Councilman Peter Green for the commission.

Paula Carrell, a Sierra Club lobbyist, said Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the Rules Committee, had assured the group that the committee would name a candidate with environmental credentials. Robert Forsyth, Roberti’s press secretary, described Howard as an environmentalist.

But Carrell said Howard “doesn’t have a record on environmental issues that we could measure.” As a result, she said, “we will wait and see and hope that” Roberti is right.

Howard said Roberti had asked her to seek the appointment. Roberti represents Burbank and has known Howard, a Democrat, for many years. Howard said she also drew support from Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, a Republican.

Howard suggested that the Sierra Club supported Green and Rynerson because they were unfamiliar with her background. “I’m sure they’re not going to be disappointed. I’m not anyone’s pawn or lackey. I’m very independent,” Howard said in a telephone interview.

“Just because I’m not familiar with the Coastal Act doesn’t mean I won’t make a good commissioner,” she said, adding that she believes she will quickly learn how the commission operates.

“I am an environmentalist,” she said, citing her efforts to obtain state funds to purchase a developer’s hillside property in Burbank to preserve it as open space. The city is negotiating with the developer, Sherman Whitmore, to buy the land.

The Coastal Act directs the commission to balance development interests and protection of the coast while it reviews coastal development permits. Appointments are split among the Rules Committee, Gov. George Deukmejian and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco).

The law requires that one of the Rules Committee’s appointments be an elected local official in Orange or Los Angeles counties.

Last December, the committee split 2 to 2 with one abstention over retaining King or naming Green to replace him.

The position pays a per diem and expenses.