Why Pismo Beach’s Erik Howell voted to fire Coastal Commission director

Pismo Beach City Councilman Erik Howell, who sits on the California Coastal Commission, said Thursday that a lack of communication and needless delays on projects in the coastal zone were reasons that he voted Wednesday to dismiss the panel’s executive director, Charles Lester.

“There have been dozens of items over the past two years that have been delayed without adequate explanation,” Howell said. “The communication and relationship between commissioners and the executive director were not working.”

After an all-day meeting that drew more than 600 people to the Morro Bay Community Center, the commission emerged from a closed-session meeting to announce it had voted 7-5 to dismiss Lester.

Howell, echoing frustrations articulated by other commissioners at Wednesday’s meeting, pointed to a lack of adequate communication, delayed hearings and inadequate staff reports for the reasons Lester was dismissed.

Howell said he did not explain his vote Wednesday because Lester did not agree to make his most recent performance evaluations open to the public. Over the past two years, multiple evaluations had listed the commission’s dissatisfaction with Lester, but because these are confidential they could not be discussed in detail at the meeting, Howell said.

“We did multiple performance evaluations, and we shared our concerns with him,” Howell said.

Although the commission could not discuss Lester’s performance evaluations, Lester did ask that his dismissal be the subject of a public hearing. This gave commissioners the ability to discuss Lester’s performance in general.

Howell gave several examples of inefficiency and delay on the part of Lester. In November, the opponents of the Beachwalk Resort in Pismo Beach wanted to appeal the project to the Coastal Commission, which would have given the commission an opportunity to require low-income housing as part of the project — or, in lieu of that, to collect fees.

However, Lester delayed the hearing until the appeal was withdrawn and the commission lost its jurisdiction and ability to collect fees.

“Promoting low-income housing in the coastal zone is a top priority for the commission, and we lost an opportunity to collect fees for that,” Howell said.

He also cited the Bay Cities development in Seal Beach, which was heard by the commission in March 2015. Staff, as well as some of the commissioners, opposed the development because the property was incorrectly zoned.

Lester scheduled a hearing to determine whether the application was complete, Howell said.

“We shouldn’t have wasted a whole day on a hearing on whether or not the application was complete,” he said. “We should have just denied the project.”

Thursday’s hearing was in stark contrast to Wednesday’s meeting.

Wednesday’s hearing attracted more than 600 activists from around the state to protest the firing of Lester. Only about 50 people attended Thursday’s hearing, none of them vocal activists from Wednesday’s hearing.

The only San Luis Obispo County item on Thursday’s agenda was an appeal of a beachfront, single-family home in Morro Bay. The commission denied the appeal.

What’s next

In the wake of Lester’s controversial dismissal, his two chief deputy directors, Susan Hansch and Jack Ainsworth, will fill in for Lester until a permanent replacement can be found.

Lester’s duties will be split between the two deputies as per standard commission procedures, Hansch said Thursday.

Wednesday’s agenda had two follow-up items to decide who would succeed Lester on an interim basis and develop procedures for replacing him, but Chairman Steve Kinsey adjourned the meeting Wednesday after the Lester item and did not take up the two follow-up items. Those will be considered at a later date, Hansch said.

In the coming months, the commission will take up two controversial San Luis Obispo County items.

One is the Loperena home in Cayucos. The family has proposed building a home on the bluffs that is opposed by neighbors because of its size and location, said Dan Carl, deputy director for the commission’s Central Coast district. This item could be heard as early as next month.

Another controversial item is the renewal of the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area’s local coastal plan. The park is highly controversial because unhealthy levels of dust blow off the park onto the Nipomo Mesa. That item could be heard as soon as August, Carl said.

This story was originally published February 11, 2016 at 11:23 AM with the headline "Why Pismo Beach’s Erik Howell voted to fire Coastal Commission director."