Posted on 06/15/2006 7:13:51 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
It may not be on a scale of Franklin D. Roosevelt's attempt to pack the Supreme Court, but Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez's bid to pack the Coastal Commission with his cronies is very troubling all the same.
As speaker, Núñez, D-Los Angeles, gets to make four appointments to the 12-member panel. Under state law, if an appointee is unable to attend a Coastal Commission meeting, he may send a designated alternate in his place. Núñez, however, is attempting to dictate who the four alternates will be – a clear usurpation of each commissioner's legal authority.
What's more, the timing of Núñez's power grab is mighty suspicious.
The speaker sought to impose his own list of alternates in advance of what was expected to be a very close and hotly contested vote by coastal commissioners on a controversial Pebble Beach golf development. After Commissioner Steve Padilla, the mayor of Chula Vista, announced that his alternate, David Allgood, would attend the session, Núñez demanded that his own handpicked choice, Elizabeth Brem, be sent instead as Padilla's alternate. Allgood was expected to oppose the Monterey County project, while Brem was expected to support it. The developer, the Pebble Beach Co., hosts an annual fund-raiser for Democratic legislators. Yesterday, the firm withdrew its proposal, saying it planned to make modifications to address concerns raised by the Coastal Commission's staff.
In short, Speaker Núñez's effort to tilt the Coastal Commission has backfired. We urge him to stop meddling in the panel's affairs.
No surprise.
Nope, sadly, business as usual.
At least it getting some light cast on it.
The Coastal Commission -- now THERE is a box that needs to get blown up!
(and Nunez along with it).
I dunno, I see politics 101 here. Win or go home stuff. OK,, maybe bare knuckles politics by a weasel or two. :-)
What did I miss?
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NUNEZ is holding 'At the Desk' in the California State Assembly...
...the already California State Senate-passed Resolution SCR-17.
SCR-17 would make California the 9th State in our Union to officially recognize the Free Flag of the former Republic of South Vietnam as representing the Vietnamese-Americans in their own community functions, instead of the Communist Vietnam Flag.
SCR-17 went thru the Senate without a single NO vote.
All NUNEZ has to do is bring SCR-17 to the Assembly Floor for a vote and it would then go into effect ..for the LOVE of Freedom.
And NUNEZ knows it.
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Thanks for the ping!
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