Posted on 05/23/2008 9:43:56 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday named two Democrats to replace his brother-in-law, Bobby Shriver, and actor-director Clint Eastwood on a state parks panel that voted to oppose a controversial toll road the governor supports.
The two were dumped from the State Park and Recreation Commission in March after they refused to back a six-lane toll road that would cut through one of Southern California's most popular beaches.
Schwarzenegger replaced them with California NAACP chairwoman Alice Huffman, 72, and television production company president Lindy DeKoven, 55.
Huffman is a former lobbyist for the California Teachers Association and a Democratic superdelegate who backs Hillary Clinton. She also heads her own public affairs company in Sacramento.
She said she has coveted a spot on the park commission ever since she served as chief deputy director of the State Parks and Recreation Department from 1975 to 1980, under former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.
Huffman said she has not yet studied the proposed toll road through San Onofre State Beach in Orange County and has no position on it. But she said she told the governor's staff in an interview for the appointment that she would be willing to consider anything that comes before the board.
"I indicated that I would certainly be agreeable to getting done what the governor wanted done if I were a commissioner," Huffman told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "I said I hadn't seen the plans and didn't really understand all the issues involved."
The state Senate will have to approve the nominations of both women to the panel. The commission is charged with approving plans for California's parks and recommending ways to protect and develop the system. The position comes with pay of up to $100 a month.
DeKoven, of Los Angeles, left NBC Entertainment in 2000 to start her own production company, DeKoven Entertainment. She also is a member of the board of Schwarzenegger's and California First Lady Maria Shriver's annual women's conference and is chairwoman of the Commission on the Status of Women.
The AP could not immediately reach DeKoven after her appointment was made public late Friday.
California State Parks Foundation president Elizabeth Goldstein said she does not know either woman, but hopes to talk with both before they appear before the Senate. The foundation is part of a coalition that opposes the toll road.
"We certainly hope that they prove to be the champions for state parks that Clint Eastwood and Bobby Shriver have been all these years," she said.
Nearly a dozen environmental groups asked the state Senate to investigate Schwarzenegger's removal of Shriver and Eastwood from the panel.
Former Gov. Gray Davis appointed both to the commission in 2001, and Schwarzenegger reappointed them in 2004. Their terms ended in January, but they continued on the nine-member commission until Schwarzenegger told them March 17 that they would be replaced.
Shriver, the commission chairman, and Eastwood, the vice chairman, led the commission in its unanimous opposition in 2005 to the toll road. They also supported a 2006 lawsuit to block the toll road by then-California Attorney General Bill Lockyer.
Earlier this year, Eastwood and Shriver urged the California Coastal Commission to reject the project.
In a Jan. 25 letter signed by eight state park commissioners, the panel described San Onofre park as an irreplaceable resource that should be preserved. It also is one of Southern California's most cherished surfing beaches.
The coastal commission voted to reject the toll road in February. Local transportation agencies are appealing that decision.
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced this week that it would hold a public hearing on the 16-mile toll road, which proponents say would help ease congestion on overloaded area roads.
Shriver, a Santa Monica city councilman, told the AP that he and Eastwood, a former mayor of Carmel, had asked the governor for third terms on the panel. But he said Schwarzenegger had succumbed to arm-twisting by developers who support the Orange County toll road.
Schwarzenegger has been an advocate for public works projects since taking office and frequently cites the need to improve the state's transportation infrastructure. In response to the controversy over Eastwood and Shriver, Schwarzenegger said, "the road has to go somewhere."
Huffman said she did not seek the nomination, although she has always dreamed of serving on the commission. She said she was involved as NAACP president in discussions last year about Col. Allensworth State Historic Park, a Tulare County park where black pioneers and Buffalo soldiers are reportedly buried.
The park had fallen into neglect. State park officials agreed to pay $3.5 million to a neighboring farmer to prevent him from building two large dairies near the site.
She said when she worked in the parks department, she was known as a moderate on both preservation and development and she maintains that view.
Huffman was criticized in 2006 after her public relations company accepted $100,000 from tobacco company Philip Morris at the same time the NAACP - which she was leading - opposed a November ballot initiative to impose a tobacco tax.
Huffman is a former lobbyist for the California Teachers Association and a Democratic superdelegate who backs Hillary Clinton. She also heads her own public affairs company in Sacramento.
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DeKoven, of Los Angeles, left NBC Entertainment in 2000 to start her own production company, DeKoven Entertainment. She also is a member of the board of Schwarzenegger's and California First Lady Maria Shriver's annual women's conference and is chairwoman of the Commission on the Status of Women.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
LOL, it has an “R” by it’s name.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Every time I think Ahhnold can sink no longer, he does.
If there was a political party called RINO ole Arnie would be the director.
Mission accomplished, Arnold. Mission accomplished.
Gotta love that new GOP “brand”!
Arnold’s dream empire is sinking...with serious tax issues and missing tax revenue. When you need $20 billion in cuts or revenue...its really a hopeless mess. He will be totally forgotten in five years.
“... time to move-on”
Yeah .. half the state is moving on .. to another state that’s not filled with liberal everything.
Big bad macho arnold....he is NOT running the show....his lib/dem kennedy wife, Maria, has got him by the balls and is pulling all the strings!!!!
He doesn’t even bother pretending anymore, does he?
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