Pookie’s Memories: Behind the Legislative Screen.
Over 45 years ago, I played a role in the development, passage, and implementation of California’s unique coastal zone resource protection program. Few people, mostly those who were also involved, remember it now almost half a century later. We must keep in mind that a little over 50 years before the the battle to save California’s coastal resources and reversing the ever increasing pace of their destruction, a far more momentous battle had been won with the passage of the 19th amendment to the US Constitution assuring a woman’s right to vote in the United States. And while some of us are aware of that great event, very few know or care to know the the specifics, the human interactions, humor, horror, successes and failures, in other words the nitty-gritty of the making of history.
I have now and then written a little bit about my own experiences (some are listed below) in a few of the behind the scene events. In a post, I wrote about a somewhat humorous exchange with some lobbyists opposed to the passage of the legislation. Recently, while shopping together a Raley’s, for some reason Naida got me to dredge up a few long forgotten stories. I thought they may be a bit entertaining to write down over the next few issues.
Just a little background. I got involved in the battle to save the coast because John Olmsted, someone I admired, wanted desperately to save his beloved Pygmy Forest located on the coast in Mendocino. Without the establishment of a strong coastal program for California that covered the Pygmy Forest as far inland was necessary then probably no Pygmy Forest would survive. That was how I saw my role — establishing a strong coastal program with as much substance and territorial jurisdiction as needed and with as much legislative specificity as would limit administrative backsliding over the years of its existence to insure the survival of those benighted, gnarled and stunted little trees. I did not consider myself a doctrinaire environmentalist and I had no post-legislative ambitions that would cause to modify either my behavior or to take away the focus of my attention.
Anyway, today’s story.
At one point I became counsel to a Senate Select Committee on Land Use Planning Organizations. It was created specifically so Senator Jerry Smith could hire me after my stint as chief counsel to the California Coastal Commission. I had a small two room office in Sacramento across the street from the State Capitol building, a secretary, and a desk. On that desk at the right corner farthest from me, I kept a maniilla file into which I had placed several blank pages.
Lobbyists from the many interest groups opposed to the legislation would often troop into my office in ones and twos. I would close the door and take my seat on my comfortable reclining desk chair. They, in turn, would sit on two uncomfortable folding chairs across the desk from me and from which they would express their opposition to the coastal legislation at times raising their voices and pounding on the desk. Now and then they would even threaten me with career or physical injury. I would listen in silence. Eventually, they got to the inevitable point of assuring me that they will ultimately kill the legislation unless I accepted the amendments they would propose or had proposed.
At this point, I would lean forward and say in a low voice, “Do you see that file?” I would then reach for the file and move it to the center of the desk in front of me. “This” I would continue, “is my draft of an initiative to implement a coastal protection program. I assure you that should the current legislation go down to defeat, immediately after the vote this initiative will be sent out to gather the signatures needed to place it on the ballot and I assure you we will get them. And, If you think you will be able to defeat the ballot measure, remember, you didn’t with Proposition 20 (the initiative to create the coastal commission in order to prepare the plan that had been presented to the legislature and formed the basis of the current legislation). So, what do you think will happen when the same people who voted in favor of that initiative learn you killed the legislation they voted for.”
There was usually some huffing and puffing. Then I would get up, folder in hand, move to the door open it and say I would be happy to look at any amendments they may have to make the legislation better.
At this point, my Jamaican secretary, a woman legendary for her aggressiveness would rush in and, in no uncertain terms, escort them out.
I admit, every meeting did not go exactly like this and I will describe one interesting example a future issue.
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