Planners hand off the decision

Jenny Marder

A reshuffled Planning Commission deadlocked on a vote for the

proposed desalination plant Tuesday night and opted to pass the

project on to the City Council without blessing or opposition.

The project needed a vote from a majority of the seven-member

commission to be approved, but with the resignation of former

Chairman Randy Kokal and another commissioner on vacation, the vote

stalled at 3 to 2 in favor of denying the project’s remaining

permits.

Newly appointed Planning Commission Chairman Ron Davis, who felt

that the decision had been delayed too long already, moved that the

group pass the matter on to the City Council instead of putting it

off longer. The commission has been trudging through the details of

the project since May.

“This has been a never-ending process,” Davis said. “It’s been

painful to the city, painful to the community, very painful to the

applicant and painful to the staff.”

Some felt that the commission shirked its duty by failing to reach

a final decision.

“I’m outraged that the Planning Commission sloughed off its

responsibility by not making a decision on the desalination plant,”

Councilman Dave Sullivan said. “Anybody can move something along by

sloughing their responsibilities.”

The commission should have deferred the vote until the next

meeting when seven commissioners would have been present, Sullivan

said.

Several commissioners also questioned the wisdom of passing the

proposal on without recommendation.

A stronger message should have been sent to the City Council, said

Commissioner Tom Livengood, who voted in favor of the project.

Commissioner John Scandura, who admitted to violating the Brown Act

at the last meeting, also questioned the action, and said that he was

appointed to the commission to make land-use decisions, not land-use

indecisions.

Mayor Connie Boardman, who asked Kokal to step down last week in

part because of the group’s slow decision-making, said that the

commission did the right thing.

“I think they’ve had this long enough,” she said. “It obviously

would have deadlocked, and the best thing was to pass it up to

council.”

The proposed desalination plant would pull from the AES Huntington

Beach power plant’s daily intake of seawater and treat it to produce

50 million gallons a day of fresh drinking water. The Poseidon Corp’s

proposed plant is the largest of 18 desalination plants proposed

along the California coast.

The commission has gone through a rough patch in the past four

months. Since May, the group has gained three new members and lost

its chairman, Kokal, who was asked to resign after violating protocol

in an election two weeks ago.

Boardman has appointed Carrie Thomas, a member of the

environmental board and a former member of the community services

commission, to fill Kokal’s seat.

Davis was elected as chair on Tuesday by a unanimous vote, and

Commissioner Steve Ray was elected vice chair.

A City Council hearing date for the Poseidon project has not been

set.

“I don’t think any one of us is comfortable with this ... but the

last thing we need staff dealing with is baby-sitting us and to be

costing the taxpayers any more money,” Davis said of the commission’s

decision.

* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at jenny.marder@latimes.com.