Consultant quits part-time post

Andrew Edwards

Garry Brown, executive director of the environmental group Orange

County Coastkeeper, has resigned his post as a part-time consultant

for a Newport Beach lobbying firm following accusations by other

activists that he played both sides of the fence.

Brown said his decision to quit Iger & Associates, which

represents businesses in their dealings with environmental

regulators, was based on an agreement he made with Coastkeeper’s

board of directors to leave the firm if any controversy developed.

“When all of a sudden it became an issue, I fulfilled my promise,”

Brown said.

Under Iger & Associates employ, Brown worked about 10 to 20 hours

monthly, January through March, he said. Brown said he hoped he could

use his position as a consultant to convince developers to beef up

water-quality measures.

Brown said a confidentiality agreement prohibited him from

discussing his specific activities at Iger & Associates. The company

did not return phone calls for comment.

Among its work, Coastkeeper placed the Talbert Channel on its list

of the county’s most polluted bodies of water and helped with a

significant study of Huntington Harbour and Anaheim Bay.

Roger von Butow, a Laguna Beach environmentalist who founded the

South Orange County Watershed Conservancy, sent a critical e-mail to

Brown in March. The message, which was also sent to reporters and

other environmentalists, accused Brown of taking a job with the “bad

guys” by working for the lobbying group.

“It’s kind of like working for the public defender’s office and

working for the [district attorney’s] office at the same time on the

same case,” von Butow said, describing his impression of Brown’s

actions.

In addition to Brown’s role with Iger & Associates, von Butow and

Newport Beach-based Defend the Bay founder Bob Caustin also

questioned Brown’s acceptance of sponsorships from developers and

other companies.

Sponsors for Coastkeeper’s October 2004 fundraiser included the

Irvine Co. and Poseidon Resources Corp., a Stamford, Conn., company

that has proposed a controversial desalination plant for Huntington

Beach.

“They sure wouldn’t come to one of my dinners, I guarantee,”

Caustin said.

During the early 1980s, Brown was the executive director of the

Baldy View chapter of the Building Industry Assn., which represents

builders in San Bernardino County. With Coastkeeper, Brown said he

seeks to build collaborative relationships with developers, adding

that he does not believe he has been compromised by corporate

sponsorships.

“We don’t promise them anything except to sue them if they

pollute,” Brown said.

Not all local activists think Brown’s work with Iger & Associates

was wrong. Nancy Gardner, founder of the Newport Beach chapter of the

Surfrider Foundation, said she thinks Brown had good intentions when

he took the consulting post, but acknowledged that some could see his

role in a bad light.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea to have an environmentally-eager

person in the building industry,” Gardner said. “The real problem is

the perception.”