Changing how the California Coastal Commission does business

What the legislation would do: Two bills take differing approaches to overhauling the operations of the California Coastal Commission.

AB 2002: Would declare anyone who uses ex parte meetings with commissioners to be registered as a lobbyist and bans the private meetings within 24 hours of commission action.

SB 1190: Would completely ban private meetings with members of the commission. Environmentalists are championing the measure as a game-changer in how the agency does business.

The latest: SB 1190 was amended Aug. 11 by the Assembly Appropriations Committee with what appear to be small exceptions to the ban on ex parte meetings, mainly when commissioners take field trips to the site of a proposed coastal project. Whether those changes are reasonable or tantamount to a serious watering down of the bill depends on your perspective. Both this bill and AB 2002 (which remains as it was) are moving to floor votes in the two houses.

Back story: The February dismissal of Charles Lester as executive director of the California Coastal Commission sparked a series of efforts to change the way the panel does business — with a special focus on what kind of access, if any, groups with business pending before the agency should have to private meetings with the commissioners. Environmental groups and editorial writers have demanded major changes, alleging undue influence from those who seek to build new coastal development projects. Supporters were especially angry when Brown’s administration released an analysis saying SB 1190 would impose an extra cost for the agency, suspecting it was an attempt to kill the bill by making it too expensive.