Leader gets a green welcome
Ainsworth, with his deep love of shoreline, takes over as agency’s executive director
VENTURA — To say Jack Ainsworth loves the California coast is an understatement.
As a child growing up in the Inland Empire of San Bernardino County, Ainsworth went for a handful of overnight trips to the beach with his par- ents and eight siblings. As he wrote recently in his application for executive director of the Coastal Commission, those experiences “were burned into my soul.”
“To wake up to the sounds
and smells and sights of the ocean was just unbelievable to me,” Ainsworth said Thursday in an interview. “I fell in love with it.”
On Feb. 10, the Coastal Commission voted unanimously to make Ainsworth the fifth executive director in the agency’s 41-year history, capping a tumultuous 12-month period that began with the controversial firing of his predecessor, Charles Lester. As executive director, Ainsworth leads a powerful state agency that regulates development along 1,100 miles of the California coast.
The commission’s zealous enforcement of the 1976 Coastal Act is largely responsible for the vast stretches of unspoiled beauty that millions of hikers, surfers and beachgoers enjoy today.
Environmentalists, who led the public outcry against Lester’s dismissal, are cheering Ainsworth’s selection. And the agency’s new leader has to pinch himself to doublecheck the experience is real.
“To have this job protecting the coast,” he said, “is beyond my wildest imagination as a kid.”
Ainsworth, 59, has worked for the commission for nearly three decades, most recently as acting executive director. He took on that role after the commission’s 12 voting members ousted Lester, citing problems with communication and slow progress in increasing the diversity of commission staff.
Commissioners have said they want the agency to focus more on enhancing access to the coast for minority communities. The Ventura resident pledged to tackle those issues and evidently excelled as acting director. The commission chose Ainsworth over two other finalists after conducting a national search.
“Jack’s depth of understanding of coastal issues, the challenges confronting this agency, and his steady leadership over the last year thoroughly impressed us,” commission Chairwoman Dayna Bochco said in a statement.
Commissioner Carole Groom, who is also a San Mateo County supervisor, praised Ainsworth as being a strong mentor and “willing problem-solver.”
Ralph Faust, who served as general counsel of the commission from 1986 to 2006, said hiring Ainsworth was important for the stability of the commission, which is bracing for more upheaval as new commissioners are appointed.
“Of all the ways this could have come out,” said Faust, “this is the happiest I could be.”
There are three vacant seats on the commission, which Gov. Jerry Brown and Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, must fill, and as many as four current members will be replaced by Brown and legislative leaders when their appointments expire in May. Those decisions will be “absolutely critical to the future of our coast, especially with the changes at the federal level,” said Jennifer Savage, California policy manager for the Surfrider Foundation, referring to the election of President Donald Trump.
The Republican has called climate change a “hoax” and is expected to roll back regulations on resource extractors. Coastal advocates feared the worst when the commission voted 7-5 to terminate Lester with little explanation and, in the view of many environmentalists, inadequate justification.
Lester was well-regarded by coast-lovers and the agency’s more than 150 staffers, and there was widespread concern that the commission wanted a leader who would be more accommodating to coastal developers.
Commissioners told angry crowds last spring that they were committed to the Coastal Act, but many activists remained skeptical. All that turmoil and distrust made the selection of Ainsworth, for some observers, a pleasant surprise.
“They may have taken the long way around, and it may have been chaotic and messy,” said attorney and coastal advocate Mark Massara, “but at the end of the day they did what was in the best interest of the coast.”
Lester’s chief weakness, commission watchers say, was his failure to build relationships with commissioners and political leaders.
Ainsworth, on the other hand, is regarded as a people person. He has made improving internal and external communication one of his top priorities. The new executive director said he’s proud of his staff for persevering through a difficult year.
“When (Charles Lester) was dismissed, staff was devastated,” he said, “but I just rallied the troops, saying this program is more important than one person, we have to carry on this long legacy of coastal protection.”
Ainsworth also has embraced commissioners’ drive to make it easier and more affordable for disadvantaged communities, especially people of color, to recreate on the coast. He knows firsthand how transformational these experiences can be. The future of the commission, he said, depends upon spreading them as widely as possible.
“These young people are the future of California,” he said. “And if they’re not interested in and excited about the coast, then political support for our program will wane.”