Lawmaker’s call for audit of BCDC OK’d

Months in the making, the bipartisan request came in response to a series of concerns raised by BCDC permit holders about the organization’s approach and strategy, Mullin said in a press release. Complaints ranging from an inconsistent application of standards to instances in which staff allegedly changed permit requirements after permit holders satisfied established requirements compelled legislators to push for an unbiased opinion to verify what permit holders say they have experienced.

Created in 1965 with the charge of regulating development in and around the San Francisco Bay, the agency has protected the environment and increased public access to Bay for more than 50 years, said Mullin. He is hoping the audit will incite the agency to make any internal changes needed to prepare for the potentially unpopular decisions it will be required to make as sea level rise intensifies because that will challenge the agency’s role in protecting the Bay.

“If processes and procedures are not consistent, transparent and trustworthy today, then the organization will have a much harder time accomplishing its goals with added public scrutiny in the future,” he said in the release. “This audit request is about good government, ensuring that a regulatory agency is achieving its mandate through fair and equitable treatment of those it regulates.”

As president of Westpoint Harbor in Redwood City, Mark Sanders knows from experience what it’s like to be facing a cease and desist order and more than $500,000 in fines for allegedly violating several requirements included in the permit he was approved for by BCDC in 2003, such as ensuring public access and protection of wildlife at the marina.

Sanders said he spent 10 years working to meet the agency’s requirements to obtain the permit he needed open a recreational marina just south of Bair Island on Redwood City’s eastern edge in 2008. He feels he has spent the last 15 years since the permit was granted fielding what he has described as unfair allegations lodged by commission staff that he was in violation of the approved plans.

Sanders and the agency had been locked in disagreements for years before the issue came to a head during BCDC hearings earlier this year. After the full commission rejected the commission’s enforcement committee’s recommendation to approve a cease and desist order and more than $500,000 in fines for the harbor in March, Sanders has been participating in meetings with staff to try to resolve issues with the permit, a process he said is still ongoing.

Sanders was encouraged by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee’s decision to conduct an audit, which arrived on the same day he celebrated the 10th anniversary of the harbor’s opening day. He hopes the audit will shed light on how the agency sets, collects and uses fines and help ease the fears of permit holders who have feared retribution for speaking up about unfair practices.

“We think that it’s really good that the state is saying ‘we need to get this organization back on track,’” he said. “I’m happy to see this happen, I think it’s long overdue.”

BCDC Executive Director Larry Goldzband said in a statement issued to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee for its Aug. 8 hearing that the agency is ready to participate in an audit that concentrates on its reinvigorated enforcement program. Having served as a BCDC commissioner and on the enforcement committee for several years before becoming its executive director, Goldzband said adopting an enforcement strategy that is fair, robust and timely and improves the agency’s performance has been part of the agency’s strategic plan for several years.

“Staff and commissioners continue to make and adopt suggestions about how to improve the program,” he said in the statement. “Therefore, we look forward to the state auditor providing constructive input about how we can improve the revitalized program even more.”

Goldzband pegged providing more detailed annual reports to the state Legislature with a list of enforcement cases and their statuses and meeting with other regulatory agencies to learn from their enforcement practices as among the steps the agency plans to take as the audit proceeds.

In reviewing an array of cases of permit holders across the Bay Area, Mullin said state legislators found seemingly minor alleged violations received the same weight and consideration from the agency as serious alleged violations that could caused serious harm to the environment, and that the sum of the alleged violations they were accused of left them facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties, in some cases.

A recent Solano County court decision reflecting many of the concerns permit holders had expressed, citing several deficiencies in the BCDC enforcement process, also contributed to legislators’ concerns the agency’s current strategy and approach could erode the public trust in the organization, according to Mullin.

As part of the group Friends of Westpoint Harbor, Paulien Ruijssenaars was active in an effort to gather more than 5,000 signatures for a petition calling for a state audit of the agency. Having heard of other instances in which BCDC acted inappropriately with other permit holders, Ruijssenaars was hopeful the audit would refocus the agency and its permit holders’ efforts on preserving the Bay and ensuring the public has access to it.

“We’re just excited that this is an independent audit where hopefully there’s going to be a fair look at all sides,” she said. “Ultimately, BCDC has a great mission and we’d like to make sure that that mission is followed and executed on properly.”

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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