Ouster Appears Imminent for AQMD Chief

Ten years ago, he was the first air-quality czar to believe that the Los Angeles area would ever achieve blue skies and healthful air.

He envisioned commuter ride-sharing; electric vehicles; cleaner power plants, factories and fuels; pollution-free paints; and even new formulas of charcoal lighter fluid. It was a bold and costly vision, one that could transform Southern California businesses and households, and, behind the scenes, even his own staff worried that James M. Lents was naive and foolhardy.

Today, many of those dreams have materialized, albeit in varying degrees, and as a result, the region’s notorious smog is far less severe than at any time since World War II.

But now Lents, who steered the South Coast Air Quality Management District through its most progressive years, is on the verge of being ousted, along with his top executives, by a newly aligned governing board that is dissatisfied with Lents’ performance and eager to bring in a new management team.

The AQMD, the largest and most powerful local pollution agency in the world, is at a turning point in its tumultuous, 20-year history. And it comes at a time when national pollution standards are about to be tightened, leaving the Los Angeles Basin, still the smoggiest place in the nation, even further from its elusive goal of air considered safe to breathe.

Why dismantle a team that has turned Greater Los Angeles into a global model for pollution control? Why get rid of a chief smog fighter who is endorsed by local industry leaders as well as environmentalists?

The explanation isn’t succinct or simple. Essentially, it comes down to six men and women--most of them county or city elected officials--reaching the same conclusion for varying reasons. Some seek a new AQMD executive more responsive to the board, and others want one who is more politically acceptable and more conciliatory to businesses and state legislators.

Criticism on Two Fronts

Caught between fiery combatants, Lents, a soft-spoken and sober-minded physicist, has been berated by conservatives as an over-regulating zealot who is damaging the local economy, and lambasted by environmental advocates as an emasculated version of his old self and a puppet of big business.

Under political pressure, Lents over the past three years has already substantially scaled back the Southland’s epic battle to control smog, which costs several billion dollars a year. And his reign has been marked by recent failures, most notably the resignation en masse of the AQMD’s scientific advisors in a protest against less aggressive smog policies. But a lack of political savvy may be the main cause of his downfall.

“Jim Lents is a very capable and dedicated scientist, but in my opinion he is not a great leader and is not a great communicator,” said Cody Cluff, one of six AQMD board members who wants to oust Lents. “This is the premier [pollution] agency in the world, and we deserve the best.”

Whether the AQMD board is ousting the executive team to ease smog control is a matter of intense debate, with several board members denying that is their goal. But AQMD staffers and environmentalists have an overwhelming sense that the board intends to relax smog rules and yield to businesses and conservative legislators.

“The general feeling is that this is the beginning of a downward spiral,” said Bruce Lohmann, an air-quality inspector at the AQMD since 1989. “It’s an attempt to severely weaken the district. The greatest opponents of clean air, the greatest opponents of regulation, are very happy with this.”

Lents is “like a racehorse in the training paddock, and they won’t let him out,” Lohmann said. “If there’s a problem with leadership at the district, it’s the board.” As AQMD executive officer since 1986, Lents has been charged with ensuring that Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties comply with health standards for air pollution as mandated by federal law. The AQMD sets smog rules for more than 30,000 businesses, and the state Air Resources Board regulates vehicles and fuels.

On May 9, the AQMD’s governing board, in a surprise move, deadlocked 6 to 6 on whether to renew the three-year contracts of Lents and four top executives, including deputies Pat Leyden and Barry Wallerstein. Another vote on the issue is scheduled for June 13.

The ouster seems imminent. If the board remains deadlocked, the contracts expire July 31, and all five managers must leave. An ardent smog-control advocate and Lents’ biggest supporter on the board, Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, retires next month.

No one issue--or even ideology--is driving the ouster.

If the six board members opposing Lents have anything in common, it is their perception that the staff leaves the board uninformed and shut out of key issues. They say they want an executive officer who walks in step with them, responds more readily to their concerns and gets along with Republican leaders in the Legislature.

Cluff, Gov. Pete Wilson’s sole appointee to the smog board, said that Lents is burned out and inefficient and that the AQMD needs a new leader with more energy and enthusiasm.

“His record on environmental issues is long and well-noted, but he may have lost interest in the actual day-to-day operations,” said Cluff, who joined the board in December. “Change can be very healthy. A fresh pair of eyes and a new approach can be very beneficial.”

Cluff, a colleague of Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and president of the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., said the staff treats the board members like figureheads with no knowledge of or interest in the matters brought before them.

“I feel like it’s a struggle to be well-informed,” he said. “The board is not involved enough to be blamed for what happens.”

The staff should be more responsive to small businesses, Cluff said. He also said that the AQMD needs major downsizing, and that Lents, who led the agency during its powerful years when its staff topped 1,200, is unable to make that transformation.

Pressure From GOP Legislators

The move to dismiss Lents and his team is not orchestrated by the businesses they regulate.

Several influential industry representatives endorsed Lents, saying he seeks a fair balance between public health and the economy by initiating programs that cut businesses’ costs and give them choices in how they reduce smog. Because they represent the giant oil, utility and aerospace companies, among others, they are powerful forces in shaping air-quality rules.

The Coalition for Clean Air and the Natural Resources Defense Council also want Lents to stay, despite battling with him over the reduction of anti-smog efforts. They accuse the board of forcing the staff to be too conservative.

The most influential force in the potential ouster seems to be the Legislature. A campaign to rein in the AQMD’s power has been led by Orange County Republican leaders Rob Hurtt and Curt Pringle, who say the agency has set oppressive and disruptive rules.

Pomona Mayor Nell Soto, appointed to the AQMD board by the city councils of Los Angeles County, said she is “tired of the Legislature breathing down our necks because of this management.”

Most of Lents’ support comes from four board members representing Riverside and San Bernardino counties, which have the worst air quality. Orange County’s two appointees and two of three in Los Angeles County voted against him, along with Cluff and William Burke, the AQMD’s vice chairman, who was appointed by former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.

Toning Down Attack on Smog

Lents and his executive team are known around the world for pioneering approaches to cleaning the air. During his tenure, the agency ordered a massive rebuilding of power plants, cleaner paints and solvents, and employee ride-share programs at businesses, among other measures. The AQMD’s RECLAIM smog market--the buying and selling of pollution credits--is designed to give industry flexibility and financial incentives.

But since 1994, Lents has toned down the attack on smog to accommodate board members, politicians and business leaders worried about the economy.

Enforcement has been eased, so inspections and penalties have declined. Consensus-building, especially with large manufacturers, has dominated decisions, and new rules stress business-friendly market approaches. Proposals unacceptable to industry have been scrapped.

“We’ve been business-friendly but apparently not business-friendly enough,” AQMD inspector Lohmann said. “I have seen our staff do everything the board has ever asked them to do. It’s really frightening for the future of clean air to think that they want a more acquiescent executive team.”

Although Lents and his managers are highly regarded technical experts, their missteps have come from misjudging public sentiments and the clout of adversaries. They have also been accused of being tyrannical in dismissing others’ advice about how to clean up smog.

Last year, when the AQMD’s science advisors resigned, Lents and Wallerstein were criticized for drafting a new smog plan that allows substantially more emissions than previous strategies, without independent scientific review. Also, a three-year effort to expand the smog market was found to be so technically flawed that it would have made smog worse.

But board members Burke and Cluff said those high-profile failings have little to do with the expected ouster.

Burke said his complaint is that the staff only reluctantly works out compromises, ignores his concerns about some smog programs such as scrapping old cars and is insensitive to diversity issues.

But Burke disagrees with critics who say the intent is to weaken smog rules for businesses.

“I would say to those people, ‘Watch,’ because I think that’s the furthest thing from what’s going on,” he said.