SACRAMENTO — Seven weeks after a state appeals court declared that the California Coastal Commission violates the state Constitution, the Legislature passed a bill meant to address the court's concerns and keep the powerful agency at work regulating development along the coastline.
On a vote of 50 to 23, the Democratic-controlled Assembly gave final approval to a bill that slightly revamps the commission's structure by setting fixed, four-year terms for a majority of the commissioners -- those appointed by the Legislature.
The change blocks legislators from removing commissioners at will. That leverage, according to the court, gave the Legislature too much power over a body that belongs to the executive branch of state government.
Gov. Gray Davis has indicated he will sign the bill into law.
State officials and legal scholars believe the legislation will end the constitutional crisis facing the agency, which is both beloved and loathed for its broad license to grant and deny development permits on land, as well as its ability to regulate oil drilling and other industrial activities offshore.
Moreover, they believe the legislative fix will strengthen the commission's independence as it weighs decisions that affect the property and pocketbooks of politically influential people.
"Four-year terms are better for the independence of the commission," said Stephen R. Barnett, a state constitutional expert at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law.
From its inception 27 years ago, the commission's 12 members have been granted two-year terms but could be removed at any time by the Sacramento leaders who appointed them. Four of the commissioners are appointed by the governor, four by the speaker of the Assembly and four by the Senate Rules Committee.
In late December, a state appeals court in Sacramento concluded that legislative leaders' ability to appoint a majority of commissioners and to remove them "at will" violated the state Constitution's separation-of-powers doctrine.
With the commission's future in doubt, Gov. Davis called for a special session of the Legislature to address the legal challenge to the commission more quickly. The resulting bill by Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) would take effect 90 days after the governor signed it. The governor has not indicated when he plans to sign the bill, a spokesman said Tuesday.
