(Source: LA TIMES garrett.therolf@latimes.com)

Bruce W. McClendon, the chief land use planner for Los Angeles County, was fired Friday by the county’s chief executive. McClendon thinks it was in retaliation for blowing the whistle on county supervisors’ aides.

McClendon said he was called to a meeting with William T Fujioka and told he was terminated from his $191,028-a-year job as head of the Department of Regional Planning. Security officers later escorted him out of the building.

According to the LA TIMES, when McClendon was reached by telephone, he said

… he believed he had been fired in retaliation for blowing the whistle on county supervisors’ aides. He said he had given Fujioka information that showed that aides to the county supervisors routinely sought to improperly influence decisions on whether to permit development plans.

“It was illegal, and they can go to jail for doing it,”said McClendon, 62. He said his meetings with Fujioka in recent weeks made it clear that he was likely to be fired. He said he recently began consulting with attorneys in preparation for filing a whistle-blower retaliation lawsuit.

Fujioka denied that McClendon had given him such information. Aides to Supervisors Michael Antonovich, Don Knabe, Gloria Molina, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Zev Yaroslavsky declined to comment on the allegations.

McClendon said that he had to protect his staff from day-to-day interference from supervisors’ aides, which was supposed to be reduced under a new county structure that went into effect in 2007.

The Department of Regional Planning performs all land use planning functions for the unincorporated areas of the county. Like Topanga Canyon. Services include long-range planning, land development counseling, project review, environmental review and zoning enforcement.

This is the same bunch Kathleen Kenny filed a R.I.C.O suit against. ( Please see: Kathleen Kenny vs California Coastal Commission - SINS OF COMMISSION) Watch the trailer on this site or YOUTUBE

The more things change… the more things stay the same….

Los Angeles County’s unincorporated areas include more than 2,600 square miles and represent two-thirds of the county’s land and one-tenth of its population. Some of that land is in the California Coastal Zone, and under the jursidiction of the California Coastal Commission…

Read more of this great article by Garrett Therolf at the LA TIMES garrett.therolf@latimes.com

Tags: Bruce W. McClendon, California Coastal Commission, California Coastal Commmission, Department of Regional Planning, Don Knabe, Gloria Molina, Kathleen Kenny, LOS ANGELES County supervisors, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Zev Yaroslavsky, Michael Antonovich, r.i.c.o., Sins of Commission, Topanga Canyon California Coastal Commission, William T Fujioka