Several former and current members of the Coastal Commission could be forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for alleged undisclosed meetings with developers and others seeking to curry favor.

A court hearing kicked off Tuesday in San Diego Superior Court to determine whether the defendants failed to properly disclose such private meetings, known as ex-parte communications, as required under the Coastal Act.

The law requires commissioners to publicly divulge all such communications pertaining to decisions before the quasi-judicial body within seven days or face fines of up to $7,500 per violation.

State Deputy Attorney General Joel Jacobs defended the group in court Tuesday before Judge Timothy Taylor, arguing that their intention was always to comply with the spirit of the law.


“When the commissioners did not strictly comply with the Coastal Act requirements, it was not for the purpose of deceiving anyone or hiding anything,” Jacobs said at Tuesday’s trial.

The lawsuit was brought by nonprofit Spotlight on Coastal Corruption, formed in the runup to filing the lawsuit in 2016. The group contends that the five defendants failed as commissioners to properly disclose hundreds of private meetings.

Commissioners are required to file written documents with the agency summarizing these ex-parte communication. If a conversation occurs within seven days of a relevant commission meeting, it must be disclosed verbally at the public session.

If the legal strategy succeeds, former commissioners Steve Kinsey, Martha McClure and Wendy Mitchell, as well as commissioners Erik Howell and Mark Vargas could be forced to pay as much as $3 million in civil penalties.


“The defendants’ lack of transparency is a crime against democracy,” said Cory Briggs, attorney for the nonprofit in his opening remarks.

“Worst of all, your honor, these defendants knew what they were doing,” he added.

Spotlight on Coastal Corruption turned down a settlement offer by the state Attorney General’s office last week that sought to pay fines and attorneys’ fees in the sum of $250,000.

Briggs said his clients rejected the offer because it would have allowed the state to pick up the tab for the alleged violations, instead of forcing the defendants to cover the costs personally.


At Tuesday’s trial, the defense said the accused had been well-intentioned volunteers with no financial incentive to cozy up to developers or others. Jacobs said they should not be forced to pay for what was at least “substantial” compliance with the law.

“In the question of whether money should be taken from the defendants for doing their jobs, substantial compliance is not a situation where the court should be imposing monetary fines,” he said.

In response, Briggs said the defendants were seduced into backroom deals by the favors and adulation of developers and others and should be punished to send a message to future commissioners.

“They were lured by being important,” he said, adding: “If it weren’t for some pretty dogged, shoe-leather reporting, the public wouldn’t have known.”


Briggs specifically called out Commissioner Mark Vargas, who made headlines after it was discovered that he traveled to Ireland in 2015 for a U2 concert and ex-parte meeting with the band’s guitarists David Evans, “the Edge.”

The trip, which Vargas has said he paid for on his own dime, came days before the commission voted unanimously to allow Evans to develop a Malibu coastline. The approval came after a years-long debate over the project.

The Coastal Commission has faced numerous accusations in recent years of not fully disclosing private meetings with those looking to build along the state’s shoreline.

Commissioners have staunchly denied the allegations, which heated up in early 2016 after the commission voted with little explanation to fire the agency’s then-executive director Charles Lester.


Lester, perhaps the state’s foremost authority on the Coastal Act, had broad support from the environmental community who saw the ouster as a coup by pro-development forces.

While environmental groups, government officials and private individuals also meet frequently with commissioners, developers and their associates have constituted the majority of contacts in recent years.

After Lester’s firing, members of the legislature pushed for a new law that would prohibit ex-parte communication. However, the effort failed, in part, because many feared it could create longer coastal commission meetings, which take place three times a month in different locations around the state.


Twitter: @jemersmith

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Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com