By Neil Farrell ~
The California Coastal Commission voted 7-5 Wednesday to fire its executive director, despite a huge crowd of supporters who turned out to urge that he be retained.
An estimated more than 600 people converged on Morro Bay from communities up and down the California Coast packing the Community Center to overflowing to plead for the job of Charles Lester, who has wor
ked with for Commission since 1988 and was unanimously hired as executive director in 2011. Lester took over for Peter Douglas, after his retirement. Douglas had been the executive director since the 1980s and has since passed away.
Lester took about 1-1/2 hours at the start of the meeting to make his case for continuing his job leading the powerful state agency that has jurisdiction on development in the so-called “Coastal Zone” the area from the shoreline inland up to several miles.
After taking a long time to list the accomplishments of the Commission during his tenure, including development of guidelines to deal with the effects of climate change and sea level rise, Lester offered a solution to have subcommittees formed to work with him and the staff to address problems with communication that he hinted were the root of the problems.
Representing obscure single-cause environmental non-profits to large 
groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council, Surfrider and Audubon among dozens of others, speaker after speak, some 253 in all, praised Lester’s work, the professionalism of the staff under his leadership and for some, chastised the Commissioners, accusing them of knuckling under to pressure from developers seeking to weaken the Coastal Commission.
Many hand-made signs urging the Commission to “Save Our Coast,” and numerous others that simply read, “More Lester” were enthusiastically waved during and after speeches, which were limited in most cases to 2 minutes by Commission Chairman Steve Kinsey.
The Commission took some 6 hours of public comments, with Kinsey telling them after 5 p.m. that he still had more than 100 speaker slips and they would not be able to give everyone a chance to speak.
He then allowed a line of people to briefly state their names and give short, statements before filing off for the next person. Not a single person called for Lester’s ouster.
Several speakers urged the Commission to hold its deliberations and vote in open, public session but after a failed vote to keep the matter open to the public, they voted 7-5 to go into closed session. The final decision came about 90 minutes later and the announcement was made in open session.
A magnanimous Lester simply said, “I’m disappointed in the vote.” And “Thank you for the honor to have served.”
It was revealed during testimony that some 28,000 letters of support for Lester had been sent to the Commission, as well as letters from Congress members, State Legislators, boards of County Supervisors and City Councils from up and down the state. Several editorials from major newspapers published in the weeks prior to the meeting, also called for retaining Lester. The Commission’s some 150 staffers also signed a petition in support of Lester.
Commissioners Olga Diaz, Erik Howell (of Pismo Beach), Wendy Mitchell, Effie Turnbull-Sanders, Mark Vargas, Martha McClure and Roberto Uranga voted to fire Lester, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
Commissioners Carole Groom, Mary Shallenberger, Chairman Kinsey, Vice Chairwoman, Dayna Bochco and Mary Luevano voted against the firing.
Though its executive director and leader was dismissed, the work of the Commission carried on, as the panel was scheduled to meet Thursday and again Friday at the Inn at Morro Bay.
Senior Deputy Director, Jack Ainsworth, was pegged as the temporary executive director to lead the agency until the Commission selects an interim and eventually a permanent replacement.
