On the eve of next week’s Downtown court date when Culver Crest area residents hope to gain a favorable verdict in their attempt to impede oil drilling in the near term, Ken Kutcher, one of their attorneys and a Crest resident, remains skeptical of a recent finding clearing the other side of hanky panky en route to a controversial ordinance.
Mr. Kutcher does not believe investigators were nearly thorough enough in their probe of a high-profile staffer on the payroll of arguably the most muscular member of the County Board of Supervisors, the now-retired Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.
Mr. Kutcher exhaled and paused when he was asked whether he is convinced the oil drilling company on the other side, Plains Exploration & Production Co., virtually had the County’s ordinance process wired, at least knew the outcome well in advance.
Choosing words carefully, he said: “I feel PXP had a very good channel of communications to the Supervisor’s office about what they wanted. While we attempted equally to communicate with the Supervisor’s office about the community’s concerns, I am not sure we had as open of a line as PXP experienced.”
Residents and their attorneys have maintained for years that the prospect of ever-widening government revenues was a triggering motivation at the root of Ms. Brathwaite Burke’s hurry-up performance in the last months before her retirement a year and a half ago.
“We have always wondered about that,” Mr. Kutcher said.
“It is incredibly curious to me that, unlike almost every other oil-producing state in the nation, California does not have a production tax. Los Angeles County does not have a production tax. There are other revenue spinoffs from business that occurs in the oil field. But I never have had a good handle on how much that drove the County’s decision-making.”
Was Mr. Kutcher asserting that oil drilling companies entering California have a freer hand here than in other states?
“There are fewer financial implications for them drilling here,” he said.
“California has adopted CEQA, the air quality act that has its own rigors to better protect the environment. If those are followed scrupulously, they could counter-balance the perceived free rein for oil companies. A question is ‘if’. Did that happen in this case? The County certainly did a lengthy document and studied a number of factors. But our litigation maintains that the County fell short nonetheless.”
Does the County finding of clean hands impact the residents’ suit against the Environmental Impact Report in the document known as the Community Standards District that is on Monday’s court docket?
No effect, Mr. Kutcher said.
Instead, the judge will consult the 43,000-word record of the October ’08 decision by the County Board of Supervisors.
“The context of our litigation, as in any suit that challenges an EIR,” said Mr. Kutcher, “is that the judge is charged with reviewing the record that was in front of the decision-makers who determined the EIR was adequate and adopted the legislation.
Hundreds of vocal residents within sniffing distance of the Inglewood Oil Field have questioned the close relationship between officials of PXP and the ruling parties of Los Angeles County whom they believe value oil company revenues more than their health and safety concerns.
A ballyhooed and disputed months-long audit by a San Francisco law firm of the still mystifying firing of the County Regional Planning Director after clashes with an ace staffer of the driving force for the ordinance on the County Board of Supervisors absolved the staffer of blame.
According to the audit, Mike Bohlke, the right and left hands of Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who drove through an ordinance partisans say heavily favored PXP, engaged in numerous armtwisting matches, out of view, with the canned Bruce McClendon during the skirmishing leading up to the drama-less vote.
With Mr. Bohlke cleared, the next move is awaited.
