AD74 Candidate Emanual Patrascu speaking to the Newport Mesa Tea Pary
Tempest in a Fire Pit
From the HB Independent today, AD74 Candidate Emanual Patrascu has this to say about one of his opponents in the Assembly race:
As a seasoned politician, Curry knows to use the right words and phrases. He vocally espouses local control and speaks about “state bureaucrats” and “whatever agency” that wants to tell us “how to manage the beach.” While at the same time, his actions attack local control and support unnecessary regulations on local cities by the Air Quality Management District (AQMD). I agree that local control is important, and no one wants his or her city to be managed by unelected bureaucrats who do not have local knowledge or a stake in the outcome.
However, I cannot agree with Curry’s actions. His behavior is the complete opposite of local control and the values he preaches. The important question to ask is: How did the AQMD become involved in the first place? In fact, it was Curry and his fellow members on the Newport Beach City Council who brought this issue to the AQMD. If Curry values local control, how does bringing in a state regulatory agency to ban beach bonfires meet his goal of local control?
He’s right — it was Curry’s actions as a Mayor and long-time Councilmember in Newport Beach that brought the AQMD, and later the Coastal Commission, into what had never been a controversy until he started a campaign to rid his high-end NB beach property owners of the unwashed beach-goers who were sullying up their sand. Mayor Curry failed to convince the Newport Mesa Tea Party of this last week during their well-attended candidate forum.
Curry’s campaign against this harmless Orange County tradition spilled over into Huntington Beach where there had been NO issues with the fire rings — their liberal City Council was far more interested in inconveniencing their nearly 200k residents and hundreds of retail businesses by depriving them the use of plastic bags to carry their groceries. So now, the HB City Council that had been led by leftie tree hugger Connie Boardman has two shiny objects to distract them from doing anything actually useful.
Read Emanuel’s entire commentary here.
Mr. Patrascu is mistaken in a few key facts. In reality, as recorded in public record, the only agency Councilman Keith Curry brought the issue to was the California Coastal Commission when the City first applied for a Coastal Development Permit as required.
As you can read here, https://www.aqmd.gov/news1/2013/Fire_Pit_Board_Decision.htm,
the South Coast Air Quality Management District involved themselves because “Coastal Commission staff recommended denial of the application, citing in part SCAQMD’s exemption of beach bonfires from its regulations.”
Watch the March 6, 2013 Coastal Commission hearing here, http://www.cal-span.org/cgi-bin/media.pl?folder=CCC, and see Chair Shallenberger ask the AQMD to advise the Commission so as not to pit public access against public health. The Commission then voted to postpone the permit request until the AQMD could respond.
Mr. Patrascu should review these public records and retract this politically motivated misrepresentation of Councilman Curry’s record.