The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC), established by the state Legislature in 1980, acquires land in Southern California with the main goal of forming an extended system of “urban, rural and river parks, open space, trails and wildlife habitats” and making those areas easily accessible to the public. It is known for its high-profile acquisitions and aggressive conservation tactics by  founding Executive Director Joe Edmiston. The conservancy’s original territory consisted of the Santa Susana Mountains, Santa Monica Mountains, and the Simi Hills, all of which are located in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The territory has since been extended to include parks in the Verdugo Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains, Puente Hills and San Rafael Hills. The zone in which the conservancy can acquire land is 450,000 acres. The conservancy is in the Natural Resources Agency.

Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Act     

2009-2010 Annual Report (pdf)           

The Santa Monica Mountains stretch from Elysian Park overlooking downtown Los Angeles west to the Oxnard Plain in Ventura County. A state commission in 1972 recommended establishing a planning and permit-issuing agency to help assure the region’s environmental security and by the end of the decade the Santa Monica Mountains Comprehensive Planning Commission was in place with 28-year-old, Governor Jerry Brown appointee, Joe Edmiston, as the youngest head of an agency in state government.

As executive director of the commission he helped create the Santa Monica Mountains Comprehensive Plan, which fashioned land use policies for other local government entities to follow. As a result of the plan, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy was established in 1980 and Edmiston has been its only executive director. The legislation creating the agency gave it the power to buy, sell and operate parklands with one additional power denied all other state conservancies: it could initiate condemnation proceedings.

While the state began its conservation plan, Congress authorized creation of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in 1978, which would acquire 70,000 acres of parkland to go with its already existing 33,000 acres and be run by the National Park Service.

But Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980 and he appointed, as secretary of the Interior, James Watt, who viewed attempts to establish national parks near urban areas as simply a plot to thwart private development. The recreation area was nearly deauthorized in 1981, and budget constraints slowed the federal effort for years to come. 

The conservancy territory originally was in the Santa Susana Mountains, the Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills—areas located north and west of metropolitan Los Angeles in Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Since then its territory has been extended to the east to include parks in the San Gabriel Mountains, Verdugo Mountains, San Rafael Hills and Puente Hills.

The conservancy was aggressive from the outset. Within a decade, it had acquired 17,000 acres of land and enlisted a high-powered legion of support as Executive Director Edmiston wheeled and dealed with the rich, famous and powerful. In the process, Edmiston became synonymous with the conservancy and a lightening rod for controversy. Environmentalists claimed his deals gave too much away to developers, developers claimed he used the power of the state to bully businessmen, politicians (including his own board) complained he was a ruthless negotiator and many questioned his temperament.  But few could question his success.

At Edmiston’s urging, the state authorized creation in 1985 of the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), a joint powers agreement between the conservancy and a few other environmental agencies that extended to it powers of taxation and land management, giving it a quasi-independent status. Edmiston sat as executive director of both the conservancy and the authority. The arrangement facilitated the flow of bond money grants between awarder and awardee that augmented the conservancy’s power but would later evoke scrutiny and criticism from the state’s Department of Finance. 

The conservancy did not limit its activities to outlying areas. In 19????, it created an 8.5-acre inner city park out of what was formerly a Department of Water and Power pipe yard at a time when no one was fashioning parkland in Los Angeles. The conservancy leased the land for a dollar, surveyed the community about what kind of facility it wanted and had the MRCA furnish the Augustus F. Hawkins Natural Park with oak trees, an amphitheater, picnic areas and a running stream. It opened in 2000 and was sold to the city of Los Angeles in 2005.

In 1992, the conservancy initiated its only condemnation proceeding against Soka Gakkai, a Buddhist sect that owned the 588-acre King Gillette Ranch where it wanted to build a university in virtually the middle of the national recreation area. It would take 12 years for an unprecedented coalition of federal, state and local governments with private donors to triumph and the conservancy took operational control of the land after putting up only one-third of the $35 million purchase price. 

In 2001, the conservancy partnered with the California Resources Agency and the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy (RMC) to develop a Watershed and Open Space Plan for the San Gabriel and Los Angeles Rivers. The plan is twofold: Articulate a vision for the future of the San Gabriel and Los Angeles Rivers Watersheds and provide a framework for future watershed and open space planning.

The plan was intended to be viewed as a living document that evolves over time and its basis is a set of Guiding Principles that should be used by cities and federal, state, and local agencies to plan open space in the watersheds. Although the plan discusses certain projects, such as trail and bike paths, it does not propose any.

The conservancy is known for its high-profile acquisitions, and none were bigger than Ahmanson Ranch. The 2,983-acre property on the border between Los Angeles and Ventura counties, along with entertainer Bob Hope’s neighboring Jordan Ranch and other properties, had long been targets for development. Ventura County had green-lighted an Ahmanson development project in 1992, but it was stymied by a tide of resistance—led by the environmental group Save Open Space (SOS).

Hope sold Jordan Ranch to the National Park Service in a 1993 engineered by the conservancy.  The acquisition created the Cheeseboro and Palo Commado Canyons Park section of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, which now comprises 153,075 acres and is the world's largest urban national park.

The Ahmanson land changed hands in 1998 and the conservancy at one point brokered a deal that allowed development to go forward as part of a complicated land swap involving two remaining Hope properties, Runkle Ranch and Corral Canyon. That proposal generated even more controversy and was abandoned. 

But in 2004, the conservancy finally scored, perhaps, its biggest success by purchasing Ahmanson Ranch and creating the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve, a huge green belt along the mountainous border between Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Governor Gray Davis okayed a $135 million payout from the state just days before his recall and with just $5 million of the conservancy’s own money, Edmiston took control of its largest acquisition ever.

In 2008, the conservancy opened Vista Hermosa Park, the first new public park in downtown Los Angeles in 100 years. 

Since its inception, the conservancy has preserved over 65,000 acres of parkland and improved more than 114 Southern California public recreational facilities. Some think the era of big-tract acquisitions in the Santa Monica Mountains may be over as spending priorities shift and deals become harder to find. But nearly half the Santa Monica’s remain in private hands and Joe Edmiston is still running the conservancy.

A Mountain Park in a Great City (by Nancy Dale, Dave Brown and Tim Thomas, California Native Plant Society)

King of the Hills (by Lewis Macadams, Los Angeles Magazine)

Lasky Mesa (Moviesites.org)

Backbone Trail May Soon Be Linked (by Susan Abram, Los Angeles Daily News)

Peter Strauss Ranch Joins U.S. Park Chain (by Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times)

Funds OKd for Ballona, Ahmanson (by Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times)

Conservancy Closes Escrow on Ahmanson Ranch Purchase (Conservancy website) (pdf)

Bob Hope Land Deal Clears Way for Ahmanson Ranch (by Coll Metcalfe, Los Angeles Times)

Conservancy Announces Acquisition of Phase One of $7 Million Park Project Near Downtown Los Angeles (Conservancy website) (pdf)

Conservancy Opens New Park Near Downtown Los Angeles (Conservancy website) (pdf)

Case Study of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (BiodiverCities 2010) (pdf)

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy acquires land in Southern California,   and through partnerships with other state agencies and independent groups establishes parks and recreation areas. Its aim is an interlinking network of parks, trails and open space for public use and ecological preservation. The conservancy has preserved more than 65,000 acres of parkland and improved more than 114 recreational facilities since its creation in 1980.

Its partners include the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, established under a joint powers act in 1985 with the Conejo Recreation and Park District and the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District. The authority, which is run by the same people in charge of the conservancy, extends the conservancy’s reach with enhanced power to raise money and manage its resources.

The conservancy also partners with the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service in helping develop the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Congress created the recreation area—a cooperative effort between national, state and local park agencies along with private landowners—in 1978 as part of the national park system.

The conservancy is run by an executive director and an 18-member board of directors. The board includes six state legislators among its mix of state and local  government officials and public representatives, and its chair is appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly. It also has a 26-member advisory board.

The conservancy also employs a chief deputy director, a chief staff counsel and two part-time staff members (deputy director for natural resources and planning and an executive secretary).

The conservancy is a small agency with a small staff, but a large reach through its partners. In general, it does not carry out implementation of its projects, instead relying on grants to local agencies, nonprofit organizations and other entities. The conservancy funds the grants primarily with $159 million raised through five bond initiatives passed by voters since 2000 as propositions. 

Its largest current source of funding is from Prop. 84, passed in 2006. Grants are made to eligible applicants whose goals are consistent with the conservancy's strategic objectives: implementing the Santa Monica Mountains Comprehensive Plan; implementing the Rim of the Valley Trails Corridor Master Plan; implementing the Los Angeles County River Master Plan, which includes creating 51 miles of continuous river parkway and greenbelt; implementing the San Gabriel and Los Angeles Rivers Watershed and Open Space Plan; furthering cooperation with local governments in the region to secure open space and parkland; expanding efforts to integrate nature into the urban environment; and expanding education and public access.

The conservancy also awards grants to cities, counties, resource conservation districts, and recreation and park districts “for the acquisition or improvement of natural and scenic resources under the management of the local jurisdiction.” There are also government entities that partner with the conservancy to contribute funds towards the conservancy’s parkland.

The conservancy is also a member of nine joint powers authorities. A joint powers entity is “a public agency created pursuant to the Joint Exercise of Powers Act that allows two or more government agencies to combine forces by jointly exercising their powers with respect to a specific purpose or set of objectives.”

These joint powers function as distinct government entities with their own governing boards. Essentially, being a part of a joint power enables them to supplement the work of other organizations protecting land in the Southern California mountains. The conservancy partners with: the Baldwin Hills Regional Conservation Authority; the Desert and Mountain Conservation Authority; the Eastern Ventura County Conservation Authority; the Mountain Conservation & Education Authority; the Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority; the Newhall Ranch High Country Recreation and Conservation Authority; the Santa Clarita Watershed Recreation & Conservation Authority; the Whittier-Puente Hills Conservation Authority; and the Wildlife Corridor Conservation Authority.

The Superintendent of the California State Parks manages more than 270 park units and is a voting member of the conservancy. As a result, major parks such as Malibu State Park, Topanga State Park, Kenneth Hahn State Park and Will Rogers State Beach, are in the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Zone. The SMMNRA is also a voting member of the conservancy.

The conservancy also partners with the Rivers and Trails Conservation Assistance (RTCA) program on joint projects in the Santa Monica Mountains and along the Los Angeles River. 

The conservancy’s primary source of funding of late has been bond proceeds, 96.5% between 2000-01 and 2008-09. During that period, it was allocated $33.9 million from Proposition 12 in 2000, $5 million from Proposition 13 in 2000, $38.1 million from Proposition 40 in 2002, $38.4 million from Proposition 50 in 2002 and $37.9 million from Proposition 84 in 2006. The rest of its money comes from the state General Fund, the California Environmental License Plate Fund and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Fund.

It has committed almost all of that money for expenditure via grants and much of it goes through the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority MRCA), which it controls. That arrangement puts the conservancy in a unique position among state conservancies: it not only controls who receives grants, it directly determines how the money is spent. The relationship has been criticized by the Department of Finance in multiple audits as contributing to a misuse of bond money, which the conservancy has consistently denied.

Because no state funds are provided for operation and maintenance of parks it has acquired, the conservancy makes use of the MRCA’s access to alternative funding sources such as local voter-approved tax measures.

But the era of large bond initiatives may be coming to at least a temporary close as annual state budget deficits and a decrepit economy endanger their approval by voters. Over the years, the conservancy has tapped federal funds, private donors and local bond sources for money.

Misuse of Bond Funds Alleged (by Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times)

An Audit of Bond Funds (California Department of Finance) (pdf)

Camping in Malibu

In 2006, the conservancy asked the California Coastal Commission to allow overnight camping at three conservancy-owned Malibu canyon parks and to loosen restrictions on events it wanted to hold at the former estate of Barbra Streisand that it now owned.

Malibu residents objected and entered into negotiations with conservancy, but public sentiment swung against a deal after devastating fires in 2007 added to concerns about campfires. 

When talks broke down, the conservancy bypassed the Malibu City Council and struck a deal with the Coastal Commission in 2009. The city sued, arguing that the commission had overstepped its authority, usurped a city’s power and failed to provide proper notice of its plans under the California Environmental Quality Act.

In July 2011, Los Angeles Superior Court John A. Torribio voided the agreement to allow overnight camping in Malibu. In his decision, Torribio wrote, “The court finds that the Commission exceeded its authority” by approving the application by the conservancy against the city's wishes. The judge also ruled that any ensuing application by the conservancy to the commission “would have to include specific proposals, rather than general ones as in the current plan, and that the commission must allow 30 days for public review of any proposals.”

The decision did not prevent the conservancy from reapplying to the commission with a more detailed proposal.

The conservancy plan would have created 29 overnight camping sites at Ramirez, Escondido, and Corral Canyon parks, and allow 32 special events per year for parties up to 200 people at the conservancy's Ramirez Canyon property. It would also have included a 32-space parking lot and improvements to local trails to create the Coastal Slope Trail, which would connect the east and west ends of Malibu.

Judge Voids Conservancy's Controversial Parks Plan (by Knowles Adkisson, The Malibu Times)

Raising Malibu Camping Risks (Los Angeles Times editorial)

Conservancy Gives The Edge an Edge

When the rock band U2’s lead guitarist, The Edge (David Evans), unveiled his plan in 2006 to build a “colony” of five eco-friendly mansions on a prominent undeveloped ridgeline in the Malibu Hills, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy announced its opposition because they would be impossible to build without “unavoidable significant adverse visual and ecological impacts.”

The Edge disagreed, describing his Leaves in the Wind project as “exemplary in every way,” and predicted that despite “a small group of locals who are very vocal and simply want to stop all development of any kind” he would prevail. He hired prominent lobbyists to make his case as the permit process got underway and in April 2011 struck a bargain with the conservancy.

In exchange for the conservancy adopting “a position of neutrality,” The Edge would give it $750,000, $250,000 worth of trail design services and 97 acres of conservation easements. The money and benefits were payable upon final project approval from the California Coastal Commission and other authorities.

The conservancy board voted 3-2 for the deal, but Executive Director Joe Edmiston came under scathing attack for the reversal, with conservancy advisory board member Dave Brown calling it a “sellout.” Edmiston responded to a stream of bad press with an email referencing “chest-beating holier-than-thou critics,” saying “the trail extension will have the best blue water views in Southern California and a scenic vista otherwise only experienced by those fortunate enough to have multi-million dollar houses facing the ocean.”

In June 2011, the Coastal Commission rejected the musician’s proposal in an 8-4 vote. Peter Douglas, the agency’s executive director, said, “In 38 years of this commission's existence, this is one of the three worst projects that I've seen in terms of environmental devastation. It's a contradiction in terms—you can't be serious about being an environmentalist and pick this location given the effects on habitat, land formation, scenic views and water quality.”

On The Edge in Malibu: Build Green or Let It Be? (by Jason Dean, hmonthly.com)

Agency Won't Oppose Malibu-area Compound, in Return for Funding and Dedicated Open Space (by Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times)

U2's The Edge Finds Conservancy's Price (by Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times)

U2's The Edge Loses Coastal Commission Vote, 8 to 4 (by Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times)

U2's the Edge, 3 Others Sue Coastal Panel over Malibu Properties (by Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times)

Stop-Sign Cameras in the Parks

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy manages its parklands through the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), a joint endeavor created in 1985 with the Conejo and Rancho Simi Parks and Recreation districts. Among its powers is the ability to issue “administrative citations,” or tickets, and in 2007 it took advantage of the authority by installing stop-sign cameras in some of its parks.

Although the citations don’t carry a criminal penalty—such as points on one’s driver’s license—they often come with a stiff $175 fine that must be paid before an appeal can be filed for an administrative hearing. Around 15,000 tickets generated nearly $2.4 million in fines during a 12-month period ending in 2011. The agency said the cameras were for safety, while critics argued it was all about revenue. 

The system was in place in three locations as of 2012: Franklin Canyon Park, Temescal Gateway Park and the Top of Topanga Overlook.

When confronted by critics of the cameras in January 2008, Joe Edmiston, who doubles as executive director of both the conservancy and the MRCA, reportedly said: “Sue us. Maybe the court will settle this clearly. This body [PPCC] doesn't have adjudicatory authority. I invite people to sue us.”

Two months later, someone did. A class-action suit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Fareth Estwick, Jody Bice and Phillip Robbins, Jr. by Michael Braun of the Braun Law Group, alleging that the MRCA ordinance was inconsistent with the California Vehicle Code. It was still in the courts in January 2012. Another lawsuit was filed by Leslie Keith Kaufman.

Kaufman lost at trial and before a unanimous Appellate Division of the Superior Court August 2011, and Edmiston was gleeful. In a letter to the MRCA staff and board, he took particular pleasure in pointing out a “really one-sided story” about the case in the Los Angeles Times that quoted a man who complained that he garnered eight tickets before he was aware of the camera’s existence.

“How about noticing the stop sign buddy?” Edmiston asked, and concluded his letter with: “To those scofflaw defenders who say we are ‘over-enforcing’ because we haven’t had a traffic fatality, my only reply is ‘exactly.’ ”

While the MRCA stop-sign camera controversy played out in the courts, the city of Los Angeles ended its red-light camera program after protracted lawsuits and complaints.

California: Stop Sign Cameras Installed on Canyon Roads (theNewspaper.com)

Lawsuit Filed over Stop-Sign Cameras (by Sue Pascoe, Palisades Post)

Parks Agency's Traffic Cameras Anger Motorists (by Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times)

Appellate Court Upholds MRCA's Deployment of Stop-Sign Cameras (by Sue Pascoe, Palisades Post)

MRCA v. Leslie Keith Kaufman (pdf)

Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority Responds to LAT Article on Stop Sign Cameras (LA Streets Blog)

Ahmanson Ranch Purchase

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy $150 million purchase of the 2,983-acre Ahmanson Ranch in November 2003 brought to a close a long struggle over development of storied land on the border between Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.

The ranch was originally part of a 1795 land grant by the King of Spain, twenty-six years after a Spanish expedition from Mexico walked through a Santa Monica Mountains canyon and into the valley above Los Angeles. The ranch changed ownership a number of times—U.S. Senator Thomas R. Bard owned it in the late 1800s—before ending up in the hands of pioneer Hollywood producer Jesse L. Lasky in 1914. The film industry was just establishing itself, and the western San Fernando Valley was an ideal location to shoot movies.

Lasky acquired the 4,000 acres and shot Cecil B. DeMille’s Rose of the Rancho at what would later be known as Lasky Mesa in 1914. Eventually, Gone With the Wind was filmed there in the late 1930s, but by then it was owned by financier George E. Barrett, Jr. The west Valley was a popular spot for entertainment personalities to live and play, with Bob Hope buying some nearby canyons. In 1963, H.F. Ahmanson & Company subsidiary Home Savings of America bought the land with the intention of developing it. But it wasn’t until 1986 that the Ahmanson Land Company was formed and planning began in earnest.

By the time the Ventura County Board of Supervisors approved development in 1992 of a sprawling mini-city, with 3,050 residences, two hotels, two golf courses and 400,000 square feet of commercial business, public opposition was intensifying. The conservancy ran afoul of some other environmental groups when it sought to strike a bargain with developers and nearby property owners for preservation of open space in exchange for its support of development efforts.

The Ahmanson situation was intertwined with nearby properties owned by entertainer Bob Hope, who hoped to sell Jordan Ranch, Runkle Ranch and Corral Canyon as part of a development deal. In June 1993, Hope agreed to sell the Jordan Ranch to the National Park Service, but development of Ahmanson Ranch was predicated on Hope’s other two properties becoming public parkland.

Mary E. Wiesbrock, director of Save Open Space, made a public appeal in 1994 for “a big-name celebrity and lots of money” to fight the development. The discovery of endangered California red-legged frogs and the rare spineflower plant, along with a dozen lawsuits bogged down development plans and in 1998 H.F. Ahmanson was bought by Washington Mutual Federal Savings Bank.

The conservancy tried to finalize a deal in 1998 that involved the purchase by WaMu of Runkle Ranch and Corral Canyon and their transfer to the conservancy in exchange for support of its development project. WaMu announced plans to break ground in 2001, as environmental forces were now joined by powerful government agencies in an attempt to buy the land for the state through the conservancy. WaMu hired former Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt for their team of lawyers.

“This is undoubtedly the single most important acquisition of open space in the history of the Santa Monica Mountains,” said conservancy Executive Director Joe Edmiston. “It's a significant advance and a fair trade-off for the Ahmanson development.”  But lawsuits were still flying and environmentalists opposed to the development continued to fight.

As new concerns arose about possible contamination from neighbor Rocketdyne’ Santa Susana Field lab, a determined Wiesbrock promised: “We're going to keep fighting this until they're on their knees begging to sell.”

WaMu missed its 2001 date, but in December 2002 it got the green light from the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to pursue permits with the state and federal government. The opposition was fierce. State agencies maneuvered to raise money for a counter offer and state Resources Agency Secretary Mary Nichols entered into negotiations with the bank. The governor, local Los Angeles politicians who feared traffic and infrastructure complications, and celebrities Rob Reiner, Martin Sheen, Arianna Huffington and Dylan McDermott campaigned for WaMu to sell Ahmanson.

In August 2003, the conservancy made a formal offer for the Ahmanson ranch as part of a larger land preservation deal and in November it closed escrow on the largest parkland purchase ever in the Los Angeles and Ventura County region. The ranch was purchased with a $135 million Wildlife Conservation Board grant, $10 million from the State Coastal Conservancy and $5 million in Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy money under watershed protection provisions of Proposition 50.    

The resulting park area is now owned by the conservancy and known as the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve.

Lasky Mesa (Moviesites.org)

Agency Prepares Backup Ahmanson Plan (by Carlos V. Lozano, Los Angeles Times)

Offer by Ahmanson Land Co. Is No Bargain (by Susan Genelin, Los Angeles Times op-ed)

Bob Hope Land Deal Clears Way for Ahmanson Ranch (by Coll Metcalfe, Los Angeles Times)

“Extinct” Flower Found Blooming at Ahmanson Ranch (by Coll Metcalfe, Los Angeles Times)

Supervisor in Ventura County Responds to Ahmanson Media Blitz (by John Phane, The Acorn)

Housing Project Receives Key Vote (by Massie Ritsch, Los Angeles Times)

Judge Calls for Decision on Ahmanson Ranch Oaks (by Gregory W. Griggs, Los Angeles Times)

Ahmanson Ranch Sale Talks OKd (by Amanda Covarrubias, Los Angeles Times)

Funds OKd for Ballona, Ahmanson (by Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times)

Conservancy Closes Escrow on Ahmanson Ranch Purchase (Conservancy press release) (pdf)

A History of Compromise

When conservancy Executive Director Joe Edmiston offered to stay mum in 2011 about the agency’s earlier objections to a Malibu development by U2 guitarist The Edge in exchange for a million-dollar donation, it revived criticism that the conservancy too easily struck bargains with developers.

As far back as 1990, the conservancy board was openly debating whether Edmiston was going too far in negotiating deals with developers and lobbying for their adoption. That year, Edmiston testified before the Coastal Commission in favor of a 26-residence luxury development in Malibu’s Corral Canyon in exchange for the right to buy 320 acres in the canyon for $9 million. The deal was part of a larger land swap with entertainer Bob Hope, but the Coastal Commission rejected the project, saying it would damage sensitive plant and wildlife habitat. One commission member said of Edmiston, “To get this far in bed with a developer like this makes me sick.”

While his critics say he is too quick to sign on to developer projects, others say he is the consummate deal-maker who has procured thousands of acres for the conservancy that would otherwise have been lost. Edmiston has been the conservancy’s only executive director since its creation in 1980 and was instrumental in acquiring more than 60,000 acres of land.

Edmiston’s defense is simple. “If you aren't willing to be pragmatic, you're nowhere in (the parks procurement) business, which some people have a difficult time understanding,” he says. His critics are equally as direct. “In many of his deals the mountains are clearly the loser,” says Siegfried Othmer, an environmental activist.     

Parks Group Delays Vote on Reining In Top Executive (by Jack Cheevers, Los Angeles Times)

The Natural (by Ron Russell, Los Angeles Times)

Streisand and the Conservancy

Entertainer Barbra Streisand donated her 22-acre Mediterranean-style Malibu Ranch estate to the conservancy in 1993 in exchange for a tax break on her $15 million gift. The deal also included transforming the estate into an environmental think tank and retreat that would bear her name. It didn’t work out that way.

Shortly after the purchase, the plans were scrapped and the conservancy admitted it had made a mistake. Maintenance costs were daunting and there was no likelihood that its envisioned self-sustaining ecology center would come to fruition. The conservancy turned one of the homes on the property into its headquarters, opened the land to campers and rented the property out for events. Neighbors were not happy. Some environmentalists were not happy. And Streisand was not happy.

So when Governor Jerry Brown proposed selling the property in 2011 as part of budget belt tightening, Streisand was behind him. “I understand Gov. Brown's tough decision given the severe budget shortfalls that California is facing,” she said in a statement. “I only hope that there is little disruption to the residents of Ramirez Canyon through this potential transition and that whatever entity does purchase the land and the homes on it, will preserve its special habitat.”

Conservancy Board Chairman Antonio Gonzalez doubted the sale would happen. In a statement, he said zoning changes require the land to be open space and the houses to full-time residential, making the property virtually worthless on the open market. 

Cash Drought Wilts Streisand Center (by Kathleen Kelleher, Los Angeles Times)

Barbra Streisand's Land Gift Pilfered by Joe Edmiston (by Doug McIntyre, Los Angeles Daily News)

Governor’s Proposal to Sell Ramirez Canyon Parkland Meets Tough Questions (by Anthony York, Los Angeles Times)

Inappropriate Spending

An audit of Proposition 50 by the Department of Finance revealed that money from the bonds it authorized was spent for the executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to have an airport “Red Carpet Club” membership, for other personal travel-related expenses and for expenses unrelated to protecting coastal watersheds, according to a 2009 report by the Little Hoover Commission, an independent state oversight agency.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy spent $150,000 from the bond to pay lawyers to defend a lawsuit filed by local residents, says the same report. Another audit found that the California Coastal Conservancy bond funds were spent for lobbying and employee perks, such as transit subsidies and yoga and weight loss programs.

In his written testimony to the commission, Natural Resources Agency Secretary Mike Chrisman said that after the release of the findings, funds were returned for all ineligible expenses and the agency’s operating procedures and organizational structures were changed to better monitor bond expenditures.  However, the commission pointed out that no statutes exist that allow the state to impose a fine or a penalty for inappropriate spending.

Says the report: “When asked whether or not the Natural Resources Agency had ever sought legislation that would impose a penalty for inappropriate use of bond money, a representative from the agency said that because the incidents were relatively minor, the agency did not deem it necessary to have an enforceable statute. Current bond law simply requires the money to be recovered.”

Bond Spending: Expanding and Enhancing Oversight (Little Hoover Commission) (pdf)  

Joe Must Go!

As the only boss the conservancy has ever know, some have suggested that the reform that needs to take place is the removal of Executive Director Joe Edmiston, who has been called the most “powerful unelected official” in Los Angeles.

His critics say his style and behavior—threatening, cajoling, and scheming against anyone who has stood in his way when it comes to acquiring, restoring and developing parkland—would be inappropriate even if his objectives were worthy.

He has angered anti-tax conservatives, small-government libertarians and pro-development residents while raising concerns among those who feel 30 years is a long time for one man to dominate such an important government agency. 

Joe Must Go (JustMustGo.org)

King of the Hills (by Lewis Macadams, Los Angeles Magazine)

An Unusual Arrangement

At the urging of Executive Director Joe Edmiston, the state established the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) in 1985, uniting the conservancy, the Conejo Recreation and Park District and the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District in a joint powers agreement to buy and manage parkland.

It was an unusual application of a decades-old government structure which essentially allowed the conservancy to act as both grantor and grantee of bond money, giving it a quasi-independent status with powers of taxation and land management.

The arrangement magnifies the conservancy’s authority because its bosses also run the MRCA.

Good idea?

Yes. The Conservancy Is Better for It

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has been a stunning success and couldn’t have accomplished what it has without the inventiveness of Edmiston in forming the MRCA.

The conservancy came into being the year Ronald Reagan was elected president and ultra-conservative James Watt set about disabling the Department of Interior.  Federal money for environmental programs was scarce and growing scarcer. Three years later, Republican George Deukmejian was elected California governor with an avowed intention of eliminating all the state conservancies. Anti-tax sentiment was at fever-pitch and entrepreneurs were finding free rein to gobble up open space for development.

Time was running out on preserving vast swaths of the Santa Monica Mountains from massive developments like one proposed for the 2,895-acre Ahmanson Ranch along Los Angeles County’s northwest border. “If it had been up to the green-eyeshade bureaucrats in Sacramento, the Ahmanson Ranch wouldn’t have been bought,” UCLA law professor Jonathan Zaslow argued in a Los Angeles Magazine profile of Edmiston.

Edmiston says that the conservancy needs every weapon it can muster to compete for open space. “You’re dealing with the most sophisticated real estate market in the country, short of Manhattan. There are no hayseeds out there. The sophistication of our operation has to match the sophistication of the developers and landowners.”

A series of audits by the Department of Finance in 2004, 2006 and 2011 took the conservancy and the MRCA to task for a number of infractions, but its biggest complaint was that the two are overseen by the same executive team.

The conservancy responded to all three audits by promising to make certain modifications in their grant process, and many of those changes have been accepted by the department. No effort has been made to revoke the powers of the MRCA.

Millions of Southern California natives and visitors to the region take advantage of the conservancy’s handiwork. Parklands that ring Los Angeles and dot its interior are jewels that dazzle, delight and enchant all who partake of them.

And the MRCA was the key to success.

No. It’s an Abuse of Power

The blogger who runs Mayor Sam’s Sister City calls the MRCA a “shadow government” and the “odd stepchild” of the conservancy. In a June 2006 rant on the website, the city of Santa Clarita was warned that Edmiston and his conservancy were forming the Newhall Ranch High Country Recreation and Conservation Authority for purposes of running rough-shod over the area using money raised by taxing Newhall Ranch homeowners.

The piece referenced an earlier alleged abuse of power by “this un-elected, seemingly un-accountable agency” in “The Stealth Election of 2003” that resulted in a $40 tax levy on 60,000 parcels of private property for the purpose of securing open space by the MRCA in the area. (The levy had been approved by more than 60% of voters.) Doug McIntyre, a writer and talk-radio host, called the tax an attempt to subvert Prop. 13, the landmark law that made taxing Californians more difficult.

McIntyre’s main objection was to “the ruthless methodology of making a small portion of Californians pay for a public trust (open natural space) for all Californians.” But he also condemned the tactics, secrecy and inherent conflict of interest exhibited by Edmiston and the MRCA.     

In 2004, the Department of Finance issued a scathing report of the conservancy/MRCA relationship and followed up with reports in 2006 and 2011 that echoed the sentiment. “Although formed as separate legal entities, the lack of operational independence between the Conservancy and Authority continues to compromise bond fiscal oversight,” the department wrote in 2011.

The department said in 2004 that the cozy arrangement led to mismanagement of $7 million and found that it “does not adequately manage, control, or oversee” $115 million in bond funds.

The finance department complained about grant money being awarded by the conservancy to the authority for nonspecific activities that either proved inappropriate or too vague for proper oversight. For instance, administrative costs that should properly be absorbed by the conservancy were being paid for by the authority.

In reviewing conservancy compliance with its 2006 recommendations, the finance department found in 2011 that it still lacked adequate grant monitoring procedures to ensure the money was properly spent and only partially fixed its compromised position as both grantor and grantee.

Misuse of Bond Funds Alleged (by Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times)

An Audit of Bond Funds (California Department of Finance) (pdf)

Watch Out Santa Clarita! Here Comes Joe Edmiston! (Mayor Sam’s Sister City)

The Stealth Election of ‘03 (by Doug McIntyre, JoeMustGo.org)

Barbra Streisand's Land Gift Pilfered by Joe Edmiston (by Doug McIntyre, Los Angeles Daily News)

Head of Mountains Conservancy Defends New Parcel Tax (by P.J. O’Malley, The Malibu Times)