Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) cut the fire department budget, supported diversity hires in the fire department and department of water and power, and, as deadly winds threatened the city, flew off to Ghana. For his part, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) neglects forest maintenance, lets winter snowmelt flow into the ocean, and blames wildfires on “climate change.”

With city and state government failures on full display, the people need to know that another state government agency is a big part of the problem.

Contrary to Gavin Newsom, the wildfires are not driven by 'climate change,' but 'regime change' could be part of the solution.

Dating from the 1970s, the California Coastal Commission is an unelected body of regulatory zealots that overrides dozens of elected city and county governments on land use and environmental issues. The appointed commissioners managed to combine Stalinist regulation with mafia-style corruption. For example, Commissioner Mark Nathanson, appointed by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown in the 1980s, served prison time for extorting bribes from Hollywood celebrities and others seeking coastal building permits.

The CCC holds jurisdiction in an area extending up to five miles inland “and including coastal mountains.” The commission can require “restoration of sites to native habitat” and looks askance at “removal of major vegetation.” The commission can seek judicial penalties and can also “impose penalties itself, administratively,” with no need for the courts to approve. So in a real sense, the unelected commission is a law unto itself, with no accountability to the people.

Property owners in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and the coastal mountains are not exactly free to remove brush that could prove dangerous in times of fire, like the blazes that turned their neighborhoods into ash last week. On the other hand, the CCC also helps to prevent California from accessing its greatest natural resource, the Pacific Ocean.

For example, the Poseidon Desalination Plant in Huntington Beach was in progress for 20 years, projected to provide Orange County with 50 million gallons of fresh water a day, and supported by a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers. In 2022, the CCC turned it down, with Commissioner Dayna Bochco explaining, “The ocean is under attack from climate change already.”

Bochco, an attorney, is the wife of the late Steven Bochco and served as president of Steven Bochco Productions, producers of “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” “Cop Rock” and other television shows. First appointed by the state Senate’s rules committee in 2011, Bochco has been reappointed several times and is now on board until May 20, 2027. The unelected commissioners have no term limits.

In Santa Barbara County, Vandenberg Space Force Base has been launching jets and missiles for decades. Last year, the commission voted to block more SpaceX launches from Vandenberg because, as Commissioner Caryl Hart put it, Elon Musk was “injecting himself into the presidential race.” So it’s really all about politics, not the environment.

The unelected commissioners have been rather quiet about the coastal fires, but not to worry. As the CCC’s website now proclaims: “Homes, businesses, churches, schools and other structures that have been destroyed by the recent fires are exempt from Coastal Act permitting requirements.” Victims can be forgiven for believing that they never should have been required in the first place.

As the smoke was rising and the wind blowing strong, Mayor Karen Bass flew off to Ghana. For what happened next, consider this January 8 email from a friend caught in the fire zone:

Everything destroyed. Entire neighborhood vaporized. Worse than a thousand nightmares. Power went out at 7pm. Complete blackness everywhere. Violent embers flew like piercing rockets. Palm trees exploded like Saturn V. Cyclone winds swirling vortex at 80 mph. Mandatory evacuation, cars abandoned on Sunset Blvd. Everything is obliterated. EVERYTHING!!!!!

Contrary to Gavin Newsom, the wildfires are not driven by “climate change,” but “regime change” could be part of the solution. At this writing, embattled Angelenos are gearing up a recall for Karen Bass. So, as Donald Trump likes to say, we’ll have to see what happens.