Marin County Supervisor and chairman of the California Coastal Commission, Steve Kinsey, is poised to recuse himself from an upcoming vote on a contentious project that proposes to erect houses, hotels and retail stores—alongside nature preserves and open space—on 401 acres in Newport Beach, representing Southern California’s largest remaining undeveloped parcel of land.
Speculation on whether Mr. Kinsey would recuse himself arose following Los Angeles Times reports that revealed he had failed to properly disclose his attendance at two 2015 meetings with representatives from the project’s developer, Newport Banning Ranch, LLC. State law requires Mr. Kinsey and other commissioners to submit ex-parte disclosure forms for any oral or written communication between a commission member and an interested party—such as Newport Banning Ranch—that does not occur at a public hearing.
In January, Mr. Kinsey emailed a memo to a commission deputy director, Sherilyn Sarb, that detailed a trip he took to the project property accompanied by Newport Banning’s president and others, for which he did not file an ex parte. An ex parte filed by Commissioner Dayna Bochco also noted Mr. Kinsey’s attendance at a meeting with Newport Banning reps in November, which Mr. Kinsey likewise did not disclose. He attributed the filing lapses to a busy, distracting holiday season and his focus on building a home for his parents in the San Geronimo Valley.
“I absolutely know that I want to recuse myself,” Mr. Kinsey told the Light at a barbeque fundraiser held in his honor on Monday at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center. “The importance of the idea that everybody has the same information is more important than my one vote on one project.” He added that he plans to announce that decision formally at the commission’s next meeting in June. A vote on the hotly debated project is slated for this summer.
Critics have pointed to the ex-parte slips and the sudden February firing of the commission’s executive director, Charles Lester, as possible evidence of a troublingly cozy relationship between developers and Mr. Kinsey, who worked as an architect in Marin prior to his election to supervisor. Mr. Kinsey on Monday brushed aside those claims.
“It’s been presented in such slimy terms,” he said in response to the Times reports. “But the reality is that I feel very good about working to make that a much better project.”
Mr. Kinsey will have to vacate the commission upon his departure from the county at the end of this year, after serving 20 years as West Marin’s representative on the county board of supervisors.