AQMD's chief prosecutor has an air about her.

AQMD's chief prosecutor has an air about her

Through her office window Diana Love sees many of the same things most of us do, including the smog that often blankets the Southland. But unlike the rest of us - who can complain about the weather but can't do much about it - she has the muscle to change things.

The 43-year-old chief prosecutor for the South Coast Air Quality Management District said she sees herself as a friend of the Southern California environment - and, by extension, of business as well. There are those in the business world who dispute that claim.

Where she crosses swords with the business world is in her efforts to get industry to toe the environmental line. And she is doing that with a sense of purpose and of urgency.

"It's frustrating," she said, referring to the smoggy pall that frequently blankets the region and blocks her view of the nearby mountains. "Last week the smog was so bad at our East San Gabriel Valley home that you could smell it and feel it. I even had to keep my 10-year-old daughter from going outside."

Love was brought from the L.A. District Attorney's office three years ago by Executive Director James Lents to take over the legal arm of AQMD, the agency charged with cleaning the air in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. A former environmental crimes prosecutor in the D.A.'s office, Love was put in charge of revitalizing an overload office that was frequently ignored by local industry.

Through a series of high profile and aggressive prosecutions and a greater attention to individual cases, Love has put business on notice that AQMD has gotten tough on environmental offenders.

The number of civil cases prepared for filing nearly doubled from 541 during fiscal 1990 to 949 in fiscal 1991, ended June 30. Cases referred for civil action also jumped from 739 in fiscal 1990 to 1,082 in 1991. At the same time, the department's budget has skyrocketed from $876,000 in 1989 to $3.68 million last year.

Lents said he is delighted with Love's performance. "I hired Diana to send a clear message that we will not tolerate deliberate and willful violations of clean air laws and regulations. The public expects that of us, and she has done that," he said.

Love is now faced with another problem: convincing business that AQMD is not its primary enemy. That problem was highlighted by an incident her brother, Michael Gates, related to her from an experience he had while working in the Southern California office of Train Heating & Air Conditioning.

According to Gate's story, a hotel maintenance manager came to him with a letter from the AQMD chief prosecutor's office. It was a notification of a violation of air quality emission rules. Waving the notice about angrily, the man used a number of invectives to describe the absent chief prosecutor.

Gates interjected that he knew the chief prosecutor - in fact, she is his sister. "The man's face paled instantly as he looked down at the piece of paper and saw my name," Love said.

When Love joined AQMD in 1988, she said she found dozens of cases alleging corporate violations of AQMD emission limits were slipping through the cracks. "I believe that in the past this was an agency that did not always hold people accountable," she said. "Now businesses will always hear from us under the name of the chief prosecutor's office. We follow up on every case."

She also found that the office had no guidelines for deciding which cases should be prosecuted and which could be resolved. She quickly drew up guidelines for mutual settlement agreements - cases which could be quickly settled between an AQMD case investigator and company representatives.

Whether AQMD takes a company to court depends primarily on its intent, Love said. "If the company has exceeded its emission requirements, shows little care about those emissions and doesn't do anything about it, then we will come down on that company," she said. "But there have only been a handful of cases like this, and they have truly deserved the heavy fines they have received."

The record $1 million settlement with Lockheed Corp. last year is the case that stands out most in her mind. But some critics of the department said its fearsome reputation came from more than just major fines.

"Up to about a year ago, they were only after one thing, and that was money," said Kevin Takeuchi, an attorney with the law firm Graham & James in Newport Beach who has defended several companies that must comply with the agency's rideshare requirements. "They were unwilling to bend because they wanted to hit my clients as early and as hard as possible."

Love is now trying to change that view of her department. "We are not in the business of putting companies out of business. Nor are we trying to get cash into the budget," she said.

Defending the actions of her office, Love said: "A good prosecutor knows not to hit someone hard who does not deserve it. We have bent over backwards to help companies come into compliance if they are truly serious about it."

Fine is a staff reporter for the Orange County Business Journal.