What's the beef with the AQMD?

The board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District will vote this week on whether to keep or dump the agency's long-time executive officer, James Lents, and his top management team.

If the vote mirrors last month's preliminary vote, Lents and his team are history, despite general support from a broad coalition of businesses and environmental groups.

The unanswered question is. "Why?"

The answer surfacing after polling board members last week: "It's personal."

Lents' critics do not point to policies or programs he has implemented. Instead, they take issue with Lents' personal management style, the way he interacts with his staff and with the board members.

The specter of the AQMD's entire top management team being replaced is a major event, as the federal government tightens its clean air regulations and as L.A.'s economy and population surge.

For decades, the Los Angeles Basin has had the nation's worst air quality. And the AQMD, which has garnered a national reputation for its innovative approaches to fighting air pollution, is the agency responsible for bringing L.A.'s dirty air into compliance with ever-tightening federal standards.

Despite that national recognition and its awesome mandate, the agency's top managers have fallen out of favor with a significant portion of the board. And that disfavor is focused on James Lents, who has led the agency for the past 11 years.

Two of Lents' most-outspoken critics are board members Cody Cluff and Nell Soto, who both cited Lents himself as the main reason behind their "no" votes at the preliminary meeting May 9.

"I don't like his style of management. The board under Lents is a farce, and only the ones who agree with him get the most attention. Those of us who stand up to him - we get token attention," said Solo.

She recalled one occasion when she questioned Lents on his recommendation not to renew an AQMD employee's contract at a board meeting.

"He singled that person out publicly, and I stood up and asked why," Solo said. "After that he didn't speak to me for a couple of weeks. Later he said, 'I can't have board members interfering with me trying to run this agency.'"

Board member Cluff voiced similar grievances. "I don't feel he displays an energy and enthusiasm for the job," Cluff said.

He cited a number of instances to illustrate his point, including a claim that Lents failed to attend more than half the meetings of a national committee that will decide how to implement new clean air standards being formulated by the federal government.

Lents responded to Soto's grievances by saying he tries to spend time talking with and listening to all 12 of the AQMD's board members.

"I don't understand her concern that I don't spend a lot of time with her," he said. "There are 12 board members, and it's been my goal to try and be balanced in my approach to all of them."

In response to Cluff's criticism, Lents acknowledged that he has missed a large number of committee meetings, but pointed out that he sends one of his staff members to each meeting he is not able to personally attend.

"I'm very enthusiastic about my job, and I think the results show it. Perhaps (Cluff's) definition of enthusiasm differs from mine," he said.

Lents came to the AQMD in 1986, following an eight-year stint as director of the Air Pollution Control Program for the State of Colorado and seven years running the Chattanooga. Tenn. Air Pollution Control Bureau.

His innovative approaches to controlling air pollution have earned him near-unanimous praise from both the business and environmental communities in the six-county AQMD region.

One of the innovations is RECLAIM, a program through which companies are awarded credits to emit a set amount of air pollutants. Then companies buy and sell those credits on the open market, allowing individual companies more flexibility while simultaneously controlling the region's overall pollution.

The number of Stage One Smog Alerts in the AQMD's district has dropped from 79 in 1986 - when [TABULAR DATA OMITTED] Lents took office - to seven last year. Stage One alerts occur when the ozone level in the air exceeds 0.2 parts per million, a level considered hazardous to public health.

Overall exposure to unhealthful air is down 70 percent during Lents' administration.

But the agency in recent years has been accused by some environmental activists of bending to political pressure to scale back its fight against smog and thereby placate business interests.

Last August, nine of its 11 scientific advisors resigned to protest AQMD policies they said were failing to protect the region from severe pollution that threatens public health.

But that controversy pales in comparison to the situation now facing the board and Lents. Last month's preliminary vote was 6-6; Lents and his team need at least seven votes of support to have their contracts renewed for another three-year term.

Of the six board members who voted against Lents last month, two are considered swing votes - William Burke and Norma Glover.

And Burke, who is the head of L.A. Marathon Inc. and the husband of L.A. County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, is the one most likely to change his vote, thereby extending Lents' 11-year tenure, said one board member who asked not to be named.

Burke was appointed to the AQMD board by then-Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, but now he is the appointee of current Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante, D-Fresno.

Burke, who likes to "hold his cards close to his vest," said a board member, had no comment last week on how he intends to vote at this week's meeting.

The other potential swing vote is Norma Glover, a Newport Beach City Council member who only joined the board this year and is a relative unknown to other board members. Glover, who was out of town last week. voted against Lents' renewal at the preliminary vote and is reportedly under pressure from Orange County politicians not to change her vote.

Meanwhile, Lents is responding to the recent storm with bewilderment, saying some board members who voted against his renewal have concluded he is too pro-business, while others have labeled him as anti-business, while still others concluded he hasn't seriously considered their suggestions.

"I knew there were a couple of board members that were unhappy, but beyond that, the (preliminary) vote came as a complete surprise," he said. "The board is split down the middle, and I'm the least in the loop."

Among business and environmental groups. there is widespread support for a new three-year term for Lents, who has been praised by both for implementing innovative government programs to clean up Southern California's air.

Among those supporters is the Regulatory Flexibility Group, a coalition of major oil and aerospace companies that are regulated by the AQMD.

But that support may not be enough to win over the board votes required to renew Lents' contract when it expires on July 31.

This week's vote can also be seen as a referendum on the AQMD in general, since two deputy executive officers and three other contract employees will have their contracts terminated if Lents fails to receive the necessary votes.

Some industry watchers and board members are calling last month's 6-6 preliminary vote over Lents' renewal a coordinated effort to oust him, though most described the six non-renewal votes as an unlikely bloc that came together on this one issue, rather than a longer-lasting coalition of like-minded board members.

And, it's the very patchwork nature of the preliminary vote that holds out Lents' best hope for hanging onto his job for another three years.

Board member Ron Loveridge - who voted for Lents' renewal - noted that the preliminary 6-6 vote broke down roughly along geographic lines, with Inland Empire board members all in favor of Lents. Orange County members all against, and L.A. County votes split along both sides.

Meanwhile, many business and environmental groups, which have been largely relegated to the sidelines in the debate, praised Lents last week for his 11 years of work at the AQMD and expressed surprise at recent attempts to oust him.

"We think now is not the time to change leadership and management at AQMD." said Jack Wyatt, a past president of the Monday Morning Group, a business organization in the Inland Empire. "They've worked extremely hard to resolve air quality issues in our region, and they've developed a positive relationship with our businesses and community."

Likewise, the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group with offices Santa Monica, supports Lents and is mounting an 11th-hour campaign to convince either Glover or Burke to change their votes, according to Gall Ruderman Feuer, a senior attorney the group.

"We support him. People opposing his appointment want to turn the tables and move backward," she said.

But board member Mike Antonovich, who cast a non-renewal vote last month. said Lents must be replaced for the agency to move forward.

"For the future of the district, it's important to have somebody who can effectively communicate with all the players in the clean-air picture. And one of (Lents') glaring weaknesses is his inability to communicate and build coalitions." said Antonovich spokesman Peter Whittingham.