County supervisor candidate and former Santa Barbara City
Councilmember Dan Secord was appointed this week to serve as an
alternate on the California Coastal Commission, to the tempered
dismay of activists involved in preserving coastal lands and
fighting ocean waters development. Secord will stand in when
Governor Schwarzenegger’s new South Central Coast appointee
Khatchik Achadjian is absent. Achadjian chairs the San Luis Obispo
Board of Supervisors and owns several gas stations. Secord earned a
poor conservation rating of 38 percent from coastal protection
organizations – including Surfrider Foundation, the Sierra Club
Coastal Program, and the California Coastkeeper Alliance – when he
served as the governor’s South Central Coast appointee during 2005.
Only two of the 11 commissioners received lower conservation scores
than Secord.
