Coastal Commission Executive Director Dr. Charles Lester was fired without explanation, nor justifiable cause, and the grounds for his termination have been done in secrecy by Commissioners, skewed by special interests representing wealthy land developers.
Why is this important?
Dr. Lester has nobly served the State of California as Executive Director of the California Coastal Commission for four and a half years since being unanimously elected by the commission. To be clear, Dr. Lester has not been accused of any improprieties. No accusations have been leveled against him regarding his job performance meriting cause for immediate dismissal from his position as Executive Director.
Furthermore, and appallingly, Director Lester was fired despite overwhelming support, including 35 former commissioners, 156 current staff members of the California Coastal Commission, over 20,000 signed letters of support, online petitions totaling over 3,000 signatures, numerous hours of public testimony and speeches made by dozens of elected officials state, county and city, developers, conservancy groups, environmental, educational, university scholars, scientific groups and over 1,000 California citizens that travelled from all over the state of California to Morro Bay to attend the Coastal Commission's public hearing to show their support for Director Lester on February 10, 2016. In all, the consensus overwhelmingly confirmed Dr. Lester's impeccably immaculate and exemplary record of service as Director of the Commission and solidified his undaunted commitment to the Coastal Protection Act of 1972.
