San Diego City Councilman Ben Hueso has received low marks for some of his votes as a state coastal commissioner in 2008. Several environmental groups compiled rankings based on 31 votes seen as having a major impact on the coast. KPBS Environment Reporter Ed Joyce has details.
The voting chart is produced by Sierra Club Coastal Programs, Surfrider Foundation, and four other environmental groups.
It ranks the 12 coastal commissioners on how they voted on projects and proposals including the Toll Road through San Onofre State Park and the Carlsbad desalination plant.
Angela Howe is with the Surfrider Foundation.
She says Ben Hueso voted against protecting the coast 75-percent of the time.
"Hueso voted 29 times, he was absent twice," Howe says. "And he only voted for the coast seven times out of the 29 times."
She says only one other commissioner had a score lower than Hueso's 24-percent.
Howe says the 2008 average for all 12 commissioners was 38 percent, the lowest score in ten years.
Hueso says the evaluation does not accurately reflect his voting record. He says he voted on more than 600 issues last year.
Hueso also says he's "equally perplexed" by some of the issues selected as important.
He says a vote on kiosks in Orange County was included but his vote in favor of the remediation of a former landfill near San Diego Bay was not considered.
Ed Joyce, KPBS News.
