[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 127 (Friday, August 26, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1531]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       IN HONOR OF PETER DOUGLAS

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, August 26, 2011

  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the long and 
distinguished public service career of my dear friend Peter Douglas. 
Peter is retiring after nearly 26 years as the California Coastal 
Commission's Executive Director, a post that he has held continuously 
since 1985, longer than any other director of a California State 
agency. In that time he has done more than any other individual to 
shape the California Coastal Commission and by extension the California 
coast we know today. So I think it appropriate that we honor his 
vision, dedication, and tenacity in doing as much as humanly possible 
to keep the California coast natural, open, and accessible.
  Peter has always had a knack for pulling success from challenging 
circumstances. Peter's Jewish mother gave birth to him while living in 
Berlin, Germany, in 1942. His family managed to escape to Mexico and 
then, in the early 1950s, to the United States. Peter went on to 
graduate from UCLA in 1965 and later from the UCLA law school in 1969. 
After a brief law practice, Peter went to work for Assemblyman Alan 
Sieroty, a Democrat from Beverly Hills. And that is when I first met 
him and where he really started his work as a troublemaker and paradigm 
shifter par excellence.
  In the late 1950s, my father, the late State Senator Fred Farr, 
authored an early version of a California Coastal Act, but the politics 
were not yet there to support its passage. Peter helped change that by 
drafting an updated version of my father's legislation that this time 
went to the voters as Proposition 20. As part of the grass roots 
campaign to pass Prop 20, Peter, with a little help from me and some 
others, organized a coastal bike ride along the coast from far north to 
the Mexican border. With Prop 20's passage the California Coastal 
Commission was born. Peter then went to work for the Assembly Natural 
Resources Committee and the Select Committee on Coastal Protection, 
from where he helped draft the 1976 California Coastal Act, which made 
the Coastal Commission permanent and set in motion the creation of 
local coastal plans and the other basic elements of California's 
coastal protection framework.
  Peter then went to work for the Commission as its Chief Deputy, a 
position he held until his 1985 appointment as the Commission's 
executive director. As Executive Director, Peter led the Commission's 
development into the bulwark of California coastal protection that it 
is today. He has described the measure of his success as the things 
that we don't see: the wetlands left unfilled; the scenic vistas left 
open; the coastal habitat still available for wildlife; and even the 
coastal amenities now open to minorities. Others have measured his 
success with a catalogue of awards and recognition too long to detail 
here. Of course this has not come without controversy. He has 
frequently tangled with the rich and powerful over various coastal 
development proposals and has survived over a dozen attempts to remove 
him.
  Unfortunately, illness has done what lobbyists could not. His long 
running struggle with cancer has forced Peter to step down from his 
executive director position. I know I speak for many of my colleagues, 
Mr. Speaker, in thanking Peter for his selfless service and in wishing 
him and his family and friends all the best.

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