It’s become a familiar sight during the California Coastal Commission’s three-day meetings. Members of the powerful panel can be seen huddling with developers or their representatives in hallways, in the back of the hearing room or outside during breaks.

At other times, commissioners have discussed pending business over dinner, on the telephone, via email, in offices and during site visits of proposed projects.

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“Ex-partes clearly do not strike the people involved in coastal disputes as being a fair process in which only information brought out at public commission hearings should be considered,” said Michael Asimow, a professor emeritus at UCLA Law School and an expert in California administrative law.

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