Mike Stoker, former Santa Barbara County supervisor and more recently regional administrator for the EPA’s West Coast Region 9, has sued his former boss, former EPA director Andrew Wheeler, and three other former high-ranking EPA administrators for $2.9 million, charging them with defamation of character. Stoker — a mainstay of Santa Barbara County’s Republican establishment since the 1980s — was appointed to run the EPA’s West Coast operations in July 2018 and was subsequently fired in February 2020 with no explanation given other than it was “not personal.”
Brash, garrulous, and outspoken, Stoker did not go quietly. Not only did he insist his termination was, in fact, very personal, but he also charged in various media reports that he’d been fired because he worked too collaboratively and effectively with high-ranking California Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. While pledging political fealty to President Donald Trump, Stoker made it clear there was more to the story and clearer still that he planned to go public with it at some future date.
Shortly thereafter, high-ranking EPA administrators Doug Benevento, Ryan Jackson, and Corry Schiermeyer all unloaded on Stoker, stating he’d been fired because he’d somehow abused the travel perks that came with the post. In one such statement, it was explained, Stoker was terminated “for severe neglect and incompetent administration of his duties.” In another, it was stated, “Mike was too interested in travel for the sake of travel and ignored necessary decision-making required of a regional administrator.”