Excerpt: Mitchell played a central role in a bruising internal power struggle at the agency earlier this year over replacing commission Director Charles Lester. Mitchell later cited “numerous management and administrative issues” with the agency’s leadership, but critics charged that Lester’s ouster was orchestrated by developers and other business interests. In Friday’s letter to Brown, Mitchell wrote, “Like you, I believe that sometimes the job of leadership is not to tell the people what they want to hear but in doing what needs to be done. “I’m proud to have served with my fellow commissioners who made tough decisions and did so with the best of intentions, even when it cost them personally and politically, because they believed what they were doing was best for the California Coast,” she wrote.