DOT role in Sears Island planning limited

By Peter Taber/The Waldo Independent
March 8, 2006

Environmentalists who have followed the Sears Island saga over many years remained uncertain this week whether the Maine Department of Transportation (DOT) is relinquishing its grasp on the long-contested state-owned property.

Officials at the Department of Conservation (DOC), which Gov. John Baldacci this year directed should take over from the DOT planning for the island's future, were willing to say only that they look forward to a constructive planning process ahead, one that will involve essentially all stakeholders who declare themselves stakeholders.

The DOT was asked to draw up a draft document advertising for a facilitator to lead the planning process. What resulted touched off outrage and the DOC stepped in. A substitute document prepared by that agency appeared Tuesday on its website. Copies also appeared on the DOT and State Planning Office websites. It bears no resemblance to what the DOT submitted and the environmental community is very happy.

Environmentalists as well as many residents of those communities most closely affected by what becomes of Sears Island-Searsport, Stockton Springs and Islesboro-would like to see a policy guaranteeing preservation in its natural wild state of what at 941 acres is the largest uninhabited and undeveloped island on the Eastern Seaboard readily accessible to the public.

Certain industrial interests continue to find a champion in the DOT in promoting their plans to see the island officially made a part of the port of Searsport. In July 2004, DOT Commissioner David Cole came to Searsport to inform town officials his department had decided to set aside nearly a third of the island, some 280 acres in total, to be used at some indefinite time perhaps decades into the future for port expansion and for industrial development dependent on port facilities.

Cole was accompanied by Jonathan Daniels, a former port executive from New Orleans who had recently been appointed president of Eastern Maine Development Corp., a private economic development agency that funnels funds and promotes programs that mostly benefit industry and corporate interests. Daniels spoke of the economic possibilities of industrializing a major portion of the mostly forested island. Half a year later, a southern Maine lawmaker sponsored a bill that would have mandated that the DOT do whatever it could to industrialize and commercialize the island.

These developments coupled with the DOT's attempts earlier to locate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on Sears Island triggered public backlash. The members of the Legislature's Transportation Com-mittee were listening because they took the bill to industrialize the island and re-wrote it. When they finished and that bill was adopted into law with the full support of the Legislature last spring, it said nothing about industrialization or commercialization. Instead, it stripped the DOT of its claim to decide the island's fate and directed that henceforth any substantial contemplated changes in the use, status or ownership of the island would first have to gain the Legislature's approval.

When Gov. Baldacci directed the DOC to hire a facilitator and hold an initial planning session Jan. 19 in the Cabinet Room at the State House concerning the future of Sears Island, he made it clear he wanted all interested parties to be able to take part and that the process should be an open and transparent one.

Brunswick attorney and mediation specialist Jonathan Reitman, who served in a one-time capacity as facilitator, prepared a summary of that first session, which was intended to arrive at the process by which the actual planning of acceptable uses for the island would be carried out.

In his summary, Reitman noted that the gathering had agreed by apparent consensus the actual planning process ahead would ensure, among other things, that "all ideas were on the table" and there would be "no pre-conditions" affecting the process. He also reported that the participants agreed "public participation was part of the process in a meaningful way."

Farther along in the summary, Reitman wrote, "The group quickly agreed it needed a facilitator" and he went on to report the discussion that ensued looked at the necessity of having someone with an understanding of land use planning, someone with "the analytical ability to understand and interpret law and data, someone who has credibility with all interests and who is perceived as fair."

Near the tail end of the Jan. 19 meeting when many of the participants had left because of a developing snowstorm, those who were left agreed Kathy Fuller, a DOT official who was present, would be given the task of preparing an RFP ("request for proposals") to be advertised in a bid to find a facilitator. She was also asked as part of that RFP to set out as a goal for the process "a clear plan developed by consensus on future uses of Sears Island," which would then be given "to the governor, Legislature, town of Searsport and state agencies for review, approval and implementation."

Three weeks ago, Fuller submitted a draft of her proposed RFP. It gave members of a selection committee charged with hiring the facilitator just two full days to sign off on it so it could be published with a deadline for submissions of March 24.

In its first paragraph, the draft RFP informed would-be bidders that their recommendations "will take into account numerous factors including their effect on the port of Searsport, which is defined as Sears Island and Mack Point together." In a section titled "Project information" on page 2 of the draft RFP, Fuller opened with the statement, "The port of Searsport is located in Searsport, Maine, at the mouth of Penobscot Bay. The port includes Mack Point and Sears Island and the navigation channels in the immediate vicinity."

These claims of Sears Island being part of the port of Searsport are disputed by the environmental community and by many residents of the region. They point out that not only has there never been anything remotely resembling a port on Sears Island-a failed $22 million effort by the state over nearly 20 years to put one there notwithstanding-but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has twice in the past five years weighed in on the question against such a claim.

Most recently, in June 2004, the Corps published a summary update that noted the more than $30 million in public and private money that had been spent in the previous couple of years up to that point (now closer to $40 million) in refurbishing the long-established utility port facilities across on the mainland at Mack Point.

"For years the state has identified a three-terminal plan for its shipping needs," the Corps stated. "New or upgraded facilities now exist in Eastport and Portland, covering the northern and southern portions of the state. Mack Point will fulfill the role of the third terminal in the central coastal area. Its development effectively closes the controversial history of the state's attempts to develop a similar facility off nearby Sears Island."

At the Jan. 19 meeting, John Melrose, a former DOT commissioner who is now a private consultant to the transportation industry as well as executive director of the Maine Better Transportation Association, raised hackles among those seeking to preserve Sears Island when he commented that he hoped the conversation ahead would be "about the Port of Searsport-not just Sears Island."

In a similar vein, one those advocating conservation of the island believe is slanted in favor of transportation issues at the expense of other concerns, Fuller went on in her draft RFP to comment on the $50,000 her department has set aside "to undertake a planning process that will result in a report of recommendations for land use activities on Sears Island and their likely impacts on highways, railroads and marine infrastructure."

In spite of a clear directive to seek "a facilitator," that word appears only once on page 1 of the nine-page draft RFP document and in the form "facilitators/planners." The next time the word facilitator appears is on page 6 and then it is repeated one more time as "project manager/land use planner/facilitator." From the beginning, Fuller employs the word "consultant," first in the singular sense, then, as the document proceeds, as "the consultants." From there it goes on to setting down qualifications for "the principal consultant," asks that "all participating personnel and office location(s)" be identified, and on page 7 asks questions about abilities and qualifications of "the organization," "the key professionals," "the consultant/team" and then "the firm."

The RFP draft also ignores the directive that it include the Legislature and state agencies as among the parties to be consulted as to the results of the planning process.

Comment wasn't long in coming from those who felt the draft RFP they were asked to approve bore little resemblance to what had been asked for at the Jan. 19 meeting. The grassroots group Protect Sears Island (PSI), which has been at the forefront in seeking conservation of Sears Island, wrote Karin Tilberg, DOC deputy commissioner, who has been charged with leading the planning process.

In their letter, members said that "we are confused by the change of scope from Sears Island to the port of Searsport. We have been told from the beginning that the statewide meetings would be to consider the future of the island. Now, at the eleventh hour, the focus is being broadened to include Mack Point and the navigation channels. All discussions between the town of Searsport and DOT have focused exclusively on Sears Island. To add a whole new dimension at this point flies in the face of reassurances that this would be an open and above-board process.

"Furthermore, it negates the agreement to enter into this process with no pre-conditions. This is a substantial pre-condition, which seems to have come out of left field and can only foster mistrust."

For the past two weeks, Fuller has declined to be interviewed by The Independent. Herb Thompson, a DOT employee designated to deal with the press, fielded all calls to her. Two weeks ago he asked that any questions be submitted in written form. After receiving these questions, he said Tilberg, as "the lead person in the process," was the only person who could answer them.

When asked last week how an administrator at one department could reasonably answer questions specifically having to do with the policy at another, he suggested these questions be submitted anyway. In particular, he was asked about one of the questions previously submitted to the DOT, "Is the department still standing by its claim to reserve 280 acres even if many regard this as an unwarranted pre-condition that violates the spirit of what the governor assured environmentalists in talks going back to the summer of 2004?"

"I think you should check with Karin," Thompson said Friday. "If she declines then we'll be happy to answer your questions." On Monday, Tilberg acknowledged this wasn't a question she was in a position to answer. On Tuesday afternoon, Thompson left a telephone message saying he had spoken with Tilberg. "I think we'll go with what she told you," he said. "As I understand it she said we wouldn't go into the substantive issues right now but wait until we go through the process in April and May and have everybody involved."

The DOC's version of the RFP says nothing about Sears Island being part of the port of Searsport, and makes no reference to transportation issues. Under the heading "project information," it provides a geographical description of the island including the extent and nature of its natural resources.

The RFP sets down a proposed schedule of developments. The deadline for completing review of the document is March 20 with responses due at the end of the month. The contract will be awarded April 10 and contract negotiations will follow with a signing on or before April 30. Under "Begin Process," the document says May 2006.

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