I am continually impressed by the initiatives flowing out of the reconstituted Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs, but almost six months into the Patrick Administration, when is Governor Patrick going to focus on the ENVIRONMENTAL part of that secretariat? A new commissioner has yet to be named. What gives? Does anyone have any information on this? And when there is a new commissioner, will there be an effort to inject new energy (no pun intended) into DEP after so many years of Republican rule?
Please share widely!
But I am surpirsed he dosn’t seem to have candidates waiting.
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In fact, he fired and then rehired the heads of the Registry of Motor Vehicles and Mass Highway. No democrats want those jobs?
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The MADEP system is the trend setter for the rest of the country. The privatized system, known as the Licensed Site Professional (LSP) Program, is being copied by states all around the nation. They are ahead of the curve on the use of internet and computers and are currently working on making all of the documents (reports, plans, letters, etc.) submitted to them available online. They are ahead of other states on identifying new environmental concerns, such as perchlorate.
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And the “so many years of Republican rule” are responsible for the things. More specifically, the Romney Administration. Furthermore, the “Republican rule” has now established this department with an aggressive stance towards fines and penalties towards those polluters that are not taking responsibility for cleaning up there mess. Doing this has allowed the department to become more and more self sufficient in terms of operating budget. The MADEP took in more then $6 million in fines and penelties in 2006, compared to $3.4 million in 2002.
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Just out of curiosity, just where did you get this notion that the “many years of Republican rule” has some how damaged or weakened the DEP?
That evil Bob Durand, too!
The point of my post was not to impugn the reputation of DEP, because it is a good agency with many fine people doing a lot of good work, including being a national leader in several areas. It really goes more to the internal churnings of the agency. By not yet naming a new commissioner (or appointing acting commissioner O’Donnell to the post, which I would like but which I hear is not going to happen), the administration has created a freeze-frame situation in parts of the agency. Decisions of certain types don’t get made during a transition like this, because people are more concerned about the potential implications for their own jobs than for the programs they run. That’s bad for morale, which is pretty low anyway. How do I know? I guess I work there.
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The point of my comment about 16 years of Republican rule is that there needs to be some new blood. People get used to doing things a certain way because of the marching orders they’ve received. Institutional knowledge in this type of agency is a good thing; lack of innovative management is not. I didn’t say the agency was weak, as you term it. Robust enforcement – not weak. But all those penalties go into the General Fund, and the budget cuts of three, four years ago are still being felt. Bob Golledge did a fantastic job stopping the bleeding from the budget, but level funding only goes so far. It would have been great if DEP could have kept some of that money it brought it in, but it’s not like the agency got a lot of credit in the budget for that.
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As for the Romney years, there’s not much to debate. He was not responsible for the privatized cleanup system, which came into being in 1992 when 21E was rewritten. The focus on Enforcement First resulted in some nice headlines, some money going into the General Fund, success being measured by dollars and number of enforcement actions, and many miserable employees who, while understanding that enforcement is an important part of their jobs, wonder what happened to the compliance assistance part. I am all for strong enforcement, however I’m also a believer in the “teach a man to fish” concept, and the last several years the agency hasn’t been doing that as much as it should. With the budget cuts came a shift in focus to enforcement at the expense of outreach, education and compliance assistance. That’s finally beginning to shift a little.
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If you recall the early, heady days of Romney, when all seemed so bright and hopeful, you’ll remember his wish to consolidate what he called “back room” functions. Apparently this included ridding DEP of the pesky administrative staffs in its offices, because honestly, what value does a file clerk add to an agency with so many public records to maintain? I guess none. Tell me if you, as a taxpayer, think paying an engineer or analyst or attorney $40 an hour to make photocopies or file is a good use of your tax dollars.
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Here is one of the problems with the mentalities of state workers:
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In the private sector, the implications for the programs are directly tied to their jobs. Someone who runs a failed program isn’t just shuffled around, they are fired. Conversely, if they run a good program, they are given a raise and promoted. This is the basic difference of merit versus tenure.
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I agree. I refer to this as “enterprising”, as it is called in town and city government. Departments that are capable of generating there own revenue are allowed to operate as a private business and set it’s own budget, fee structure, etc. with minor oversight by the controlling body (in this case the governor). This seems to be a problem that those who run the DEP are not addressing. I say this because some portions of the DEP, wetlands, are allowed to retain the fees they generate. The DEP system should be changed to operate based on the fees they generate. This, like other programs that are enterprise such as water and sewer, would likely result in an increase in fees on the short term, but then they would plateau at a level that is sufficient to fund the program.
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First, I never claimed that Romney was responsible for the LSP program. I said that many of the advancements in the current DEP and pointed to the eDEP system as an example. As for the employees of the DEP that want to work on compliance assistance instead of enforcement, tough, that is not your job anymore. That is the whole thing with the privatized system, we consultants get paid to help people with compliance assistance. That is our job, not yours. The job of the DEP is to promulgate the regulations and enforce the regulations. If people at the DEP are not happy with that part of the job, then quite, go get another job.
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As for the “pesky administrative staffs in its offices, because honestly, what value does a file clerk add to an agency with so many public records to maintain?” I find it very hard to have sympathy for you on the lack of administrative staff or understand why engineers, analysts or attorneys are making copies or filing based on my observations. When ever I visit a regional office, there is one or two receptionists, when you conduct a file review the clerk is “busy” painting her nails or talking on the phone about her “horrible kids” (the worst example is the NERO)and there is another clerk that is actually the one pulling records for people to review. The administrative staff is certainly not busy making copies for the consultants, we either have to come down there and do it our self or send them to a printer chosen by the DEP who way over charge to have copies made. And when I interned at the DEP, I spent about 20 hours a week, unpaid, for 3 months filing and making copies just to get those three little letters on my resume. By the way, I also have little sympathy for you because in the private sector we operate with far less administrative staff, if any, then does the DEP.
You said:
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“As for the employees of the DEP that want to work on compliance assistance instead of enforcement, tough, that is not your job anymore. That is the whole thing with the privatized system, we consultants get paid to help people with compliance assistance. That is our job, not yours. The job of the DEP is to promulgate the regulations and enforce the regulations. If people at the DEP are not happy with that part of the job, then quite, go get another job.”
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Well, as a matter of fact, compliance assistance still is our job. Privatizing 21E didn’t remove the agency from the equation, it just reduced the oversight. I don’t begrudge you your right to make a living, but more often than not you come in after someone is already in trouble. My point is that the agency should be doing more to help people stay out of trouble in the first place.
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Consultants have benefited greatly from the reduction in DEP outreach, because if a homeowner screws up and destroys that wetland, and we take enforcement action, well, they get to hire you to design and implement the restoration. As I said, I’m a believer in a strong enforcement effort, but it should go hand in hand with outreach and education.
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And as for the administrative staff issue, I worked in the private sector, too. For a long time. Not a single private company I worked for was obligated, by law, to maintain public records and produce public records on request under the Public Records Act. I think that has some bearing on this.
I have no first-hand knowledge of why this post hasn’t been filled, but from what I have heard, there’s a simple reason there’s no new commissioner: the Governor has been turned down a couple of times by candidates. Not a huge deal, though, as lifer Arleen O’Donnell is in charge, so it’s not like there’s no captain steering the ship.
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As for why, who knows. My guess? After the Administration’s rough initial months, the candidates for the job just didn’t want to be associated with the new Administration and it’s rocky start. Not an unreasonable position, I’d argue. Plus, given the strond personality in the Secretary’s chair (Bowles), and undersecretary for Environmental Affairs (Griffiths), it would be hard for a new Commissioner to establish a presence. I think you’ll see a rash of retirements and replacements around the New Year.
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As for the Republican Rule charge, anyone who knows Ms. O’Donnell knows that she is NOT a Romney person. If anything, she’s too anti-development.