New LePage Nominees Promise to Boost Fishing Industry, Economic Development

In addition to nominating Darryl Brown to head Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Gov. Paul LePage also named two other cabinet appointees. Norman Olsen is his choice to head the state Department of Marine Resources and Philip Congdon to lead the state Department of Economic and Community Development. The governor joked that Olsen's experience as a foreign diplomat should serve him well in mediating concerns among Maine fishermen.


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Olsen says Maine's fishing industry is in dire need of revitalization. "Our once widely-diversified and vertically-intergrated fisheries and processing sectors have deteriorated over the years, costing us critical employment in our coastal communities," Olsen said. "As Gov. LePage has clearly stated, we have both the opportunity and the obligation to the people of Maine to provide the regulatory and investment climate, as well as the prudent fisheries resource management, that would allow us to build a truly sustainable marine resources industry."

Olsen is a former commercial fisherman who has management experience with the American Original clam processing company, and who is a former member of the New England Fisheries Management Council. He says part of his strategy will be an empasis on seafood processing. 

And that sounds good to Jonesport fisherman Ernest Kelly, Jr. "I think that a change would be good," he says. "I don't think you can have one guy forever. You know, you've got to get a different outlook on it." 

Kelly is referring to former DMR Commissioner George LaPointe, who served under Govs. Angus King and John Baldacci. Kelly's concerns were echoed by Morris Alley, a Beal fisherman, who says the state's restrictions for new scallop dragging licenses are forcing young fishermen from Downeast to leave home.

"I'm concerned with the, kind of, restricting the younger kids out of the industry because of the regulations that they're cutting," Alley says. "They want to cut the licenses like in scalloping and in urchin. You can't get another urchin license. I would like to see that everybody should be able to at least get into it--to an extent."

Democratic state Sen. Seth Goodall, of Richmond, says members of the Legislature's minority party are eager to help the LePage administration bring stability to all aspects of the fishing industry in general--and the lobster industry in particular. 

But he says the state will have its work cut out for it as it attempts to offset the advantages that fishermen enjoy in the Canadian maritime provinces.

"Democrats are committed to adding value to every industry--especially the lobster industy," Goodall says. "But at the same time there are large subsidies in the provinces as well as the cost of energy, which is being generated for pennies compared to what we do. So we have to work hard, look at the bigger economic picture as well. We can be successful if we work together in a bipartisan way."

LePage also nominated Philip Congdon, an engineer with extensive management and marketing experience, to head up the state Department of Economic and Community Development. Congdon says new businesses will not be his only focus.

"It's important that we retain the business we have," Congdon said. "I had somebody recently describe to me that they were watching their clients leave the state like a dripping faucet."

Congdon, who's spent more than 20 years as a top executive for Texas Instruments, says Maine can no longer afford to watch businesses find success in other states with more welcoming regulatory policies.

"We can't allow that to happen, we've need to turn it around," Congdon said. "We don't want to destroy the regulations that we have in the state, but we want them to be applied evenly, consistently and intelligently. I think I'm going to have one heck of a job trying to catalize this activity. And I hope it works out as well as I think it will, but I am extremely excited about the opportunity, and very shortly, it's going to start."

The governor's nominees will be interviewed by legislative policy committees and will require confIrmation by the Maine Senate. Gov. LePage also named longtime state house lobbyist Mary Mayhew, formerly with the Maine Hospital Association, as his senior adviser on health care issues, and Steve Bowen, a former legislator and director for the Maine Heritage Policy Center, as a senior adviser on education.