AUGUSTA – The nomination of a Franklin County representative to the Maine Land Use Planning Commission was not recommended by a majority vote of the Joint Standing Committee on Conservation, Agriculture, and Forestry during the committee’s meeting on Monday, January 8. This decision appeared to relate more to an upcoming vote of the LUPC on the Wolfden mining proposal in northern Maine than to the qualifications and suitability of the candidate.
The public hearing regarding the appointment of Tom DuBois of Salem Township lasted about an hour and a half. During the hearing the committee heard first from Franklin County Commissioner Bob Carlton, then from DuBois, Tom Saviello of Wilton, Bob Berry of Jay, and finally from half a dozen representatives of various environmental groups.
Commissioner Carlton presented the county’s nominee to the committee and spoke about the timeline and process which was undertaken by the county to find a representative. When notified by the governor’s office in the summer of 2023 that the county’s representative, Bill Gilmore, would be retiring at the end of his term, the county ran advertisements in local newspapers for the position. Three individuals applied; one dropped out before interviews, and the other two went through the interview process. The county commissioners then voted to nominate Tom DuBois to the LUPC.
“I couldn’t think of a better person than Tom DuBois to fill this spot,” Carlton said.
After the paperwork was filed, Carlton said they learned that the confirmation hearing would not be held until January, which he said was ‘too bad’ because DuBois was ready to start in September.
Before DuBois spoke, an unusual motion was made by Senator Henry Ingwerson, the Senate Chair of the committee, which was to request that DuBois testify to the committee under oath. This motion was questioned by Senator Russell Black and Representative Randy Hall, who both noted that in their time on the committee, 14 years and five years respectively, they had never seen this action taken.
Ingwerson said this request was due to ‘very difficult questions’ about the Wolfden mining proposal.
Black said that if they required DuBois to give testimony under oath then they should also require others present to testify under oath as well. There being no objections, it was determined that all those who wished to give testimony would be asked to take a simple oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
After being sworn in, DuBois introduced himself to the committee. “My name is Thomas DuBois from Salem Township, Maine. When my daughter was in college in New Hampshire, people would ask her where she was from, and she’d tell them she was from Maine. And when they asked “well, where in Maine?” she would say, “the forest.” It’s a great way to describe Salem Township.”
DuBois said he ‘jumped at the opportunity’ to serve on the Land Use Planning Commission, and that he believed his education, work experience, and personal experience of living in Salem Township for the past thirteen years would uniquely qualify him for the position.
DuBois, a graduate of the University of Maine at Orono, holds a Bachelor’s degree in science and civil engineering. He worked in civil engineering for 35 years, working on projects of all sizes and types across the state. He retired from engineering within the last two years and serves as the full-time pastor of Western Mountains Baptist Church, located in New Portland, where he has been the pastor for 17 years. To better serve the church, DuBois and his family moved to Salem Township in 2010, after living in Livermore Falls for 19 years.
“Living in an unorganized territory after living in a community like Livermore Falls helps me to see the unique opportunities and the challenges that exist in the UTs compared with the rest of the state,” DuBois said.
Ingwerson asked DuBois about the Wolfden rezoning application in the unorganized territories in Penobscot County, saying, “It’s probably one of the most complex and extensive LUPC deliberations and eventual decisions that they’ve dealt with in many, many years.”
Ingwerson said that Wolfden has been seeking rezoning since 2020. Their proposal would allow mining on Pickett Mountain, near Baxter State Park. He said that the January 2023 application is 1,200 pages long and since the January 2023 filing, thousands of pages of public comments have been submitted; there have been three days of technical hearings; three evenings of public comment which resulted in a transcript of over a thousand pages; twenty-three technical witnesses; and over 200 exhibits totalling thousands of pages. In addition, the LUPC already deliberated in December 2023.
“So a lot has gone on over the last year regarding this permission to seek rezoning, and I guess my question to you is, as someone who will possibly be confirmed, given this extensive record of work over the last year by current LUPC, and as a new nominee your lack of participation in the process, as a matter of honoring this very important process, will you, if confirmed, recuse yourself from this vote in a few short weeks on February 14?” Ingwerson asked.
DuBois said that when his nomination became clear, Stacie Beyer, the Executive Director for the LUPC, asked him to sit in on as many of the meetings as he could and to review the records for the application, and added as a side note that the initial application was actually 1,198 pages.
“I believe any commissioner’s job is to get as up to speed as possible on that process, and I’ve been working to do exactly that,” DuBois said. “I don’t think that it’s a reasonable request to ask me to recuse myself. I think if I get to the point where we come to the February meeting and I’ve not done my homework, I would definitely abstain from that vote, but if I’ve managed to review the complete record, I would render an opinion as every other commissioner would.”
Ingwerson asked if he planned on voting, to which DuBois reiterated, “My hope is to get up to speed and review the entire record, and I’m well on my way.”
Ingwerson said that this is a process issue and a matter of the public’s faith and trust in the LUPC, to which DuBois observed that he would be one of nine members of the LUPC.
Representative Bill Pluecker, the House Chair of the committee, questioned DuBois about his background working on mining projects and asked if he could speak briefly about his concerns from a civil engineering perspective when it comes to mining.
DuBois responded, “I’m really reticent to dive into that application. I’m not really sure that’s our point here today. Maybe I’m wrong. Did I miss a memo on that, or…? But I guess, Maine’s new rules, the Chapter 200 rules, are brand new, and this will be a test case if it goes forward. I assume that this, I don’t know if this committee was involved in the preparation of those rules, they’re believed to be the most stringent in the country. I don’t know. I don’t have any experience with those rules, I don’t think anybody does yet.”
Pluecker asked additional questions on mining, both at the national level and the specific project at Pickett Mountain, then concluded by saying that the committee had to be ‘really thoughtful’ about putting someone on the LUPC ‘at the last minute’.
“I guess, in response to that, I think Mr. Carlton, the county commissioner, made an excellent point in that I’ve been ready to go since September,” DuBois said. “Why this committee would not meet and gather that up and make that happen for Franklin County, I don’t know. I don’t know the politics of that. But as soon as my nomination became clear to the executive director of LUPC, she reached out to me and asked me to get up to speed, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”
Ingwerson noted that the committee had nothing to do with the timing of the nomination.
Black said that the chairs of the committee could have called for a meeting at any time to hold the confirmation hearing, and apologized to DuBois for the demeanor of the meeting while thanking him for being willing to serve.
Representative Kathy Shaw said she was impressed with DuBois’ application and background. “I have strong feelings about taking zoning from one variety and changing it to another, and the impacts that that has. We’re dealing with that right now in Auburn. And so, how comfortable are you making those decisions with the long-term future of our population and our natural resources?”
DuBois answered, “I’m with you. I think there’s a reason that zoning laws and regulations are made, and you know when towns talk about contract zoning and things along that line, it makes you kind of go “mm”, right? Why are we doing this if we’ve already developed a plan? So there needs to be, I believe, compelling reasoning to overturn something that’s already been established.”
There were no further questions for DuBois, and the committee moved on to hear testimony in support of DuBois’ nomination.
Tom Saviello spoke next. When the chairs asked for a three-minute timer, he expressed hopes that they would allow more time for someone to speak on nominations, and noted that he did not run a timer on testimony for nominations during his sixteen years in the legislature. He said that in his opinion, DuBois was more than qualified to take the position, and stated that during his last term in the legislature, he, along with the Natural Resources Council of Maine, led the rewriting of Maine’s mining rules.
“I bring to your attention the fact that it’s the qualifications that you need to look at in this individual’s appointment, not prospectively or retrospectively of how the person wants to vote or might vote. It is, in fact, the qualifications they meet,” Saviello said.
Saviello compared LUPC to the planning board for the unorganized territories, saying that when he worked as a forester, the members of LUPC did not live in the UT. That was changed by a bill introduced by Russell Black in 2011, which changed the organization from LURC to LUPC and changed the structure of leadership.
“I’ll use Auburn as an example,” Saviello said. “You go to the planning board, but all the members are from Wilton, Maine. Do you think you would have had a fair hearing? That’s one of the reasons we changed the structure of that, so those individuals that were from Franklin County, Oxford County, and other counties that had unorganized territories had representation.”
“As you think about this and you’re making the decision, you’re setting a precedent if you say that the individual has to look retroactively to what is in front of that board and cannot act upon it,” Saviello said. “If you hold Tom to that standard, you need to do that to every individual that comes in front of this board for nomination on a board of the State of Maine.”
He added that when he served with the Board of Environmental Protection, he could recall two nominees who were asked to recuse themselves from a pending vote, because they had both written articles or statements outlining their stance on that issue on the table.
Bob Berry of Jay spoke in support of DuBois’ character, having worked with him for seventeen years. Berry said that DuBois has integrity, does his due diligence, and puts people first. “In my personal opinion, under oath, you guys would be crazy not to approve him,” Berry said.
No one present spoke in opposition to the nomination, although several representatives of groups and organizations who have been involved in the formal intervention process against the Wolfden mining proposal spoke, neither for or against DuBois.
Representative Bill Bridgeo, who has opposed the Wolfden proposal for the last four years, noted that DuBois seemed to be “a wonderfully qualified applicant, at the right time,” but said that DuBois should recuse himself from the upcoming vote.
“My question is, in your statement you ask him to recuse himself before his nomination,” Black asked. “In doing that, are you questioning his qualifications and his integrity that he’s not capable of making that decision on his own?”
Bridgeo said he has no reason to question DuBois’ integrity, motives, or qualifications, and that it sounds like DuBois would serve the state well in the position on the LUPC. However, in his opinion there would be an appearance of a conflict for somebody to come in late into the process, although he conceded that it sounded like DuBois had ‘certainly been conscientious about doing his homework.’
Black said he had a hard time understanding how this could be seen as a conflict of interest since DuBois had been waiting for the due process of the committee since his nomination at the county level. “What is the conflict of interest? He’s got no paper, he’s got no documents, no articles, no nothing, stating … do you know where he’s going to vote on this to make a conflict of interest? He’s been asked by Franklin County to serve on this board as their designee. What is the conflict in the due process?”
Bridgeo said, “One of the key tenets of ethics is that it is as important to avoid the appearance of a conflict as an actual conflict. If your organization, your profession, is going to enjoy the confidence of the general public, that’s so important. And in this instance, it’s not necessarily that there’s an actual conflict, because that hasn’t been demonstrated. There is the definite risk of an appearance of conflict and that, I think, is something that we all have a responsibility to respect.”
Other testimony from Nick Bennett, Staff Scientist for National Resources Council of Maine; Francesca Gundrum, Policy Advocate for Maine Audubon; Sean Mahoney, Conservation Law Foundation; Dan Kusnierz, Water Resources Program Manager for the Penobscot Indian Nation; and Sharri Venno, representing the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, shared a similar theme: that while it appeared DuBois would be a well-qualified candidate for the position on the LUPC board, they would request that he recuse himself from the upcoming vote on the Wolfden mining issue as he was not involved in the process over the last year and they did not feel it appropriate for him to vote on the subject. It was stated several times that researching after the fact is not the same as attending in-person and being part of the process, and that they did not think it was fair to the individuals who had been involved in the process that DuBois did not agree to recuse himself before appointment to the LUPC board. These individuals represent groups and organizations that have formally intervened in the application process.
Sharri Venno said, “Again, we do not have any concerns with this candidate, we think he’s eminently qualified, and we hope he is eventually nominated. But we do think it is not appropriate for him to make a decision on the Wolfden mine rezoning request.”
Black asked a few questions of LUPC Executive Director Stacie Beyer about the participation of the current LUPC board members throughout the public hearings and meetings on the Wolfden issue. Beyer said that state statute does not require that every member of the LUPC board be present at every hearing, but that those not attending should be presented with a transcript and the exhibits shared during the hearing. The LUPC live streamed ‘every aspect’ of the hearings, and made recordings available on the LUPC website so that any member who was not in attendance would have access to not only the transcript and exhibits, but the recordings of the sessions. Those are also available to the public.
Beyer said there was one commissioner that was not able to attend any of the hearing sessions, one who attended a portion of the hearing sessions but had to leave early, and one that attended virtually. The rest were in attendance. Finally, Beyer said that historically the LUPC has left it up to individual members to decide whether they have adequate information to make a decision and whether they should abstain or vote on an issue.
After a fifteen minute recess, the committee voted.
In opposition to confirming the nomination were Representative Laurie Osher, Senator Craig Hickman, Senator Henry Ingwersen, and Representative Bill Pluecker along with Representative Rebecca Jauch and Representative Allison Hepler who both voted “at this time, no,” and Representative Kathy Shaw who said, “with great regrets, no.”
In favor were Representative Caldwell Jackson, Senator Russell Black, Representative Randy Hall, Representative Dean Cray, and Representative Timothy Guerrette.
Representative Danny Costain was absent.
The total vote was 7 opposed, 5 in favor, and one absent; with that vote the committee issued a recommendation to the president of the Senate that the recommendation be denied.
When notice of this vote was presented to the full Senate on Thursday, Senator Ingwerson recommended that the matter be sent back to the joint standing committee on Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry. It is not currently clear what further legislative actions will be taken on this nomination.
Editor’s Note: The full meeting recording with the complete testimony from all involved, from the joint standing committee meeting on Monday, January 8, can be found on the Maine Legislature website.
