According to a report from the attorney general’s office, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection did not intentionally violate the state’s freedom of access law when it held secret meetings with Rumford Paper and failed to provide public records of the negotiations.

The AG recommends that state workers receive more FOA training.

Training is a good idea. Freedom of access questions can be difficult to understand, and improved sensitivity to the public’s right to know could help workers comply with the law.

But, at the same time, the AG is giving DEP a pass.

Negotiations over discharges into the Androscoggin River have been controversial from Day One. Environmental groups and Florida Power and Light have been combing through DEP documents on the issue. Formal requests for information have been filed steadily. It seems clear that the DEP’s actions were intended to cut a deal away from those prying eyes.

If former DEP Commissioner Dawn Gallagher was not aware that FOA applied to the work being done with Rumford Paper, she should have been. Gallagher took the lead role in negotiations about the Androscoggin and is ultimately responsible for the FOA failure.

Gallagher resigned from her position just before Christmas, as pressure built about the way she handled the Androscoggin River and ran DEP.

“It’s unfortunate the DEP made this mistake,” Gov. Baldacci wrote in a news release about the AG’s findings. “We want to do everything possible to make sure that we’re completely transparent, and there is access to every document that needs to be furnished.”

The mistake goes beyond not releasing information that should have been public. DEP put cutting a deal ahead of the legitimacy of the process. Allowing the ends to justify the means is no way to run a government agency.

We look forward to seeing the details of how FOA training for state workers will be improved.