AUGUSTA – Acting Commissioner David Littell, raised from his deputy’s post by a departmental controversy just weeks ago, won the backing of the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday for permanent appointment to the leadership post at Maine’s environmental protection agency.
The panel vote – 11-0 – makes Littell an odds-on favorite for confirmation by the Senate, where a two-thirds vote would be needed to reverse the committee’s recommendation.
Gov. John Baldacci nominated Littell, who lives in Portland, on Jan. 4 to head the Department of Environmental Protection.
Dawn Gallagher had resigned as commissioner two weeks before, amid criticism of her handling of water pollution talks with paper companies. Baldacci said Gallagher had been a strong leader but that he and she agreed some recent decisions “could have been handled differently.”
Subsequently, Attorney General Steven Rowe said state officials violated Maine’s Freedom of Access Act during discussions with officials of a Rumford paper mill about a river cleanup plan, but that the violations were not willful and no enforcement action was needed.
Littell, in prepared testimony Tuesday, told lawmakers that “restoring credibility” at the DEP was a top priority.
“The public needs to know that the DEP is doing its job, doing it well and properly. We need to move forward,” he said.
“You understand that I and all DEP staff need to be able to sit down with any number of parties to conduct reasonable discussions to do our jobs. That said, I also assure you that these discussions are undertaken as public officials and no secrets or confidences will inappropriately be maintained,” Littell said.
“Long before the controversy with the Androscoggin permits erupted this last year, I told a number of people that if they want to meet with me, I will do so with the understanding that anything we discuss will be potentially and likely shared with others – including those on the other side of the issue,” he said.
Adding that “only a few, very narrow classes of confidential business information” would be protected under state law, Littell said everything else the commissioner does “is and should be open to public scrutiny.”
Littell continued: “As public officials, it is important that all members of the department do the public’s business and share information regarding how we do that business when asked.”
Littell, a 1989 graduate of Princeton University and 1992 graduate of Harvard Law School, previously was a partner at the Pierce Atwood law firm.
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