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Marine Resources chief quits |
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AUGUSTA - Norman Olsen resigned Wednesday as commissioner of the state Department of Marine Resources, saying that after six months of pursuing Gov. Paul LePage's policy goals, he felt he did not have the governor's full support. Olsen said he realized that he might be on his own after two LePage staffers issued a warning to him in a recent meeting. They said complaints had reached LePage's office that he was not responsive enough to the industry. "I was put on warning that I had until the end of the summer to turn the situation around," he said. After running into more difficulty in his departmental audit and feeling more and more left out of the industry's communications with the administration, Olsen decided he had to see the governor. Olsen said he told LePage on Wednesday morning about the difficulties he was having with staffers, and the governor told him to sort out the situation and fire people if necessary. Olsen told the governor he was wary of doing that because he had been told by the governor's staff that he needed to boost his popularity. Olsen said he was told that a LePage staffer would poll industry people around Labor Day to find out whether Olsen was being more responsive. If they said he was, he could keep his job. If they said he wasn't, his position would be re-evaluated.
Read the complete story from The Portland Press Herald
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MELISSA WOOD, NATIONAL FISHERMEN: Meting out the meager
May 22, 2012 - Listening to the New England Council's Groundfish Advisory Panel talk about how that industry is going to pay for monitoring costs is kind of like trying to figure out how to pay your bills when you've just lost your job. Though monitoring is important keeping costs down is critical. As Panel Member Gary Libby pointed out, "If we had 100 percent monitoring we probably wouldn't have an industry."
