Updating a department

One measure of how well the Department of Environmental Protection is changing from a regulation-heavy bureaucracy to a public-minded state service could be found recently in a mistake it made. More specifically, in its response to the mistake.

At issue was a DEP regulation on what sort of paperwork and fees were required for the building of roads that included multiple stream crossings. For several years the DEP demanded only a simple form and $50 fee under its permit-by-rule standards. The standard originally was designed for small projects, but the DEP had been using it to approve larger and larger ones, most notably AT&T’s installation of fiber optic cable. At some point, it occurred to DEP that the $50 license fee came nowhere near covering the cost of inspecting the miles and miles of cable being installed and, more importantly, that the people doing the inspecting needed more information up front about an undertaking of that size.

A rule change was needed and it was here that the DEP messed up. Rule changes require public notice. The department put an advertisement in the state’s daily newspapers and sent out further notices on the two mailing lists it kept of interested parties. It got back silence, with the exception of a single forester who dissented, and so the agency applied tougher, more expensive rules that began June 1. Suddenly everyone affected noticed and not happily, either. What happened to notification? they wondered, and suddenly DEP learned valuable lessons about updating its mailing lists and making sure that the well-known interested parties, including other state agencies, are on it.

In the old days, particularly during the 1980s, the DEP would have burrowed into the technicalities of the law, argued that it met notice requirements and said it was too bad if certain constituencies missed out. This time, it put a temporary hold on the new rule and Field Services Coordinator Michael Mullen said simply, “I made a real mistake there and I’m going to work with everyone to get it straightened out.”

That means a new set of hearings, a notice urging anyone thinking of doing road building projects to file now, before the temporary hold ends in early October — the permits are valid for two years — and a recognition that the tougher rules may be too lengthy and too expensive for logging operations. It also means updating those mailing lists.

Every state agency, just like every business, makes mistakes. What matters is how well they respond to them. So far, at least, DEP is willing to own up to a shortcoming and listen to concerns by loggers. That’s the start of a good response.