BREWER – Gov. John Baldacci on Tuesday closed to the public most of the first meeting of his publicized “informal working group” to find a business to locate in the defunct Eastern Fine Paper Co. mill.

The governor announced the group’s creation June 4, one day before a barbecue he attended for the 350 people who lost jobs at the mill within the last year.

Brewer city manager Steve Bost didn’t want the group announced at that time, stating publicly that its membership and goals needed to be defined first.

“We needed to let people know that we’re working on this and that we’re going to turn every stone and shake every tree,” Baldacci said at the barbecue, a statement he paraphrased at the start of Tuesday’s meeting held at Brewer City Council chambers.

Tuesday’s meeting was attended by numerous state and local officials – three who are elected by voters, including Baldacci, Brewer’s mayor and a city councilor who also works in U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe’s office.

Mayor Mike Celli and City Councilor Gail Kelly were not invited to be members of the governor’s working group, but were not asked to leave when the governor said the meeting was going to be conducted behind closed doors.

Kelly said she was attending the meeting on behalf of Snowe and not as a city councilor.

Prior to the meeting’s closure, the Bangor Daily News and WVII-TV Channel 7 challenged whether the session should be conducted in private, citing a Maine public meeting law regarding the creation of any form of advisory group by a governor.

The newspaper and the television station pointed out that the meeting was being held in a public location and attended by public officials who over the last week publicly announced the meeting’s time and date.

Both the newspaper and the television station expressed that they did not want to stop the group’s work, just keep it in a public forum so the community would know what the group was doing on its behalf.

Bangor attorney Bernard Kubetz, who represents the Bangor Daily News, advised the newspaper in its attempt to keep the meeting open to the public.

“The Maine Freedom of Access law mandates that the public’s business be conducted in public, not behind closed doors,” Kubetz told the newspaper. “Specifically, Title 1, section 402(2)(F) of the Maine statutes provides that an advisory organization appointed by the governor is a public entity and subject to the Freedom of Access law. This is just the type of organization identified by that provision.”

Lee Umphrey, the governor’s spokesman, said Tuesday evening that the governor’s attorney, Kurt Adams, interpreted the public access law to read that the group was not subject to its provisions because it is an “informal working group” and not a defined task force.

Members of Baldacci’s working group include Jack Cashman, commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development; David Littell, deputy commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection; and Alan Stearns, senior policy analyst in the governor’s office.

Also in the group is Jonathan Daniels, executive director of Eastern Maine Development Corp., Ray Hinckley, international representative of the PACE union, which was located at the mill; Jim Dinardo, a union member and former mill employee; Drew Sachs, economic development director for the city of Brewer; and Bost.

Baldacci initially was going to close the entire meeting to discuss property redevelopment ideas, the progress of environmental cleanup at the mill site, and “the various options that I’m pursuing that I’m willing to put out there in terms of things we can work on.”

Moments later, after one of the media’s several challenges, Baldacci allowed about 15 minutes of the meeting to be conducted publicly, and environmental and general property redevelopment and labor issues were discussed.

Then, over the media’s objections, Baldacci repeatedly insisted that reporters and photographers leave the room. He said he wanted to talk about specific companies that may be interested in the mill site, stating that the names of the companies and their plans were confidential.

He also said he wanted to discuss the future direction of the working group. The meeting was closed for 45 minutes.

“These are things that are in infancy discussions,” Baldacci said at the beginning of the meeting. “This was the idea in terms of this … to go through all those processes to kind of lay out to people what’s been done and what I think are real opportunities here. And to work cooperatively with the community. They’re the ones who are driving economic development, too.”

Baldacci said “community” was being defined “in terms of their elected representatives that are here.”

After the meeting, some of the group’s members said it was uncertain whether the group would meet again. A second meeting was not scheduled.

“The future direction of the working group has yet to be determined,” Cashman said. “The only statement that was made from the city is that they would like to get some public input, and I think that they’ll begin that process.”

Cashman said the goal of Tuesday’s meeting was to allow state officials to meet with city representatives to “compare notes on who we’ve been working with and who they’ve been working with and to make the initial steps towards identifying point people to move forward. And the point people will be Drew for the city and me for the state.”

Sachs said he believes the working-group process to redevelop the mill site should be reviewed.

“I think we’re going to have to give it some thought in terms of whether we want to redo this in the same type of structure,” Sachs said. “I think there’s probably more productive ways to move forward with this project. I think what we’re going to do is look at what makes sense for the community. I think the jury’s still out on that.”

Umphrey said Tuesday evening that the governor wants to continue “a partnership” with the city of Brewer on redevelopment plans for the mill site.

“For the governor, the bottom line is what can we do to help these displaced workers and what can we do to get them back to work,” Umphrey said.

Union representative Hinckley, a member of the group, said he supports Baldacci’s efforts to bring a light manufacturing business – possibly papermaking – to the mill site. He said Baldacci was correct in closing the meeting because the negotiations to secure a new business are in a fragile stage right now.

“[Baldacci] needs a break here,” Hinckley said. “The guy understands what it is to balance it all out. His goal is to put all these people back to work. He doesn’t need any negative publicity. He’s done more for the work force in Maine than anyone else.”