Crime check proposed for guide licenses DIFW officials say intent of rule is consumer protection

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For the past 30 years, Maine’s professional guides have been required to prove their mettle on oral and written exams before receiving a license to take strangers into the great outdoors.

But guides soon could face one more regulatory hurdle before licensure: passing the criminal rap sheet test.

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has proposed requiring criminal background checks on all prospective guides as well as existing guides seeking to renew licenses. Individuals with felony or criminal misdemeanor convictions could be disqualified from guiding, depending on the level of the crime and date of the conviction.

Guides statewide, meanwhile, are questioning whether the proposal goes too far. A representative of the Maine Professional Guides Association said the proposed rules are not only unnecessary but, in all likelihood, violate existing law.

“As drafted, virtually none of it can be adopted,” said Skip Trask, the guide group’s legislative liaison.

Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife officials say the new rules are meant to protect consumers.

Maine’s approximately 4,000 licensed guides are entrusted to care for sportsmen, adventure-seeking tourists and the occasional group of children in the Maine backcountry, oftentimes in isolated and potentially dangerous situations. Those consumers deserve assurances that their guide does not have a violent past, officials said.

The department will hold a public hearing on the matter at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24, at the Bangor Civic Center.

Sgt. Mark Warren of the Maine Warden Service said the changes are not being proposed in reaction to a particular incident.

“We want to be proactive instead of reactive,” said Warren, who heads the state’s Advisory Board for the Licensing of Guides. “Do we give someone a license and have them be a child molester and go out with a group of kids? I’d rather be proactive.”

As written, the rules would ban those convicted of the most serious felonies – primarily for violent crimes – from ever obtaining a license. People convicted of lesser felonies, such as those punishable by one to five years in prison, would be ineligible for 10 years.

The proposal also calls for a three-year block on anyone convicted of criminal misdemeanors. Referred to as Class D and Class E offenses, this group of misdemeanors ranges from possession of a small amount of marijuana to speeding 30 mph or more over the limit.

That has made some in the guiding community uncomfortable.

Steven Norris, who runs Pines Sporting Lodge in Grand Lake Stream, said he is concerned that the state could be setting the threshold so low that good guides with relatively minor infractions could lose their licenses.

Norris said he has no problem with an additional requirement that all guides demonstrate at least three years of “proficient field experience.”

“I agree with the attempt to increase the competency level of guides in general,” Norris said.

Likewise, master guide Lorin LeCleire with Northeastern Sports-Union River Guide Service in Clifton said he has no qualms about background checks on guides or blocking violent criminals from licensure. But LeCleire dislikes the idea of barring those guilty of minor crimes or even some nonviolent felonies, such as white-collar crimes.

“I’d rather see the felony [prohibition] be for violent crimes,” LeCleire.

Both Norris and LeCleire said they would not be affected by the rule if it passed as written.

The current proposal apparently goes further than even the guide licensing board intended.

Warren, the Maine warden who chairs the advisory board, said the board’s original proposal would have restricted licenses for all felons and anyone convicted of criminal fish and wildlife offenses, such as poaching. It never intended to capture more minor criminal violations unrelated to guiding.

Warren said the state Attorney General’s Office changed the draft document to apply to all Class D and E misdemeanors. The advisory board and department accepted the attorney general’s legal advice.

“What we were looking for was crimes against persons and fish and wildlife violations,” Warren said.

There was some confusion Friday as to who made those changes and when. DIFW representatives eventually suggested the change may have been unintentional.

But that’s only part of the Maine Professional Guides Association’s beef with the proposal. Trask has pointed out to DIFW officials that Maine’s Administrative Procedures and Services code specifies how and why the state can deny an occupational license.

Those reasons include convictions for any felony as well as for lesser crimes that involve “dishonesty or false statement” or that “directly relate to the trade or occupation for which the license or permit is sought.”

The statute goes on to state that convictions will not become an “automatic bar” from licensure. Instead, applicants may attempt to convince the licensing agency that they have been “sufficiently rehabilitated to warrant the public trust.”

“I think they probably have everything they need” in existing law, Trask said.

Warren said the department is reviewing the rules in light of the association’s comments, which were reaffirmed by the Attorney General’s Office. He said the department is eager to hear additional comments before deciding how to proceed.

“There have been some good points raised throughout this rule-making proposal, and that is why we feel the public hearing is important,” Warren said.