In Maine last year, we saw the tale of two Blue Ribbons

During 2006, two Blue Ribbon Commissions submitted reports to the Legislature for implementation.

One was the Blue Ribbon Commission on Dirigo Health chaired by Dr. Sandra Fetherman, president of the University of New England, which was created by Gov. Baldacci to “review and make recommendations for alternatives for funding and on methods proven effective in reducing and controlling health care costs.”

The other, the Blue Ribbon Commission on Solid Waste Management was created by the Maine Legislature and chaired by Sen. John Martin, to “undertake a comprehensive review of the management of solid waste in this State … with priority consideration to A. The State’s importation and exportation of municipal solid waste and construction and demolition debris. (and) B. A management structure for how solid waste should be managed.”

What should a Blue Ribbon Commission be? The Higher Education site (www.ericdigests.org) lists four characteristics: a predetermined life span, eminent individuals from a variety of backgrounds, staff and funds to assist in fulfilling its charge, a charge to investigate and-or recommend changes in structures, functions, origins or processes.

Gov. Baldacci created the Dirigo Health Commission by executive order and made generally thoughtful appointments of business owners, physicians, medical and insurance lobbyists and labor representatives. No sitting politicians were appointed.

By comparison, the Legislature passed Emergency Resolve, LD 1777, to establish the Blue Ribbon Commission on Solid Waste, which was also signed into law by the governor last May. However, here is where the two Blue Ribbons begin to diverge measurably.

Senate President Beth Edmonds appointed three members, including John Martin. Martin served during the passage of the precedent-setting 1989 legislation attempting to ban the importation of out-of-state waste, and as the incoming Senate chair of the Natural Resources Committee, was a logical choice.

President Edmond’s second choice was equally logical, ex-state senator and retired garbage man, W. Tom Sawyer, who served with Sen. Martin on Natural Resources during the 120th and 121th legislative sessions. Unfortunately, as the sole Republican appointee, Sawyer could easily be discounted as being “partisan” once hard debate began.

The Senate president’s third appointee, Greg Lounder, has spent many years working for the 120 Municipal Review Committee towns disposing of their waste at the PERC incinerator in Orrington, who also brought expertise to the commission as an Ellsworth city councilor.

Subtotal of first three appointees: One pro-administration, one (perhaps) anti-administration, one independent expert.

Then Speaker of the House John Richardson chose as his four appointments: One state representative from Biddeford, home of the MERC incinerator; one state representative from Lewiston, served by the MWAC incinerator and intended Casella Waste Systems for-profit landfill site; and one state representative from Old Town, site of the mega state-owned and Casella-run Juniper Ridge Landfill. The speaker’s singular “expert, nonpartisan” appointment was Kevin Roche, manager of Maine’s largest, quasipublic, not-for-profit waste-to-energy facility in Portland.

Subtotal of these appointees: three partisan Democrats, one independent expert. The final two appointees were the commissioner of environmental protection and the director of the State Planning Office. Unfortunately, these two appointees were beholden to Gov. Baldacci for their jobs.

Bottom line? Of nine commission members, only two were “eminent individuals independent of political influence.”

With Dirigo Health costing more than $75,000 per year per enrollee, some bold decisions need to be made by the next Legislature. Early reports indicate the diverse, expert and nonpartisan members of this Blue Ribbon have agreed to some important changes improving sustainability. With the Juniper Ridge Landfill on course to dispose of 1/2 million to 4 million tons of increasingly out-of-state construction and demolition debris each year, this Blue Ribbon was unprepared and unwilling to take on an administration hell-bent on some pie-in-the-sky notion of continued employment for ex-Georgia-Pacific employees and the creation of a house of cards surrounding the old mill.

Now that this Blue Ribbon has concluded its work, where is Maine’s vaunted environmental community and their historic horror over environmental give-aways to out-of-state corporations? Will a truly independent Blue Ribbon Commission ever be created to respond to the rape of Juniper Ridge?

In the meantime, truckloads of out-of-state waste thunder across our borders.

W. Tom Sawyer Jr. of Hulls Cove represented Bangor in the state Senate in the 120th and 121st Legislatures.