MPO staffing poses problems in southern Maine

First published in Landings, February, 2016.

There’s a delicate relationship at work between Maine lobstermen and the Department of Marine Resources (DMR). Ask any lobsterman and it’s likely he or she will grumble about unnecessary regulations and high trap tag fees. But ask them about their local Marine Patrol Officer (MPO), and it’s just as likely that there will be grudging praise. Likewise, many MPOs commend lobstermen in their areas, citing their hard work and generally straightforward behavior.

So what happens when one side of that relationship breaks down? That is what has occurred in southern Maine, where as of January there were four unfilled MPO positions in the district. “The problem is severe right now,” said Bureau of Marine Patrol Colonel Jon Cornish. “We’ve lost five officers in the last couple of months.” These officers haven’t vanished into thin air. Instead they have found other jobs in law enforcement. Those jobs offer higher salaries than that of a Marine Patrol Officer.

“It’s been a problem for the last two years at least,” Cornish said. “It’s expensive to live on the coast. And you are on 24-hour call every day you are working. That’s a challenge for officers with young families.” The high cost of living coupled with a long-term freeze on annual salary and cost of living increases creates a certain disincentive for new officers.

The issue in southern Maine is acute because of the discrepancy between an officer’s starting pay ($38,000 to $40,000 annually) and the cost of living in York and Cumberland Counties. An MPO must live within 30 minutes driving distance of his or her territory. For an MPO based in York, for example, that means either living directly on the coast or slightly inland, in towns such as Eliot or South Berwick.

A quick survey of the property tax rates of towns in southern Maine indicates part of the problem. South Berwick, for example, has a property tax rate of $17.80 per $1,000 of valuation. Eliot’s is $14 per $1,000. The median price of a single-family home in York County was $230,000 in 2015, up 2.27% from the previous year, according to the Maine Real Estate Information System. In Cumberland County, that price was $256,800, up 4.6% from 2014. By contrast, the median price of a single family home in Hancock County last year was $198,250; in Washington County, that price was $80,000.

“This isn’t a new problem, it’s been going on for five years now,” said Laurin Brooks, a lobsterman from Kennebunk. “New officers come to southern Maine and for some reason they leave.” A new MPO is assigned where there is a vacancy. In the other sections of the Maine coast, those vacancies often take years to open up.

“Without enforcement, some things go uncovered. With the presence of Marine Patrol, certain things just don’t happen,” Brooks said. To cover the gap in coverage, Cornish has sent MPOs from other areas down to southern Maine, which costs the bureau money in overtime pay and puts stress on personnel in the other districts. When the Marine Patrol Bureau is at full strength, there are 38 Officers on the job. Right now there are just 31, one-third of whom are off duty on any given day.

“It’s difficult. I am covering Scarborough to Kittery now. I’m a boat captain but I don’t have any crew so I can’t go out,” said Specialist Mike Neelon, from Section 1. “My sergeant comes with me sometimes. But I don’t really want to be in a truck. I want to be on the water.” During the winter approximately 50 boats fish for lobster in his district. Those fishermen get “ticked off” if they don’t see an MPO on the water on a regular basis, Neelon said. “The municipal police departments just pay more. They will pay $24 per hour with overtime and no 24-hours-on-duty requirement. For the people who have left, the money is the number one factor,” he said.

Cornish acknowledges that the salary paid to MPOs may make it difficult to live in southern Maine. “Our wages are not as competitive as local law enforcement agencies. But it’s across the board. The State Police are having a hard time as well.” And he notes that being an MPO is not for everyone. “You have to be self-motivated. You are on your own with a large area to cover and you must be proactive. You need to go to where the fishermen gather, at the coffee shops, bait houses, docks, in order to get information,” he said. “Personally I think it’s the best job going. You get to work with a great group of people in the fishing industry. It’s a way of life.”

But for a young person starting out in southern Maine, salary matters. Steve Taylor, a Kittery lobsterman, pointed out that the newest MPO in his area was on the job for a very short time before taking another position for more money. “He was all gung-ho and then a few months later he was gone,” he said. Taylor, Brooks and other southern Maine lobstermen have met with Colonel Cornish and also DMR Commissioner Pat Keliher several times to talk about the situation. “Something has to be done. It can’t go on like this,” Taylor said. “When an officer is around everyone pays attention to business. So when there’s no enforcement, there’s a little more temptation. I mean, come on. This is the second-largest industry in the state and there’s no enforcement?”

Brooks, on the other hand, thinks the turnover has more to do with the character of the people hired. “I don’t think money is the real reason. The new kids come in here because the other districts are full and then they realize exactly what they are in for. When you are on call you’ve got to go. I think kids today want an 8-to-5 job,” Brooks said.

Loss of MPOs affects lobstermen. But it also costs DMR a lot of money. To be an MPO, a person must go through eighteen weeks of training at the Maine Criminal Justice (MCJA). Those who graduate are nicknamed “blue pins” for the colored pin given to all successful graduates. Then they attend the Marine Patrol school in Rockland for four weeks. Some go on to attend a federal program for boat operators held in Georgia. It costs money and takes nearly a year to train a new MPO.

If that person leaves within five years of hiring and is hired by another Maine law enforcement agency, a portion of the cost of the MCJA training he or she must be paid back to the DMR by the law enforcement agency that hired the MPO. “There’s a formula based on how long they’ve stayed. If you leave within six to twelve months, you have to pay back a significant amount of the $30,000 cost. Then there’s a sliding scale, down to $6,000,” Cornish explained.

“All this training is important,” he added. “The skill sets required now are different than they were in the past. A lot have to do with technology. Our boats have a lot of electronics. Also fisheries are further offshore now and we have to go out there. The training we do has advanced too. There’s much more on water survival, boat handling, as well as new training in impairment due to drugs or alcohol.” Right now there are two individuals taking training at the MCJA who will graduate in May, with another “blue pin” who recently started (see sidebar). “We are very careful about who we hire,” Cornish said. “We’re not just looking for warm bodies.”

Taylor and his fellow lobstermen remain anxious about a future of constantly changing MPOs. “This season we had the usual stuff,” Taylor said. “Things got screwed up a couple of times because no one was out there, can you imagine? The whole zone council [G] is frustrated.”