Chairman Wise began the meeting at 2:06 p.m.  Gordon Colvin, Director of Marine Resources for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) introduced the new Director of the Department’s Division of Law Enforcement, Mr. Robert Lucas.  Mr. Lucas briefly described his background with DEC and reviewed several changes that have been made or that he is seeking to make within the Division of Law Enforcement.  Dedicated telephones will be reintroduced into the homes of Environmental Conservation Officers (ECO’s) to make the officers more accessible to the public.  This practice had been discontinued in recent years, but the Department felt that the value of the information received warranted bringing this service back.  A variety of administrative changes have been implemented to make the Division of Law Enforcement run smoother than in the past.  The Division has created a Marine Enforcement Unit comprising 10 officers and an investigator who will work full-time on marine resource law enforcement.  The unit is co-located with the Department’s Bureau of Marine Resources at the latter’s east Setauket, New York offices.  Mr. Lucas noted that, at present, all ECO’s work on a “shift schedule”; when they are off duty and an emergency arises, they need to have a supervisor’s approval before they can respond.   Mr. Lucas is hoping to change this arrangement so that an officer would be able to respond wherever and whenever called upon without a supervisor’s approval.  All work schedules would be adjusted accordingly.  Mr. Lucas concluded by affirming to the Council that he will always be willing to hear of the Council’s concerns and interests regarding marine resource law enforcement.

Mr. Colvin then recognized Capt. Dorothy Thumm, newly-appointed head of the Department’s Marine Enforcement Unit (MEU).  He expressed his gratification that the MEU is co-located with the Bureau of Marine Resources and he feels that this will help in the handling of day-to-day communication and interaction between the two units.  Capt. Richard Otterstedt of the Division of Law Enforcement reassured the Council that, notwithstanding the creation of the MEU, all ECO’s in Region’s 1, 2, and 3 will continue to enforcement state marine resource law and regulation as part of their regular duties.

The draft minutes of the 02 March 2005, 29 April 2005 & 17 May 2005 Council meetings were adopted as written.

 

Page last modified Saturday, August 20, 2005 by George E. Carroll