First of all, let me be right upfront.

My family has been deeply affected by domestic violence, and I currently sit on the Attorney General’s Homicide Review Panel that examines cases of domestic homicides in the state.

So I won’t pretend to be unbiased about the matter as I call on Gov. John Baldacci to consider seriously a recommendation from his own Advisory Council for the Prevention of Domestic Violence.

The panel of about 30 judges, prosecutors, police officers, domestic violence shelter workers, batterer treatment providers, doctors and legislators has been meeting monthly since July. That does not include the numerous subcommittee meetings that have taken place between regular council meetings. The group plans to present a report to the governor by Feb. 14, 2005.

This is a hardworking group, seriously committed to its task of devising recommendations on how the state can better respond to and prevent incidents of domestic violence.

One of those recommendations is expected to encourage the governor to hire a state domestic violence coordinator. It’s a position that was put into the Department of Public Safety’s budget a couple of years ago but never was funded.

The governor has made it clear that domestic violence is a priority for his administration. Not long ago, he ordered all state agencies to develop policies on domestic violence in the workplace, and he formed the advisory council.

A domestic violence coordinator would make sure that the advisory council’s work was not wasted, and could streamline efforts by state agencies to develop domestic violence policies, saving a lot of work for those agencies.

Unfortunately, the advisory council’s recommendations are coming on the heels of a statewide hiring freeze.

Baldacci, like many governors before him, seems to be a big fan of task forces and advisory councils. It’s certainly not a bad thing to put some of the state’s smartest people around a table to try to come up with a solution to a problem.

But it certainly is disrespectful and insulting to members of the task force if the report it generates after months of hard work simply gathers dust on a shelf in the governor’s office.

This year, as in the past 10 years, domestic homicides accounted for half of the homicides that occurred in Maine. In fact, this year it was 10 out of 19.

Because numbers mean very little, I thought maybe everyone should be reminded of who the 2004 victims, ranging in age from 2 to 74, were:

Michael McDonald, 57; Lisa Deprez, 42; Mark Dugas, 39; Rosemarie Dyer, 51; Chevelle Calloway, 41, and Sarah Murray, 71; Jamilah Shabazz, 32; Stephen Vance Ketzel, 2; Nancy Smith, 47; and Janet Hagerthy, 74.

The families of these people will be mourning them as we ring in 2005. Their names will be forever part of the state’s domestic violence statistics. The governor’s advisory council has stepped up to the plate, and now the state needs to take steps to make sure that the 10-year trend is broken and that 2005 is the year that the number of domestic-related homicides declines.