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Friday, January 21, 2005

Ind. Gov't - More on insurance commissioner resignation; Commerce secretary cuts out Fort Wayne

Two somewhat surprising stories today, each reported from the affected city.

In a report today in the Evanville Courier&Press, Jennifer Whitson writes:

Gov. Mitch Daniels announced Thursday that his first black appointee and the first person he selected from Evansville would not be taking the post. Harold Calloway, who runs a State Farm insurance agency, won't be the state's new commissioner for the Department of Insurance. * * *

Calloway, 58, said the decision stemmed from discussions he was having with State Farm about his retirement benefits. Retiring before age 65 would have cost him a lot, he said. "Financially it was going to be too much of a strain on me further down the road," he said. "It would have been difficult to maintain the same standard of living." * * *

Daniels has since appointed two other minorities: State Excise Police Superintendent Alex Huskey, a black man, and Labor Commissioner Miguel Rivera, who is Hispanic.

And from Fort Wayne today, home of Daniel's Commerce Secretary Pat Miller, comes this story reported by Niki Kelly in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:
The second-largest city in the state will no longer have a regional Department of Commerce office under a reorganization plan announced Thursday.

Eliminating the local office was one of the first major decisions made by former Fort Wayne businesswoman Pat Miller as the state’s new secretary of commerce.

Miller was not made available for comment, but a statement said the 12 existing Department of Commerce regional offices would be consolidated into five offices in the first of several initiatives to better position the new Indiana Economic Development Corp. to focus exclusively on job creation. * * *

The new structure is made up of five regions: Northeast, Northwest, Central, Southeast and Southwest. But the Northeast office will not be in the northeast quadrant of the state, instead being in South Bend.

[Update 1/22/04] This story in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports:
A day after sparking controversy by announcing that Fort Wayne would not house the primary northeast regional Department of Commerce office, Secretary of Commerce Pat Miller said Fort Wayne will have a smaller satellite office with limited staff.

“I am from Fort Wayne. There is no way I am going to give them anything but the top service they deserve,” said Miller, who co-owns Vera Bradley Designs in Fort Wayne.

Although the region’s senior project manager will operate out of an office in South Bend, there will be a small office in Fort Wayne with its own project manager to help serve the 20-county area, Miller said.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 21, 2005 09:08 PM
Posted to Indiana Government