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Saturday, October 10, 2009

Law - More on: Dawn Johnsen's DOJ nomination impacts Monroe County school board

Updating this ILB entry from Sept. 6th, along with these earlier ILB entries relating to DOJ nominee Dawn Johnsen, Andy Graham of the Bloomington Herald-Times reports again today on the impact of the stalled confirmation process on the Monroe County Community School Corp. board (MCCSC), upon which Johnsen's husband, John Hamilton, began serving this year.

Some quotes from the story ($$), which is headed "Hamilton announces plans to resign from seat on MCCSC board":

John Hamilton still awaits news of his wife’s immediate career future, but he settled a bit of his own at Tuesday night’s Monroe County Community School Corp. board meeting by announcing plans to resign his board seat.

Hamilton made it clear he regretted stepping down, and left the exact date of his departure open, pending further discussion with the board. But he said his resignation was compelled by circumstances that have left his family’s residency and employment situations in limbo since January.

That was the month Hamilton began his MCCSC board tenure, having run unopposed for the District 5 seat after Teresa Grossi opted not to run for re-election. What wasn’t necessarily as predictable was the Jan. 5 announcement that Dawn Johnsen, Hamilton’s spouse and a professor at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law, was President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee to head the new administration’s Office of Legal Counsel.

And few could have foreseen that Johnsen’s confirmation process would remain unsettled this long. Her nomination passed through committee in March but still awaits a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.

“One thing I didn’t plan on was our family circumstances altering, with the change in my wife’s employment prospects,” said Hamilton, who has shuttled between Washington, D.C., and Bloomington for recent meetings. “That remains unresolved. I wish I was bringing news about that to the meeting tonight. Instead, the news is that I’ve told my fellow board members I intend to resign my seat because of those circumstances.

“I regret that. And I leave the precise timing of it to my colleagues.”

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 10, 2009 01:08 PM
Posted to General Law Related