General counsel for Michigan redistricting commission resigns
The general counsel for Michigan's redistricting commission resigned Wednesday in a brief letter to the commissioners that was posted to the group's website.
Julianne Pastula's resignation comes after a tense exchange with the commission's chair, Rebecca Szetela, led commissioners at its last meeting to adopt a motion to empower the group’s executive director to resolve "the dispute" between the two. Commissioners did not explicitly discuss what the source of the dispute between Pastula and Szetela was at its last meeting.
But the motion was adopted after Pastula chided Szetela for contacting the legal team representing a group of Detroit lawmakers suing the commission requesting court filings be delivered to her via email instead of at her home. Pastula said it was not appropriate to contact opposing counsel.
The motion was recommended by the commission's communications director, Edward Woods III, who said that the conflict between the two was "becoming disruptive to the mission of the commission." Woods said the matter should be resolved outside of a commission meeting.
Pastula's tenure with the commission comes to an end as the commission faces two lawsuits against the new congressional and state legislative voting districts it adopted in late December.
After commissioners passed the motion Woods recommended at its last meeting, Pastula said: "Just for the record, I’d like to state that I have no dispute. But I certainly welcome any necessary intervention to address the problem."
Woods told the Free Press that Pastula’s resignation came as a surprise to him, and that he first learned of it in an email he received at 4:46 p.m. Wednesday.
Szetela told the Free Press that the commission’s executive director, Suann Hammersmith, had reached out about initiating a mediation process. Szetela said that she agreed to participate before Pastula suddenly resigned.
"We just thank her for her service," Szetela said.
Pastula declined to comment on her decision to resign. Asked whether she has enjoyed her experience working with the commissioners, Pastula said, "I think it is a wonderful question and I’m very proud of the work that the commission was able to accomplish."
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In Pastula's resignation letter, she wrote that a 30-day notice requirement in her employment contract would make her resignation effective Feb. 25. Szetela said that the commission will likely discuss at its Thursday meeting whether to launch a hiring process to replace Pastula.
Commissioners have expressed some frustrations with their legal team in the past.
Independent commissioner Steve Lett, a retired attorney, has joined Szetela in publicly disagreeing with some of the advice Pastula and the commission’s other attorneys have provided the commission. In early December, Lett proposed creating a committee of commissioners to exercise oversight over the legal team that was shot down by the commission.
But later that month, more commissioners supported the concept when Lett again suggested a similar step of appointing a commissioner to monitor the legal team’s decisions and expenditures. The idea was narrowly rejected by the group.
During the discussion, Szetela said that she heard that the legal team's weekly meetings were costing the group $3,000 or more because of how many people were staffed at each meeting.
"I always love it when people hear things, yet my phone doesn’t ring," Pastula said.
Szetela also raised concerns that the commissioners were informed last minute about pleadings filed on behalf of the group. Pastula said that it would be "highly irregular" to give every commissioner an opportunity to weigh in on legal briefs prepared by the commission’s lawyers before they’re filed in court, arguing it would be a misuse of the commission’s resources.
Clara Hendrickson fact-checks Michigan issues and politics as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support her work at bit.ly/freepRFA. Contact her at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on Twitter @clarajanehen.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan redistricting commission general counsel resigns
