Judicial Nomination Commission
JUDICIAL NOMINATION COMMISSION
Meeting Minutes
Conference Call
Friday, November 3, 2017
Hon. John Brown, Chair, called the meeting to order at 12:00 p.m. Other Commission members participating in the conference call were Janice Bishop, Karl Englund,Elizabeth Halverson, Hal Harper, Lane Larson, and Nancy Zadick. Lois Menzies, Office of Court Administrator, provided support services to the Commission. Beth McLaughlin, Court Administrator, also participated in the call.
Judge Brown opened the discussion on applicant interviews for the position of justice on the Montana Supreme Court. Applications were submitted by Cynthia Ford, Ingrid Gayle Gustafson, James Gebhard Hunt, Micheal F. Lamb, William Russell McElyea, and Martha Sheehy.
After review and discussion of the applications and public comment, members unanimously agreed to interview Gustafson, Hunt, Lamb, McElyea, and Sheehy. Members unanimously agreed not to interview Ford.
Interviews will be conducted on Thursday, November 16 beginning at 9:00 a.m.in Room 342 at 301 South Park Avenue in Helena. Forty-five minutes will be reserved for each interview with deliberations following the last interview.
In other business, members agreed that a supplement to a submitted application would be included with the application if the supplement wassubmitted before the application deadline. A supplement submitted after the application deadline would be considered a public comment to be posted under the applicant’s public comment link on the Judicial Nomination Commission’s (JNC) webpage. The Commission asked Ms. Menzies to post the application supplement submitted by Cynthia Ford under her public comment link on the JNC webpage.
The Commission discussed the Office of Court Administrator’s (OCA) current practices in posting public comment to the JNC webpage, particularly the practice of not posting court documents submitted as exhibits to a public comment. Judge Brown asked Ms. Menzies to record the OCA’s current practices for future JNC review and discussion. Judge Brown also asked Ms. Menzies to contact Michael Eiselein, who submitted public comment for the 13th Judicial District vacancy, and Don Harris, who submitted public comment for the Supreme Court vacancy, to request that each redact any personal identifying information in their exhibits and return the redacted exhibits for posting to the JNC webpage together with their public comments.
The conference call ended at approximately 1:30 p.m.
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