Controversial appointee John Wood resigns from Alaska Judicial Council ahead of legislative confirmation hearing

Legality of Wood serving on council challenged because he’s a suspended attorney appointed by Gov. Dunleavy to fill a non-attorney seat

The Alaska State Capitol and the Dimond Courthouse. (City and Borough of Juneau photo)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

This story has been updated to note John Wood’s name was removed from a State of Alaska webpage of judicial council members, not the Alaska Judicial Council’s official website.

John W. Wood, a longtime suspended attorney whose appointment to the Alaska Judiciary Council a year ago by Gov Mike Dunleavy prompted fierce criticism and legal challenges, resigned from the council Friday.

Wood, 79, was appointed last May to one of three public seats on the seven-member council, with those seats designated by the Alaska Constitution for non-attorneys only. Wood has been an attorney since 1972, although he was suspended by the Alaska Bar Association in 2000 for not paying his dues.

A state Superior Court judge allowed the appointment to stand last October, with the lawsuit he ruled on now in Alaska’s appellate court.

Wood’s name was removed from a State of Alaska website on Friday and Dunleavy acknowledged the departure in a letter to Wood.

"Although your service on the Alaska Judicial Council has ended, your continued involvement in Alaskan issues and commitment to public service is deeply appreciated," Dunleavy wrote in the letter first reported publicly by the political news blog Reporting From Alaska.

Attempts by the Juneau Independent to contact Wood were unsuccessful.

The role of the judicial council, according to its website, is "to screen and nominate judicial applicants; evaluate the performance of judges and make evaluation information and recommendations available to the voters; and conduct studies and make recommendations to improve the administration of justice."

Wood was scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee this coming Wednesday for a hearing ahead of a May 7 joint session where his appointments and others by the governor were scheduled for confirmation votes. Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, the committee’s chair, said Friday night his staff has tried repeatedly to contact Wood recently without success about the hearing.

"What we had decided to do was we were going to go ahead and schedule the hearing on him and hold public testimony, whether he came or not," Gray said. "And we expected that that was going to take a full two hours, that there was going to be so many people who wanted to testify, because we've had so many emails and so many phone calls against his confirmation."

Critics have also targeted Wood for his ties to Dunleavy during the governor’s tenure, including no-bid contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for work such as labor contract negotiations. Those contracts, as well as his suspended attorney status, were elements of separate lawsuits filed last year by Alaskans For Fair Courts and Juneau resident Eric Forrer challenging the appointment. Those lawsuits have been consolidated into a single appeals court case following the Superior Court ruling in favor of Wood.

Wood’s resignation was the second in two days of a controversial Dunleavy appointee facing confirmation from the Legislature.

Veronica Lambertsen resigned from the Alaska Police Standards Council on Thursday after social media posts of hers espousing a range of conspiracies on topics such as the Holocaust, 9/11 and the moon landing were questioned by lawmakers. Also questioned was if she met the small community requirement for the seat she was appointed to since she lives within Anchorage’s municipal boundaries.

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.