Burke Will Remain On Merit Board

Burke Will Remain On Merit Board
Ann Arbor Attorney Decides To Withdraw Resignation
By William Kulsea
(News Lansing Bureau) LANSING -- Responding to the urgings of Gov. Kelly, his fellow commissioner, and other state officials, George J. Burke, Ann Arbor attorney, today withdrew his resignation from the State Civil Service Commission.
Burke's decision to remain on the non-partisan body on which he has served since its organization in 1941 was announced at a regular meeting of the commission this morning. He said he was "honored” by the requests to reconsider his resignation,
An announcement, later branded erroneous, that Burke would act on a Democratic party committee to collect $300,000 in campaign funds prompted Burke to tender his resignation to the governor Saturday. He claimed his non-partisan status had been besmirched. “Situation Clarified'
E. Cyril Bevan, Democratic national committeeman. later declared the report was false, the result of an error by party officials. Gov. Kelly and several other prominent state officers immediately asked Burke to reconsider.
In his statement issued this morning the veteran member of the merit body said that "the situation has now been clarified” and declared he was "happy" to reconsider his action in withdrawing! from the commission.
He is continuing on the commission, he said, "without any delusion on my part that I am an indispensable man'." He lauded his associates on the commission for making it a "completely non-partisan and objective body."
The text of Burke's statement is as follows:
"My first impression was that serious harm had been done the Civil Service Commission by an erroneous announcement that one of its members had accepted an appointment on a committee to collect funds for political purposes. I felt, in the light of our own rules, that it would be unfair to the merit system and to my colleagues to carry on my work with this handicap. Not Indispensable
"The situation now has been clarified, and the governor and my fellow commissioners have! urged me to reconsider my action in tendering my resignation. This I am happy to do, but I may state! that it is being done without any delusion on my part that I am 'an indispensable man.'
"My associates on the commission have, from its inception, given unselfishly of their time and services for what I believe they have all honestly desired to be a completely non-partisan and objective body. I am honored in their request to rejoin them."