State Labor Commissioner Glenn Marshall has resigned for “personal family matters,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s office announced Tuesday, disclosing few other details behind the first departure of a commissioner from the administration.
Marshall, who had been a leading Fairfield County carpenters’ union official when Malloy tapped him to join his administration in January 2011, submitted his resignation June 29, according to a statement from the governor’s office.
A spokesman at the Labor Department referred all comment to Malloy’s office and said Marshall would not be available for an interview, having already left the post.
“I want to thank Glenn for his service to the people of Connecticut,” Malloy wrote in a brief statement. “The Department of Labor has made significant progress over the last eighteen months with Glenn as Commissioner, and I wish him well on whatever opportunity comes next.”
But while the governor’s office released Marshall’s resignation letter, it didn’t comment beyond the written statement.
In his letter to the governor, Marshall wrote that “the progress being made in Connecticut is a direct result of your leadership as governor, but there is a great deal still left to accomplish. That is why, with the personal issues I am currently dealing with, I felt it best to move on to other endeavors, since it would not be fair to you or Connecticut for me to be distracted at this critical time.”
Marshall had been president of Carpenters Local 210, which endorsed Malloy in the 2010 gubernatorial campaign. He was Malloy’s top choice to lead the labor agency from a field that also included Kurt Westby, the state director of the SEIU affiliate, 32BJ, according to political sources.
The labor job is one of special interest to the construction trades, who often look to the state for enforcement of labor laws and funding of training programs.
Marshall also had served as the district business manager for the New England Regional Council of Carpenters and the treasurer of its political action committee.
The carpenters’ PAC made more than $270,000 in independent expenditures on Malloy’s behalf in the last campaign.
According to the governor’s office, Deputy Commissioner Dennis Murphy has assumed the role of acting commissioner, and a search for a new permanent commissioner will begin shortly.
Murphy also was appointed to his leadership post by Malloy last year. He had been the director of human resources for Stamford from 2004 to 2008, near the end of Malloy’s 14-year tenure as mayor of that city. Murphy also was chief administrative officer for Bridgeport from 1994 to 2002.