Questioned by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Robert T. Torres, Dela Cruz said she protested, on behalf of her husband Sgt. Elden Dela Cruz, the hiring and the salary granted to Ogumoro.
“The governor wants to hire Paul Ogumoro,” Dela Cruz quoted Warfield as telling her.
“Just follow instructions,” Warfield went on to tell her, according to Dela Cruz.
“This is bulls***,” Dela Cruz said, adding that the hiring process was “unfair.”
Dela Cruz said she had no choice but to proceed with the instructions to process Ogumoro’s papers.
Assistant Attorney General Meaghan Hassel-Shearer, who is representing DPS, objected to Dela Cruz’s quoting Warfield, but Wiseman told the witness to proceed with her testimony.
Dela Cruz told the court that Ogumoro was to receive over $35,000 salary, compared to his husband, who was getting $28,000 salary, the lowest salary grade for a police sergeant.
Ogumoro was an investigator at the Attorney General’s Office before he was hired as police sergeant.
Ogumoro’s hiring “bypassed” other more deserving officers, Dela Cruz said.
Ogumoro started to work at DPS with the rank of police sergeant on July 1, 2007, Dela Cruz said.
Officer Vicente Tagabuel, for his part, was rehired on April 17, 2008 as police sergeant — his former rank in Dec. 1999 — with an annual salary of over $30,000.
Torres told the Variety that the testimony “was significant with respect to the concerns prompting the grievance by Sgt. James Deleon Guerrero.
The case remains focused on whether the grievance is well taken about the disparate and unfair treatment in hiring of DPS officers and the salaries awarded, as well as the methods used. The testimony showed that the reallocation effort to circumvent the personnel regulations remains a concern. The hearing continues forward.”
Deleon Guerrero in 2009 sought a judicial review of DPS action relating to his grievance against the department, alleging, among other things, that DPS has failed to comply with the promotion, salary/merit increase, and competitive selection processes required by law.
Deleon Guerrero started his grievance process in 2007, but he said it was ignored by DPS.
In April 2009, Deleon Guerrero filed a notice of appeal with the Civil Service Commission and requested a formal evidentiary hearing, but the commission issued a denial of hearing for a lack of quorum to hear and decide the appeal in a timely manner.
The commission also determined that Deleon Guerrero had exhausted his administrative remedies and could proceed to have his grievance heard in Superior Court.
Twenty-five other officers joined the judicial action against DPS.
Yesterday’s evidentiary hearing focused on the issues of: (1) whether Tagabuel and Ogumoro were hired in violation of the Personnel Service Rules and Regulations; and (2) whether the governor’s directive made the plaintiffs’ request for an order ending discriminatory practices and disparate treatment moot.
Judge Wiseman earlier expressed concern about some of the personnel actions taken by DPS, saying then-Police Officer II Alfred Celis “leapfrogged” over the position of police officer III and jumped to the highest salary level for a DPS sergeant, thereby receiving a pay raise of $14,895.15 per annum.
DPS admitted that Celis was hired pursuant to a notice of personnel action on Dec. 23, 2007 and that his hiring was contrary to the government’s financial austerity measure.
DPS Commissioner Santiago F. Tudela yesterday told this reporter that “there is no favoritism” under his watch.
He said he has ordered Celis’ demotion.
Celis, he noted, was promoted by then-Commissioner Warfield.
But Tagabuel was hired not because of the governor’s instructions, Tudela said.
