ATTORNEYS for nine former police officers terminated by the Department of Public Safety have asked the Civil Service Commission to issue a final agency action on their appeals.
Attorneys Robert T. Torres, Charity Hodson, Keith Chambers II, and Viola Alepuyo submitted a joint request for an order of determination of final agency action and exhaustion of administrative remedies.
They requested the CSC to issue an order “determining that it cannot hear the appeal due to lack of a hearing officer and/or lack of funding and should fairly allow the appellants to have their appeals heard by the CNMI Superior Court.”
In March 2023, DPS launched an investigation into 28 officers who were accused of incurring illegal overtime. Of the 28, 12 were terminated in November 2023. Of the 12, nine appealed their terminations to the CSC.
The nine now want CSC “to follow its set precedent and issue a final order of agency action that the appellants’ administrative remedies have been exhausted based on the Commission’s inaction and lack of an administrative hearing officer.”
On March 4, 2024, the CSC, through its chair, Raymond M. Muna, issued its decision denying the appellants’ request while acknowledging “that the Commission did not have an administrative hearing officer ready to entertain the appeals.” The CSC also promised that it will “assure … active engagement in recruiting a qualified individual for the role” of an administrative hearing officer.
“What has happened since that decision? Nothing,” said Torres who represents three of the nine former police officers.
“For almost one year, these appellants, ranging from senior officers to Police Officer I rank officers, have had to wait the Commission’s delayed and unknown process in order to get their due process protections,” he added.
One of the terminated DPS officers “has already passed away during the pendency of these appeals.”
“Appellants insist and request the Commission to determine that its administrative hearing process is so indeterminately ill-equipped to adjudicate their appeals so that a final agency determination is appropriate to send this matter to the Superior Court for proper adjudication without delay,” the former police officers’ lawyers said.
They said that “if the Commission is to ensure a transparent and accountable process, it is plain and clear to them that for reasons unknown, [the former police officers’] appeals have lingered and twisted on the Commission docket through the tenure of now the second DPS Commissioner since they were terminated. If protected civil service employees, much less DPS officers, are to have faith in the due process protections of their status, then the Commission should admit that the delays of their appeal are patently unfair and fall far short of the standard of protection and trust anyone should have in their employment with the CNMI Government and this Commission.”
The lawyers added, “This mistreatment of protected civil service employees gives no confidence to Appellants that the Commission will be objective, transparent and fair rather than doing the bidding of the Executive Branch or DPS Commissioner.”
