Norita will be replaced by former DPS Commissioner Santiago F. Tudela, who served under the Babauta administration.
Tudela will be the fourth DPS chief since Gov. Benigno R. Fitial was sworn into office in Jan. 2006.
Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. declined to talk about the reasons behind Norita’s firing.
He said the governor was just exercising his right to choose an official who he thinks can best serve the administration’s goals and agenda.
“I have great confidence in Mr. Tudela,” the governor said in a statement. “He knows DPS and he is respected by the DPS staff.”
Tudela will serve in an acting capacity until the Senate confirms his nomination.
In his letter to Norita, the governor said: “I wish you well in all of your future endeavors, and I thank you for volunteering to serve DPS when called upon to serve.”
Norita was scheduled to return to the CNMI yesterday.
In a “farewell” letter to DPS personnel, Norita thanked “Mr. Ray Mafnas for fanatically pushing for my removal. … Why? I leave it up to you to arrive at your own conclusion which I suspect would be the same as mine and probably everybody else reading this letter.”
Mafnas is the governor’s senior policy advisor.
‘Surprised’
In his e-mail to Fitial dated Aug. 1, Norita said he acknowledged the governor’s “authority to remove cabinet members…. However, I am surprised [by] the reasons you listed for removing me. Your reasons are unsubstantiated and ridiculous. I was prepared to accept your removal letter citing just your sole authority to remove me; however I am insulted that you would accuse me of such unfounded allegations.”
Norita was off-island when he was fired by the governor on Thursday.
Among the reasons cited by the governor for firing Norita were the “substantial revenue losses” of DPS; intervening in the investigative work of the Attorney General’s Office; and the hiring of “unqualified” law enforcement officers, including known criminals.
Norita, in his farewell letter, said he “does not serve at the pleasure of the governor, but rather to the people of the CNMI.”
Serious allegation
In his e-mail to Fitial, Norita said “traffic enforcement is not about collecting revenue through citations. It has never been the practice for DPS to put quota on traffic citation and revenue generation. The sole purpose of traffic enforcement is to educate the motor public and prevent injury and death.”
Norita said among the reasons for the decrease in citation numbers are the public’s compliance with traffic laws and “less vehicles on the highways.”
But he said the governor’s accusation of Norita’s “manipulating” a case is a serious one.
“I demand that you have your AG identify the case which you have accused me of rejecting,” Norita said. “I assure that Maj. Edward Manalili, the chief of [the Criminal Investigation Division] would stand next to me to defend such an accusation.”
Norita said the governor’s attempt to “prosecute my name in…the media” could be “grounds to bring about a civil suit for defamation of character.”
As for the “hiring of criminals,” Norita said, “We get our list of all candidates to interview from the Office of Personnel Management. This one was not a shot from the hip but way below the hip. Whoever fed you this crap didn’t do his homework.”
Norita said he was disappointed that he was not given an opportunity to respond to these “nonsense” issues.
“I am confident that my removal is more political than my actual performance,” he said. “Your own public information officer, said [Department of Lands and Natural Resources] Secretary [Igancio] Dela Cruz and I were doing great. I would have hope that our relationship would have afforded me an opportunity to respond to such accusations.”
Loyal to a friend
In his farewell letter to DPS personnel, Norita said among the supposed reasons for his firing included “having the lt. governor sign a [travel authorization]”; “refusal to transfer our own experienced detectives to the AG’s White Collar Crime Unit because, according to the special prosecutor, their own investigators cannot do the job. This is demoralizing to hear especially when the AG investigators are getting paid $40,000 + a year while our police officers are struggling at $17,000”; “acknowledging to the media the delay on the [part of the] AG’s office to prosecute a year-old traffic fatality”; and “remaining loyal to a friend.”
Norita is known to be close to Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez who has re-joined the Republican Party and will no longer be Fitial’s running mate in the 2009 elections.
Norita replaced Rebecca Warfield as DPS chief on March 12 upon the governor’s request.
Warfield, who is now back at the AG’s Office as a government prosecutor, was named DPS chief in Aug. 2006. She replaced Ernest Williams, who was terminated after only several months on the job.
