GOVERNOR-elect Arnold I. Palacios will request Gov. Ralph DLG Torres to ask his political appointees to submit their courtesy resignations by Jan. 8 or 9, 2023, according to a transition committee official.
Palacios and Lt. Gov.-elect David M. Apatang will be sworn in on Jan. 9, 2023.
Former Rep. Clyde Norita, the vice chairman of the transition subcommittee, said any communication pertaining to the outgoing administration’s political appointees should be between the governor-elect and the outgoing governor.
Norita reiterated that the job of the transition subcommittee is to review the current state of departments and agencies and ensure a smooth transition process.
The governor’s political appointees include his cabinet officials, department secretaries and the heads of agencies and other programs under the governor’s office.
As for the excepted service contract employees and those hired under limited term appointment or LTA, Norita said the transition team will have to honor whatever is in their job contracts.
“Our job is not to find out who gets fired or not,” he added.
60-day notice
In a separate interview, Office of Personnel Management Director Frances Salas said the incoming administration will have to give excepted service contract employees a 60-day notice if it decides not to retain them. The excepted employees, she added, also have an option to resign prior to being served a 60-day notice.
She said most of these excepted service contract employees are employed by programs and activities under the governor’s office.
Salas said there are also employees who were hired by Torres on a limited term appointment and whose positions are funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act. The terms of some of these employees ended on Sept. 30, but there are others whose terms were extended for another year, and will expire on Sept. 30, 2023.
As OPM has indicated in its citizen centric report, Salas said there are 500 ARPA-funded LTAs and excepted service employees who were hired by the administration.
Should the incoming administration decide to “let them go,” she added, the ARPA-funded LTA employees must be given a 14-day notice.
Asked if there are excepted service contract employees who were converted to civil service status, Salas said, “None.” There is no such thing as automatic conversion from excepted service to civil service status, she added.
She said a civil service position, once open, has to be announced so those who are eligible can apply and go through the proper hiring process.
If there is a need for additional civil service positions, Salas said it has to be established by law.
Clyde Norita
