Sablan, however, is not “buying” the lawyer’s “explanation.”
A volunteer attorney for the Department of Labor, Siemer is the wife of Howard P. Willens, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s special legal counsel.
Sablan said she appreciates the work performed by government volunteers, but not when their services also include, among other things: “1) sending grossly unprofessional e-mails to legislators in response to serious inquiries, and then claiming these e-mails were ‘jokes’; 2) offering unsolicited political advice to elected officials, and totally inflammatory and inappropriate advice to Department of Labor officials.”
She said Siemer’s tirade against her “gamesmanship” is not a joke and that the lawyer’s undue influence in the Department of Labor ahead of the changes to the islands’ immigration system is a serious concern.
On Dec. 3, Sablan received an e-mail from Siemer, who advised Kaipat to let the lawmaker wait for a few more days before answering her labor queries “to make her feel that she’s not considered among the productive people.”
Siemer told Kaipat that Sablan considers her, the deputy secretary, a “rising political star” and will be on the lawmaker’s radar screen for a while.
On Dec. 6, the Variety asked Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. about the issue.
Reyes said the e-mail might have been forwarded to Sablan by mistake.
The next day, Siemer, who was in Washington, D.C., e-mailed Sablan.
“You wrote about an e-mail I sent to you,” the lawyer said. “This is my response: You are mistaken; there was no mistake. I have a few suggestions for your consideration in this regard: First: A sense of humor is useful in public service: In the past, you have accused me (wrongly) of ghost-writing certain documents. You sent me an e-mail (to be more accurate, a copy of an e-mail) demanding information from the Labor Department. My immediate reaction was to draft a mock ghost-written response and send it to you as a matter of humor. Every sentence was a parody of statements you have made to me in the past. I thought it was amusing; you did not. So be it.”
Sablan, in her reply to Siemer, asked: “What liabilities might such [a] ‘volunteer’ [as yourself may] incur for the government? As you have plainly stated to me on several occasions, as a volunteer you answer to no one, not even the governor, and you do as you please.”
Sablan added, “There is no denying that the commonwealth is in dire need of leaders with a plan, a vision, a sense of priorities, etc. Your unprofessional conduct, joking or not, is a distracting waste of time and a poor demonstration of any sense of priorities and direction in the department, and the administration that you sometimes represent.”
