“This matter is really about pay increases as made clear in the quote that Guerrero’s counsel Robert Torres gave KSPN news outside the courtroom on June 18, 2009,” Meaghan Hassel-Shearer said.
She quoted Torres as saying that “number one, the ideal relief is to pay police officers what they are entitled to under the law. Number two, to give them fair consideration and promotion as under the civil service rules so either everybody gets increases or promotions, or no one gets increases and promotions.”
Hassel-Shearer included a link to KSPN’s video archive in her footnote.
The DPS counsel added that this is a matter where the Civil Service Commission has implemented an austerity measure that does not allow for pay increases of government employees and that the court must ensure that DPS’ actions are in accordance with this law.
Hassel-Shearer said when DPS demoted the only police officer who received a pay increase during this austerity measure, the department took the only corrective measure that the court could grant the petitioners.
Hassel-Shearer stated in the footnote of the 10-page motion that the petitioners in the case are all police officers who are currently working for DPS.
She said two of the 26 officers who joined the petition, Paul T. Ogumoro and Vicente Tagabuel were former police officers who had resigned from DPS only to reapply for positions beginning in 2007.
Hassel-Shearer said on Jan. 11, 1999, the Civil Service Commission issued a Notice of Implementation of Financial Austerity Measure, which stated that due to the economic hardship the CNMI was suffering, pay increases due to permanent or temporary promotions, acting or detail assignments, reallocation or reclassification of positions based on attendance at workshops or other training programs will be suspended.
She said there has been a suspension of pay increases for current government employees for the past 10 years, and that DPS is subject to these financial austerity measures.
She argued that the petitioners’ claims must be dismissed as the claim is moot.
“Accordingly, no one is to receive a pay increase, therefore the correct action to be taken in this case is not to give all the police officers pay increases in violation of the austerity measures,” she said.
Leon Guerrero has filed an opposition to the DPS’s motion to dismiss his petition.
The Superior Court will hear DPS’ motion and Guerrero’s opposition on Aug. 13.
