Fitial also noted that Baka declined the offer and so did Lt. Governor Timothy P. Villagomez’s legal counsel, Teresa Kim.
Baka has been the acting AG since Sept. 2008 following the resignation of Matthew Gregory.
During his press conference yesterday, the governor said he never appointed Baka as acting AG.
“I never appointed Greg [Baka] as an acting attorney general. He became an acting attorney general by virtue of succession. In other words, when I leave, the lt. governor becomes the acting governor — nobody appoints him because that’s by succession and that’s by the Constitution. Same with Mr. Baka. He’s the deputy attorney general so when the attorney general is not here, then the deputy takes over,” the governor said.
Baka said a number of “excellent attorneys” are willing to serve as AG but its low salary is discouraging them.
“I think one of the problems is that so many of our qualified attorneys are unwilling to accept the salary that is $20,000 less than the public auditor’s,” he said.
“If you want to have a good attorney general, you should raise the salary of the attorney general to be same as that of an associate judge on the Superior Court,” he added.
The Senate must confirm the AG.
Baka said it appears that the Legislature and the media don’t fully understand the role of the AG.
“I think part of the problem is that the public, and particularly the Legislature, need to understand the role of the AG. As long as people look at the AG as sort of like a lightning rod as someone to do a proxy political attack against the governor for instance, then you have situations where people who don’t understand the position of the AG or making the AG into positions that he’s not,” he said.
“The attorney general is the people’s lawyer. And so long as the public and the reporters understand that and as long as there are resources available to pay the attorneys salaries so that our best lawyers aren’t moving to Guam, then I think we can get something done,” he added.
