DID the administration follow the provisions of the law when it lifted the salary cap for some of Gov. Juan N. Babauta’s appointees?
This question has become a bone of contention in the Legislature as House Speaker Heinz S. Hofschneider, R-Saipan, and Senate President Paul A. Manglona, R-Rota, issued conflicting statements regarding the administration’s move to exempt at least six of the governor’s appointees from the salary cap.
In an interview, Hofschneider said that based on a review made by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Stanley T. Torres, R-Saipan, the certifications made by the governor to lift the cap for his appointees, contained “very clear violations of the law.”
He said the administration could not just lift the cap for the salaries of appointees and receive their income without a sanction from the Legislature.
He said that under section 526 of P.L. 11-41, the existing budget act, “all salary classification and compensation outside” of Public Laws 7-31, 8-15, 8-6, 9-25, 10-35 and 10-85, “shall be first sanctioned by the Legislature before its implementation.”
The speaker said this “procedural ommission” should be corrected and the contracts of the appointees withdrawn.
“My assumption is that (this is) one obvious step that the governor needs to do. (He has) to recall or rescind the contracts and recover the salary for those individuals that specifically fall under the provisions of requirements on legislative sanctions. For others that do not meet the qualifications it is not also provided for the governor to exempt them,” he said.
Manglona presented a different argument. In a separate interview, the Senate president said P.L. 13-1 “made the employees of the governor somewhat like the employees of the Office of the Mayor and the Legislature—they are exempted from the civil service system.”
P.L. 13-1 gave the Office of the Governor, the Office of the Lt. Governor, the Office of the Washington Representative and the municipal councils for each senatorial district “discretion and flexibility to determine (their) own staffing requirements to more efficiently and effectively meet (their) goals.”
P.L. 13-1 also repealed P.L. 12-54 by returning the Office of the Personnel Management to the Office of the Governor.
Manglona said that prior to the effectivity of P.L. 13-1, “we have to maybe do a (legislative sanction) on lifting the salary cap.”
He noted that the lifting of the salary caps made by previous governors took effect with the Legislature “basically consenting to (them) by inaction.”
For Hofschneider, however, “you cannot use the argument that P.L. 13-1 supersedes the budgeting act because if you do that, then the budget ceases under the administrative provisions of the law and that is in fact a more nightmarish assumption.”
He added, “Those exemptions that fall under the particular section of P.L. 11-41 are in fact illegal.”
Hofschneider said if the certifications made by the governor was legalized through P.L. 13-1, “why did he invoke provisions in other laws to certify the lifting of the cap?”
In lifting the cap for his appointees, the governor invoked 1 CMC 8248 which is under P.L. 6-23, 1 CMC 8245 which is under P.L. 7-31 and 1 CMC 8250.
Manglona said the Senate will still have to check the qualifications of the appointees. “We are trying to identify those people and see whether they truly deserve to have their salary caps lifted,” he said.
Hofschneider said the inconsistencies can be corrected not just through a legislative sanction but through a joint resolution.
Manglona, for his part, said the government “should not focus on this.” He added, “Let’s get into the bigger picture. There are many things that we need to do. Both Houses and the Office of the Governor should cooperate. Let’s not allow our detractors to sidetrack our focus and divide us on this issue.”
The speaker said they should find an “amicable solution so that we don’t infringe on the privileges of the governor to select the people that he wants to put in place.”
Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente welcomed the review of the lifting of the cap for the administration’s appointees.
“I’m grateful that Chairman Torres has opened an opportunity to correct whatever situation that need to be corrected,” he said in an interview.
Pamela Brown, Babauta’s legal counsel, said the Office of the Governor was also conducting a separate review on the matter. She said the review would not only cover the current appointees but also those appointed during the previous administration.
“We are also looking at it. All salaries entertained since Sept. 1998. We will be doing a thorough review on that,” she said.
