“There is no legitimate reason whatsoever for financial information about the governor’s lawsuit — including fee arrangements, the terms of contracts financed using public funds, and sources of funding — to be withheld from the public,” Rep. Tina Sablan, Ind.-Saipan, said in a statement.
But Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. said “not acting to protect the CNMI’s vital economic interests would be the real abuse of public trust.”
Sablan earlier asked the administration to disclose documents regarding its contract with the Jenner & Block law firm, but acting Attorney General Gregory Baka denied the lawmaker’s Open Government Act request.
Baka did acknowledge, however, that some public funds have been used to pay Jenner & Block which will get $50,000 a month or about $400,000 in eight months — the administration’s projected timeline before the federal court decides on the lawsuit.
Based on her research, Sablan said in at least seven cases, U.S. courts granted permission for the public disclosure of information concerning attorney’s fees and payment records as these are not “covered by the attorney-client privilege.”
“[W]hen the lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the people of the CNMI, and…when public funds are being used[…t]he governor’s refusal to disclose such information amounts to one more abuse of the public trust,” Sablan said.
But Reyes said the administration’s main concern is about labor and not border security or the immigration.
“We have already explained the requirements of law and our legal obligation to protect the CNMI’s best interests in court,” he said.
“I am afraid that this focus misses the larger picture and the larger point: namely, that we need to seek a remedy to address the major deficiencies in the federalization law, which is widely expected to severely compromise the CNMI economy if implemented as currently written,” he added.
The governor fears all foreign workers in the CNMI will be phased out by 2014 under the federalization law.
