Sablan, however, noted that PUC has an outside legal counsel and routinely utilizes government offices for its official activities.
Sablan said she does not see why similar and reasonable measures cannot be done to ensure the commission’s compliance with the Open Government Act.
She said it was through its outside legal counsel that PUC claimed it is not obligated to provide free inspection of records and respond to her Open Government Act request within 10 days.
Sablan wants to see the copies of contracts between PUC and its independent legal counsels. She also wants to look at the billings and any payments for outside legal services.
PUC told Sablan it will let her know when the copies of documents she requested are available, and will charge her 50 cents per page.
For their part, the governor’s office and the Attorney General’s Office have not responded to her Open Government Act request, Sablan said.
She said the AGO, through its civil division chief David Lochabay, requested a “blanket extension” which ended on Thursday last week.
Sablan is confident that the AGO is preparing the requested records, but she has yet to hear from the governor’s office.
The agencies that have indicated willingness to provide the documents are the Department of Public Lands, the Commonwealth Ports Authority, the Commonwealth Development Authority, Northern Marianas College, the Northern Marianas Housing Corp., the Marianas Public Lands Trust, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., the Department of Public Health, and the Department of Labor.
The Department of Lands and Natural Resources, the Department of Finance, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Public Safety told her they have not contracted or employed a legal counsel since 2008 and have utilized the attorneys provided by the AGO.
