Yesterday’s special board meeting began with a lengthy discussion on NMC’s recent hiring of Cabot Mantanona, a Guam-based law firm.
Regents Charles Cepeda and Maria Peter criticized the law firm’s hiring.
According to Cepeda, the hiring was approved by the board during an executive session and not in public.
Peter said the discussion to retain a law firm was not on the agenda of the board’s previous meetings.
Cepeda and Peter asked Attorney General Edward Buckingham and Jonathan Aguon of the Guam law firm if the hiring was legal or ethical.
Buckingham said he only approved the legality of the contract while Aguon said the contract details the scope of their legal service.
The board then decided to hold an executive session — or closed door meeting — to discuss the legal counsel issue and the AG’s report.
The meeting lasted for more than two hours.
In an interview, Regent Andrew Orsini, the board’s personnel committee chair, said there was a “little bit of miscommunication” among the regents.
But Board Chairwoman Janet King later said they were able to settle the hiring of legal counsel.
She said the concerns of Cepeda and Peter were valid.
“I as board chair will take the responsibility for not personally calling and informing them of the larger issue that was taking place and which resulted in the decision to [hire] legal counsel,” she said, after the meeting.
She added: “I should have taken a pro-active approach when I saw they were not present during the meeting. I should have formally sought them out and discuss with them this important issue.”
Orsini said the board will review the 25-page report of the AGO.
Next week, the board is scheduled to meet again to receive a report from NMC’s own fact-finding team.
The regents declined to disclose details about the AGO’s report.
“We take our job seriously,” King said. “We have the public to answer to so we don’t want to rush and we don’t want to be very opinionated without all due facts.”
King said the board appreciates the public’s continued patience.
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