Torres, R-Saipan, is disputing NMC’s arguments that the disclosure is exempted from the Open Government Act.
He said his request does not include any personal information of any employee who entered a settlement agreement with NMC but simply the total amount of taxpayer money used to settle their dispute.
“My requests are for information regarding NMC-employment claims against NMC, how much NMC paid to settle these claims, where did NMC get the money to pay the settlements, and when were the settlements executed. There is no request for personal information of any employee,” he told NMC President Carmen Fernandez in a letter.
“All expenditures of public funds are fundamentally considered public records. There is no privacy right in the use of public funds and NMC must be accountable for how it spends public funds. If NMC uses public funds to settle a dispute, the settlement is clearly a public record. There is no [Open Government Act] exemption for settlement agreements,” he said.
“Even if the requested settlement agreements contain personal information, NMC is free to redact any and all personal information and still comply with my…request,” he added.
Torres cited two cases in which the court favored the full disclosure of public records involving the use of public funds — Torres vs. Fernandez, et al., Civil Action No. 07-0339 and Calvo v. NMI Scholarship Advisory Board, Civil Action No. 07-0026E.
“I believe if this issue was brought to court, the court would order NMC, once again, to disclose all the materials requested. NMC must be stopped from squandering more public funds to litigate this issue when there is a simple solution,” he said.
