DEPARTMENT of Public Safety Commissioner Robert Guerrero did not show up for the DPS budget hearing conducted by the House Committee on Ways and Means on Tuesday.
Those who attended the hearing on behalf of the commissioner were DPS Administrative Director Kaye Inos, Human Resources Manager Esther Delos Reyes and Bureau of Motor Vehicle Director Juana Deleon Guerrero.
The committee chairman, Rep. Donald Manglona, asked the DPS officials where the commissioner was.
Inos said he was on Tinian for a “pre-planned meeting” because there was a “sudden” change of DPS resident director there.
Asked who was being appointed as the new Tinian DPS resident director, Inos said she had no information about it yet.
Manglona asked Inos again, “Where really is the commissioner?” He said when he asked one of his staff members to call the commissioner’s office, his staff member was told that the commissioner was “out for lunch.”
Inos said she was not lying. “The commissioner is on Tinian today. He left this morning.”
Manglona expressed disappointment with the commissioner’s absence, adding that he would conduct another DPS budget hearing this Friday, hoping that the commissioner would show up.
Rep. Sheila Babauta said she, too, was disappointed that the commissioner and even Police Director Aniceto Ogumoro did not attend the budget hearing for DPS.
Babauta said DPS is “an essential pillar in the community,” and that is why she “completely supports” the improvement of the department.
She expressed her appreciation to Inos, Deleon Guerrero and Delos Reyes for attending the budget hearing.
During the hearing, Inos presented the department’s budget proposal of $9.2 million for fiscal year 2022.
Manglona noted that the governor’s budget proposal for DPS is $1.4 million less than the department’s request.
For police officers on Saipan alone, DPS said it needs $6 million while the governor’s submission allots $5 million, which already includes American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Inos told the House committee that DPS has 250 employees, mostly police officers, and that 37 police officers are paid from federal grants.
The other House members who attended the DPS budget hearing were Reps. Leila Staffler, Tina Sablan, Celina Babauta, Denita Yangetmai, Richard Lizama and Patrick San Nicolas.
During last year’s House budget hearing on DPS, Commissioner Guerrero walked out of the House chamber after a heated exchange of words with Rep. Tina Sablan who later said that she hoped furloughed DPS employees would sue the commissioner for, among other things, “blatant misrepresentation of facts.”
Department of Public Safety administrative director Kaye Inos, center, appears before the House Ways and Means Committee during the budget hearing on Tuesday in the House chamber. With her are DPS human resources manager Esther Delos Reyes, left, and Bureau of Motor Vehicles Director Juana Deleon Guerrero.
