Senate gives acting AG the drop

The Senate unleashed yesterday a stinging attack against embattled acting Attorney General Maya B. Kara in a committee report aimed to force her ouster, but she dismissed as purely political statement without legal impact on her appointment.

The report, adopted after sitting more than a month with a special oversight panel on Kara on Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio’s request, strongly rejected the AG nominee and urged the local chief executive to replace her, citing its constitutional authority on all government appointments.

It now serves as Senate’s official stance on Kara, who was the chief legal counsel of the House of Representatives for eight years prior to her appointment to the AG post last July, in view of its failure to remove her from office.

Calling her a “usurper” in office since her 90-day term expired in October, senators deemed her “unfit to hold the office of (AG) and that any future nomination of Ms. Kara to that office will summarily rejected by the Senate,” according to the six-page report.

But Kara brushed aside the move she called “painful,” saying she would not step down and would continue to serve unless the governor asks her to resign.

“It is unfortunate that the Senate has gone beyond its constitutional authority for advice and consent on matters of government appointments,” she said in an interview.

“This is an attempt by the Senate to dictate to the governor on how he should run the executive branch… It has no legal effect, just a political statement,” Kara added.

She also said she had offered to resign, but Tenorio had allegedly turned down the offer and told her that “he wants me to remain in office.”

Kara has come under fire due to charges of conflict of interest since the AGO negotiated the $2.2 million payment on the disputed tourism promotions contract between the defunct Marianas Visitors Bureau and I&S Corp. of Japan.

Although she had repeatedly denied involvement in the settlement, Kara’s appointment was bypassed twice by the Senate until the governor withdrew her nomination in September. She has since held the job in an acting capacity.

AG pay raise

Meanwhile, Senate members slammed attempt by Kara to raise salary of the government lawyers by an average of 20 percent despite ongoing austerity measures in yet another sign of growing dismay by the upper house.

Senate Vice President Thomas P. Villagomez presented a document in yesterday’s session signed by Kara in which she had requested the finance department to increase from $40,000 to $57,000 the pay of an assistant attorney general effective this month.

The order is the latest criticism against the chief government lawyer since the discovery of travel authorization last month in which the CNMI government spent more than $3,000 to bring in an applicant from Seattle to the island for an interview for an AG post.

“Should we continue to provide AG funding that falls short in providing our kids and schools,” Villagomez asked senators at the session. “We should send a strong signal that this has got to stop.”

While she did not deny the allegation, Kara justified the raise as a move to keep the lawyers on board and a less costly measure than hiring a new set of people from the U.S. mainland.

She also pointed out that it is a “wise use of money” to grant pay raise as an incentive to AG lawyers. “It is very expensive to expatriate and (to bring in people),” Kara said, noting that government could expect to spend about $40,000 to replace each staff.

Senate Floor leader Pete P. Reyes also lambasted the AGO for allegedly trying to negotiate a settlement of a long-standing lawsuit filed by two mainland lawyers against the government for failing to land a job here.

“This is a kind of abuse at a time when… we don’t stand a chance to lose but public money worth $75,000 is being negotiated as settlement agreement,” he told the session.

Sen. David M. Cing, chair of the Senate committee on Executive Appointments and Governmental Investigations, underscored the need to step up efforts to persuade the governor to sack his appointee.

He asked Senate President Paul A. Manglona to “take the lead and sit down with the governor and express our feelings… before we take drastic step here.”

Increasingly frustrated, the Senate is likely to lobby Tenorio again for a new AG nominee. The governor has expressed his confidence on his choice for the post despite mounting pressure.