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NMC spends over $70K in legal fees in ’03
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Posted on May 27 2004
Documents show that the Northern Marianas College spent over $70,000 in legal fees in 2003.
The money was paid to the Law Offices of Vicente T. Salas, the law firm of NMC legal counsel Jesse Borja. The figure translates to approximately 500 hours of legal work based on the $150 to $125 hourly rate charged by the firm.
NMC has been retaining the services of Borja and an associate to handle all its legal matters.
The college has the option to get the services of the Attorney General’s Office for free. In a Feb. 28, 2003 opinion, then Attorney General Ramona Manglona noted in response to former Rep. Stanley Torres that the AGO has the constitutional duty to act as counsel for the governor and Executive Branch agencies, including NMC.
Torres was at that time asking Manglona if her office could cover the Legislature.
“As the CNMI AG, I have the constitutional duty to act as counsel to the governor and the Executive Branch. This duty has created the traditional attorney-client relationship with those agencies. Therefore, my duty to the Executive Branch agencies, including the NMC, precludes me from answering any questions pertaining to the propriety NMC’s actions,” she said.
“For the AGO to provide opinions of law to the Legislature would raise a concern about separation of powers. For these reasons, I will be unable to respond to your request for a legal opinion,” Manglona had told Torres.
Meantime, an NMC critic said that even if the college decides to pay an attorney from the AGO for the same amount ($70,000), it still is a better deal compared with the current practice of retaining a private lawyer.
For $70,000, the critic said that NMC would get a full year—2,080 hours—of legal work, way above the 500 hours services of a private lawyer.
