AG says no ‘paid vacation’ for Willens

Constitutional expert Howard Willens is receiving $100 daily allowance while serving as an assistant attorney general and a special legal counsel to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial. He is not being paid for his services and he has also refused to let the government pay his hotel bills, it was learned yesterday.

The administration disclosed yesterday the terms of Willens’ contract, in response to allegations by the Marianas Public Lands Authority that the government is providing Willens a “paid vacation” on Saipan.

Acting Attorney General Matthew T. Gregory said yesterday that Willens is paid an allowance of $100 for each day that he provides legal service for the government. According to his contract, he can only be paid for a maximum of 60 work days per quarter.

This means that Willens can only earn up to $18,000 a year, a rate that is well within the government’s salary cap.

Gregory said that this rate is very low, considering Willens’ stature as a lawyer and author. He said that some local attorneys charge $200 per hour. The rate is even higher in the United States, where Willens is based.

Willens has also refused the government’s offer to foot his hotel bills. “The Hyatt Regency is grateful for the publicity. But the management will not accept a penny for my hotel accommodation unless the money comes from me,” Willens said in a public hearing yesterday.

Hyatt Regency Saipan general manager Michael von Siebenthal confirmed this. “[Mr. Willens] is paying his own bill. He wants to pay for his bill, not the government,” he said.

Willens’ contract with the government also grants Willens free air travel between the United States and the Commonwealth, but even this is limited, Gregory said.

Willens is believed to have drafted the bill that seeks to abolish MPLA as an autonomous agency and replace it with the Department of Public Lands within the Executive Branch.

MPLA has questioned the administration’s announcement that Willens would offer his services “pro bono,” or free of charge. MPLA cited the administration’s disclosure that it would be paying for Willens’ room and board at the Hyatt and his airfare.

“But how much does it cost to be pampered at Hyatt Regency Saipan? Is it $500 per day? Is that $15,000 per month? How much is the airfare ticket? In short, Howard Willens is already very old and he needs a paid vacation, compliments of the people of the Commonwealth,” MPLA said.

The embattled agency has also alluded to Willens as “the worst enemy of the indigenous and a raging wolf against the fundamental rights of the Northern Marianas descent,” rather than the friend of the Commonwealth and the constitutional expert that he is regarded by many people.

Willens assisted the Northern Marianas people in their status negotiations with the United States from 1972 to 1976. He also served as lead counsel to the First Marianas Constitutional Convention in 1976, and has represented the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands since 1978 on a variety of status-related issues.

A graduate of Yale University, Willens is a managing director of Wilsie Co., LLC.

He has practiced law in Washington in both the public and private sectors. He served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, assistant counsel to the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, and as executive director of the President’s Commission on Crime in the District of Columbia.

He has also authored several books.