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Ingram hits Cepeda’s ‘racial’ attacks
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Posted on Dec 01 1999
Public Safety Commissioner Charles W. Ingram yesterday lashed back at Rep. Frank G. Cepeda for blaming him for the alleged morale problem in the police, saying his accusation of “lack of leadership” in the department is stale.
He also questioned the chair of the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee on the results of an oversight hearing on DPS that Mr. Cepeda called earlier this year in the wake of last March’s prison standoff and string of jailbreaks.
“What morale problem does Congressman Cepeda allude to? Is this… from DPS personnel being overworked and underpaid,” Mr. Ingram said in a statement.
Mr. Cepeda has blamed the commissioner for the low morale at the department, noting that employees were disappointed that an outsider assumed the critical post.
Mr. Ingram was appointed by Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio in March 1998 and was immediately confirmed by the Senate.
The JGO chair, he claimed, does not know what DPS does, although his committee conducted the series of legislative hearings from April to June this year.
“He spent three days dragging DPS over the hot coals of the JGO oversight hearing. Didn’t he get anything out of it? There was about a three-foot stack of documents and testimony generated. Didn’t he even look at it?” asked Mr. Ingram.
It will be recalled that Mr. Cepeda vowed at the conclusion of his investigation to institute reforms in the DPS through legislation that will seek to improve its services. The representative, whose two-year term ends in January, has yet to file any bill on the issue, except for the ambulance fees.
“I am disappointed that Congressman Cepeda has now resorted to attacking my race and ethnicity as to my qualifications to run DPS,” said Mr. Ingram, adding his recent statements “insulted all the residents of the CNMI who are from outside” the island.
