Senators claim LaMotte violate hiring policies

Senators yesterday castigated former Public Auditor Leo LaMotte’s renewal of non-expiring contracts of OPA employees and decried them as a possible circumvention of the law.

The issue stems from Mr. LaMotte’s signing of contract extension to OPA employees shortly before he stepped down in December 2000. Some contracts at the time, from what current Public Auditor Michael Sablan said, were not even nine months old.

Lawmakers found the contract renewals of the former Public Auditor disturbing and irregular.

Senate Committee on Resources Economic Development and Programs Chairman Pete Reyes, questioned whether Mr. LaMotte’s actions were an attempt at going around the “sunset” provision of Public Law 10-4.

“Was Mr. LaMotte’s extensions an attempt to circumvent the law, a mad rush to beat the system and not go through normal processes?,” Senator Reyes quipped.

Richard Weil, OPA Legal Counsel, contended that Mr. LaMotte’s actions were necessary because the alternative would have been the wholesale decimation of the OPA.

“The former Public Auditor simply wanted his successor to inherit a complete staff,” Attorney Weil remarked. He, however, clarified the OPA made sure the contract extensions were in accordance with the law and even consulted the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Labor of Immigration.

Senators also questioned why the OPA did not advertise the opening when a contract was being extended and why the position was not made available to nonresidents, which the statute requires.

Attorney Weil, however, argued, “Whenever there’s a vacancy in the OPA, the vacancies are advertised. In this case, there was no vacancy and so no advertisement was required.”

Mr. Reyes also lamented that it became okay under LaMotte for the OPA to violate the law, when it was supposed to be the first to uphold it being the office in charge of checking government expenditure.

Sen. Ray Guerrero, on the other hand, went further and even said Mr. LaMotte’s actuation may have done the OPA irreparable damage. He said the whole brouhaha over the last-minute contract extensions puts OPA under an air of doubt, because what it was doing was even worse than what other government agencies were doing.

“Why do we need to extend the sunset provision when one can just as easily renew contracts,” Senator Guerrero noted.

Mr. Sablan, for his part, was apologetic for his predecessor but nevertheless was disappointed at the mid-term extensions saying it robbed qualified residents an opportunity to work in the OPA.

Mr. Sablan, however, feels, that unless there are legal questions on the extensions, he would prefer to maintain his current staff and move forward.

Yesterday’s Senate hearing was conducted to review the provisions of House Bill 12-174. A measure which seeks to extend the “sunset” provision imposed by Public Law 10-4 on the hiring of nonresidents at the OPA.