Tripping over millions to get to a dollar

This is to express my personal view on the July 29 Marianas Variety article regarding my use of a government vehicle after working hours.

A reporter from the Variety explained that someone reported my actions that night and feels obligated to report the incident. Regardless of who the person was who reported the incident, I consider it important that the concerned citizen and the public be fully informed of “the rest of the story”.

More often than not, ordinary people in our community are subjected to such a situation by the media. Very rarely do we make an effort to either correct inaccuracies in the reports or fill in the “rest of the story”. Unfortunately, the fact is, it is not the job of the media to provide this part of the story. It is the subject of the story who has this responsibility.

Quite frankly, I was very surprised it even made the newspaper, more so the front page! My superiors were aware of my activities. Public purpose was the primary intent and was explicitly relayed to the reporter. Millions of dollars were at stake for the benefit of the general public, but the reporter failed to report this part of the story. Because of constitutional protection, there are only two things we can demand from the media—fairness and equality. This I was denied, and I find it prudent to correct.

There is nothing wrong with being hospitable to our visitors. As a local government official, I am more inclined. No government entity paid for our meals. The occasion was simply to alleviate a more amicable relationship to get a job done.

Normally, when such an incident occurs, “crisis communication” kicks in. I am fully aware of the procedure, but I did not see a need because the purpose was clear and fully sanctioned by my superiors. I personally did not, and still don’t, consider this a crisis, but when friends and family raise concern, I find it important to tell the “rest of the story”.

For the past several years, I have noticed that this is where the media tend to report inaccurately, maybe not for malicious intent, but more because we failed to provide the “rest of the story”. I did not have the opportunity to prepare myself when the reporter was interviewing me, but I was comfortable with relaying the truth.

Do I feel bad? Of course I do. The fact that I did not go all the way home after working 12 hours to use my personal vehicle, and use a few cents worth of government gas is enough. The millions of dollars that we intend to gain from this little sacrifice is not enough to justify the few cents that a concerned citizen feels should be added to other government savings to make it possible for him or her to receive his or her 2003 tax return, have water for his or her family more than an hour a day, and whatever basic need our small community lacks. I feel for the individual who made the call to the media. I encourage him or her to continue to do so, and report future incidents to the Office of the Public Auditor’s Hot Line. Believe me, they will respond promptly, and enforce accordingly.

In closing, we would like to again offer the reporter, as we did that day, more positive news on how we intend to deliver a 300 percent improvement on the water situation for our residents. I feel comfortable reporting to Gov. Juan N. Babauta and Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente about the $25 million that we will have by next October for the water project from dinners such as this. This news is actually more beneficial to the general public than reporting the few cents we lose in the consumption of gas. I find it inappropriate to develop one or two themes to insure “uniformity of response”. We need to stop tripping over millions to get to a dollar.

Felix M. Sablan