‘F’ grade in report card poll upsets lawmakers

Several lawmakers are taking issue with the failing grades they received in a mid-term “report card” poll on a House member’s website.

Last week the Saipan Tribune reported that all but two of the members of the Legislature were receiving an ‘F’ grade in a poll conducted on Floor Leader Joseph Camacho’s Web site. The poll lasts through the end of the month. During yesterday’s House session, several members expressed anger at the results as reported in the paper.

Rep. Victor Hocog brought the issue up at the end of the session, saying he learned about the results Saturday morning, the day an article was published, after he was alerted to them.

The poll results have discouraged him, Hocog said, because the poll voters “have degraded” the lawmakers, their performance and the Legislature as a whole. Maybe, he said, it would be a good idea to just filibuster during the session and receive an ‘E’ grade.

He also questioned the criteria used in the poll.

“So I just wonder Mr. Speaker, how did that grading system come to play?” he asked. “Maybe it would be good, Mr. Speaker, to check the product of individual legislators to see how many legislations have been signed into public law and grade them accordingly.”

Then, he added, people would understand what’s going on, rather than reading it in the newspaper or on the Internet.

Camacho, in the notice announcing the poll on his Web site, encouraged the public to educate themselves by reading legislation, voting records and committee reports before voting.

“If we’re going to do this I think we should come up with a criteria and put it out in the public and let the public grade us accordingly,” Hocog said. “Not just put something out in the air so people can just make comments and they’re not sincere in the way they put their thoughts together.”

But Hocog commended Camacho for launching the Web site where the public can view and comment on legislation.

Rep. Joseph Reyes said he is not surprised by the results and urged lawmakers to work together.

“You know, it’s happened before,” he said. “This is election year. I encourage everybody to work collectively in order for us to deliver that oath of office we were sworn in to do last year.”

Camacho, for his part, admitted there are shortcomings to the poll, but has tried to combat them by limiting one vote from each IP address and by recognizing cookies within computers.

Ultimately, Camacho said that, as public officials, lawmakers must answer to the people.

“It’s a reflection of the general sentiment of the people out there,” Camacho said. “They’re not seeing what the Legislature is doing.”

The Floor Leader said he heard positive feedback when he proposed launching a joint House-Senate Web site, but nothing transpired. He later pushed for a House-only Web site, which was also lauded, but again there was no response. So he said he decided to launch his own Web site.

On Friday afternoon, Camacho and Rep. Tina Sablan were the only lawmakers within the House and Senate to receive an ‘A’. But as of yesterday afternoon, Sablan was the only lawmaker receiving an ‘A’, as Camacho had fallen to an ‘F’. Overall the House and Senate were receiving ‘F’s.