Rota mayor, councilman sued for alleged conspiracy

Crispin M. Ayuyu is suing Rota Mayor Melchor A. Mendiola and Rota municipality councilman Arvin C. Ogo, accusing them of conspiring to unlawfully terminate him last year as resident chief of the Rota Department of Public Health.

Ayuyu, through counsel Ramon K. Quichocho, is suing the two officials and the Rota Municipality in the Superior Court for retaliatory discharge, breach of contract, denial of due process, and conspiracy to deprive him of property.

He is seeking unspecified damages, attorney’s fees, and court costs.

Saipan Tribune left messages with Mendiola yesterday requesting comments but he did not return call as of press time. Saipan Tribune also tried but failed to contact Ogo.

Mendiola appointed Ayuyu on Jan. 11, 2010, to be the acting resident chief of the Rota Department of Public Health. The 13th Rota Municipal Council confirmed Ayuyu’s nomination on Feb. 24, 2010. According to Quichocho in the complaint, his client’s employment status was changed to permanent resident department head effective that same day.

Quichocho said that Mendiola instructed Ayuyu sometime in 2011 to hire the mayor’s “very close associate,” who was an applicant for a vacant position at the Rota Health Center. Ayuyu reportedly refused as a more qualified person had applied for the position. This allegedly angered the mayor.

In June 2011, the Rota Health Center was not paying for the services of its nurses due to a lack of appropriated funds. Quichocho said his client then discovered that lapsed funds of the Rota Health Center account were available to pay the nurses.

Quichocho said that Mendiola was, however, “reserving or hiding” the available funds for pet projects, travel, and other nonessential purposes, so he kept giving Ayuyu excuses that the funds were not available because the Fitial administration had already exhausted all available funds for the Rota Health Center.

The lawyer said that in July 2011, Mendiola and Ogo designed a plan for the mayor to go off-island so that Ogo will be the acting mayor.

On July 19, 2011, Quichocho said, Ogo became the acting chairman of the 13th Rota Municipal Council and, as acting mayor, terminated Ayuyu’s employment “effective immediately.”

Quichocho said that Mendiola was constitutionally required to appoint resident department heads, in consultation with the head of the respective Executive Branch department, but neither the mayor nor Ogo consulted with the Public Health secretary before terminating Ayuyu’s employment.

The lawyer said that the CNMI Constitution provides only two ways for the presiding officer of a municipal council to serve as acting mayor: physical disability or mental disability of the incumbent.

“As everyone who has seen Mendiola after July 19, 2011, can attest, [he] is not ‘physically’ disabled,” Quichocho pointed out.

Quichocho said that Ayuyu’s termination was due in part to his reporting potential violations to Mendiola, as the mayor had other spending ideas.