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CUC board members mum about lawsuit
Members of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. remained silent yesterday in the wake of a lawsuit filed by two former corporation officials, who accused the board of holding closed-door meetings disguised as “executive sessions” and using their positions for private financial gain.
The corporation’s lawyer, James Sirok, said he has not seen the complaint yet.
“I have not seen a copy of the complaint. As far as I know, I have not been informed by any of our board members that they have been served with a copy of the complaint. So until we actually see the complaint and the allegations and read them, there is no comment,” Sirok said yesterday.
CUC board chair Adelina C. Roberto and board members Eric C. San Nicolas, Joseph T. Torres, Ignacio L. Perez, and Albert A. Taitano are being sued for allegedly violating the Open Government Act, the Government Ethics Code, and stipulated orders of the NMI district court.
Former CUC public information officer Brad Ruszala and former CUC chief financial officer Matthew Yauinto are suing CUC board members through lawyer George Lloyd Hasselback.
Ruszala said, “The specifics of our case is better explained by the attorney of our case, George Hasselback, but basically what we are alleging is that some violations of the law occurred under the Open Government Act and we were interested in bringing the matter to court.”
The alleged violations include holding an “executive session” on May 4, 2016, with discussions pertaining to petitions for rate increases that should have been held in a public session. Certain board members allegedly influenced and attempted to influence customer service employees to help certain CUC customers avoid late payment based on personal relationships to them. Failure to fill senior management positions is an alleged violation of the stipulated order.
