‘Premium compensation’ for NMC prexy nixed

The Northern Marianas College Board of Regents voted and did not agree on giving “premium compensation” to college president Dr. Sharon Hart. The said compensation was given to certain employees who came to work as well as participated in cleanups during the aftermath of Typhoon Soudelor. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)

After an executive session during their board meeting last Thursday, the board voted on whether or not to compensate college president Dr. Sharon Hart under the said category.

“There was a discussion with regards to compensation and in regards to how the compensation would apply to an individual. That discussion led to the decision to come into regular session and the action to take is to state the question and vote on it,” then-board chair Juan Lizama said coming into the public session.

Board members voted nay, after the motion to vote was moved and seconded.

The board did not disclose early on the person involved in the question as it was a personnel matter.

However, Hart asked that the board state the question discussed during the executive session and waived the confidentiality for the personnel.

“The person involved is the president,” Lizama said, “The question is whether we would agree to the compensation or we will disagree and motion has been had and seconded and votes taken and basically it is obvious that majority of the board did not favor compensating the president under the category of premium compensation.”

According to Hart, premium compensation was given to a number of the college’s employees who did come to work after Typhoon Soudelor.

She said a “special” and “higher” rate was given to those who were involved in the “hazardous cleanup.” A different rate was also given to those employees who came in and did administrative work and other duties when the college was temporarily closed due to the extent of the damage.

“For example, fall semester had to be pushed back to, as you know, late September. All of our courses had to be redone and so department chairs, deans, everybody had to come in and basically reorganize the entire operation of the fall semester,” Hart said.

“We ended up paying employees—those who came in—we ended up paying those employees at two different rates. One, those who came in and did those types of responsibilities, I call them the ‘administrative’ the other duties, maybe like payroll of course had to be done, et cetera, et cetera. We paid them one rate. And then we paid a higher rate those who were involved in the hazardous [cleanup],” she added.

Hart said the cost for the said compensation was about $110,000, which was partly reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She said the college shouldered about $60,000.

“What the board took action on today was the fact that the president was not to be compensated,” Hart said.

“I ultimately must stand by the decision of the board,” she added when asked if she will seek reconsideration of the decision.