By Troy Torres
(Tumon, Guam) Sen. Jose "Pedo" Terlaje will be asking the attorney general to look into the criminal conduct of all those involved with the illegal pay raises to Mayors Council executive director Angel Sablan.
In a response to businessman and justice advocate Ken Leon Guerrero regarding Mr. Leon Guerrero's request for a legislative inquiry into a series of pay raises to Mr. Sablan that doubled his salary, Mr. Terlaje said the matter should be investigated first by the attorney general.
This will be the latest in several requests by citizens for the attorney general to investigate illegal pay raises by high-ranking government officials. The latest requests for investigation involve former seaport general manager Joanne Brown, and governor's director of communications Janela Carrera.
In 2014, Mr. Sablan received the first of three pay raises, where his annual base salary grew from $46,000 to nearly $99,000 earlier this year.
At issue is the illegal manner in which the raises were given, and two out of the three employment adjustments that resulted in illegal retroactive lump sum payments to Mr. Sablan.
The text of Mr. Terlaje's letter to Mr. Leon Guerrero follows:
Mr. Leon Guerrero,
In response to your inquiry, I met with the Executive Director regarding his raises that you have requested oversight on. He assured me and my office that they were done correctly and that no laws were broken.
In my meeting today I asked Executive Director Sablan to submit the documents pertaining to his raises to the Attorney General of Guam for an opinion on whether his raises were done legally or in contravention to any laws contained within the Guam Code Annotated. He agreed to do so at his request, we will make that opinion public as to as transparent as possible.
It’s my opinion that this would be a much better venue to determine the legality of the raises as the Attorney General is charged with implementing the laws of Guam.
After receiving an opinion that determines the legality of the raises, we will collaboratively decide on a course to move forward with this issue with guidance from the AG.
Executive Director Sablan is open to introducing legislation to prescribe directly to the Mayors Council moving forward a procedure on how raises for the position of Executive Director of the Mayors Council should be awarded. Any thoughts or ideas you may have on the matter would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Senator Jose “Pedo” Terlaje
Comments