Politics dressed in civil service clothing

Isn’t it strange that right in the beginning of the heated political season, the Office of Personnel all of the sudden decides that all deputy directors are now considered civil servants? Could it be because the current Republican administration wants to protect their votes on Tinian?

About two weeks ago, the Office of Personnel sent a memorandum not to the Mayor of Tinian, but directly to the directors of each department on Tinian instructing them that all deputy directors will be immediately considered civil service. Right away, this should’ve sent signals of political motivation, especially when you consider that the Mayor is the one who has the expenditure authority and contractual power in the hiring and firing of the deputies.

Knowing this, the Personnel Director purposely avoided the Mayor of Tinian, who happens to be the chairman for the Covenant Party on Tinian. The Office of Personnel Management, in this manner, is trying to ram its “politically motivated policy” down the throats of the people of Tinian. Forget about their legal ability to do such a thing, forget about the budget law that classifies deputy directors as ungraded and limited term appointments, forget about the fact that there are only three deputy directors out of the eight government departments on Tinian and forget about the fact that all the deputy directors happen to be Republican.

Although the premise may be to protect governmental departments from political influences, I think the outcome would be more damaging. Imagine if a Democrat is the director and a Republican is the civil-service protected deputy? Don’t you think the two opposing forces in that department will create more problems than we already have? Imagine what one will do while the other is on leave? Reverse all the previous implementations of the other? What about the political motivation of the deputy director? Knowing that he is protected by civil service, what political power will he now yield? It would be utter chaos!

If the Office of Personnel Management was sincere in its intent and really wanted to protect those positions, shouldn’t its first obligation be to make sure we have the right people on the job? Instead, the Office of Personnel Management just wants to convert the existing politically hired “Republican” deputy directors into civil service without classification, without a job announcement and without a job description—basically grandfathering them all in, without finding the best person for the job.

If the true intention was to protect the departments from political influence, wouldn’t the best thing to do is announce the positions and require a minimum college experience and practical experience? Yet, the Office of Personnel Management did no such thing. It simply made an arbitrarily unilateral decision, without consulting the mayor, even if it has no power to do.

If you ask me, this is a political tactic by Republicans on Tinian, using their influence in order to protect the few. What are they afraid of by allowing personnel to announce the positions? What are they afraid of it we just keep the system on status quo?

The Office of Personnel Management needs to do the right thing. Have the current deputy directors all resign, then have them apply for the new civil service positions so that they can be fairly evaluated by personnel to see if they meet the minimum standards as set by the civil service position.

If not, stop trying to pretend that your department is protecting us by dressing up politics in civil service clothing and leave the current system as is.

Marcus G. Untalan
Carolinas Heights, Tinian