This came about after Finance Secretary Eloy S. Inos declined Sablan\u2019s Open Government Act request for documents detailing where the local government is getting the money to finance the suit. <\/p>\n
In a Dec. 19 letter to Sablan, Inos said the documents requested are exempt from disclosure under the OGA \u201cbecause they are not discoverable by the United States under the attorney-client privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sablan said she is disappointed but not surprised by the Finance Secretary\u2019s refusal to disclose basic information about how taxpayer funds are being spent for a lawsuit that has been filed by the governor on behalf of the entire CNMI. \u201cI see no other choice at this point but to appeal to the courts for resolution,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n
Press secretary Charles Reyes Jr. said it is \u201cvery unfortunate that Ms. Sablan is interested in pursuing more litigation unnecessarily.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reyes said the administration believes that, based on the advice of its lawyers, it is acting according to the law.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are confident that our position is a legally valid. We are prepared to provide our information after the federalization litigation is over,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The lawmaker had requested copies of contracts related to the lawsuit against federalization, including the contract between the CNMI government and law firm Jenner & Block; documents on the payments of the contracts; documents detailing funding sources for the contracts; and documents identifying where money was reprogrammed in order to finance the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Acting Attorney General Gregory Baka earlier declined to produce the same records for Sablan, arguing that such documents are exempt from the OGA because they are related to a pending issue in the lawsuit and would not be discoverable by the United States.<\/p>\n
Baka\u2019s decision prompted Sablan to file the same OGA request with Finance on Dec. 11, seeking records related to funding sources for Fitial\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n
In his Friday response to Sablan\u2019s request, Inos said documentation identifying funding sources and contracts between the CNMI and outside litigation counsel \u201chas been made indisputably relevant to the Section 903 controversy\u201d by the lawmaker\u2019s letter to the governor dated Oct. 16, 2008.<\/p>\n
Inos said the exemption from OGA disclosure applies only while the Commonwealth\u2019s Section 903 litigation remains pending.<\/p>\n
Once the lawsuit is concluded, Inos said, Sablan may then freely inspect the pertinent records.<\/p>\n
Sablan, however, argued that the Fitial\u2019s administration\u2019s claims of exemption from the OGA hold no water in this case.<\/p>\n
She pointed out that the administration has already publicly estimated a budget of $400,000 for the lawsuit and that it is no secret at all that the CNMI is in a serious financial crunch.<\/p>\n
The Legislature, Sablan noted, even came up with a committee report that rejects Fitial\u2019s request for appropriation for the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
The committee report had deemed that the CNMI cannot afford the lawsuit and that funds would be better spent on essential services, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CNMI\u2019s budgetary challenges are already matters of public record\u2026so why the secrecy at this point about the source of funding for the litigation?\u201d the lawmaker asked.<\/p>\n
Sablan raised three issues in Inos\u2019 letter.<\/p>\n
First, Sablan said, the use of the word \u201cindisputably\u201d in the secretary\u2019s letter suggests that Baka\u2019s previous response to her OGA request was at that time \u201cdisputable\u201d even in the acting AG\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn other words, there was ambiguity about whether or not the OGA would apply with respect to my request, and the Administration, under the advice of the acting AG, has chosen not to liberally construe the law, and not to err on the side of openness and transparency, but rather on the side of secrecy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Second, Sablan said, the Department of Justice memo that cited her original Oct. 16 letter to the governor did not refer to her request for financial records related to the lawsuit. Rather, she said, the DOJ memo cites only the other part of the letter, which was the request for clarification on Fitial\u2019s standing to file the suit without explicit authorization from the attorney general.<\/p>\n
Finally, she said, the so-called \u201cindisputable relevance\u201d of funding sources and contracts to the controversy and the claimed OGA exemption, are \u201clike the Governor\u2019s standing to file this lawsuit in the first place, certainly and absolutely disputable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sablan believes that the records she requested should be open for public inspection now, as public funds are being spent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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