Rep. Tina Sablan (D-Sablan) hopes that police officers who were furloughed from the Department of Public Safety would appeal\u2014or even sue\u2014following DPS Commissioner Robert Guerrero\u2019s statement at the budget hearing for the department last week that the decision was based on performance and loyalty.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerformance and loyalty. What exactly did the Commissioner mean by that? He couldn\u2019t explain,\u201d said Sablan in a statement she gave at the House of Representatives session on Thursday\u2014the day after the budget hearing, during which Guerrero had walked out.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them have been in the force for two decades, certainly longer than the commissioner\u2019s sons and other relatives and loyalists who remain at DPS. Some of them are decorated military veterans who served our country honorably and deserve far better than the treatment they got,\u201d Sablan added, referring to the furloughed officers.<\/p>\n
Sablan also cited the commissioner\u2019s statements that appears to acknowledge his own violation of civil service regulations, as well as the rights of the police officers who were furloughed. She added that Guerrero did not even bother to read the civil service regulations intended to ensure fairness and orderliness when reductions in force must be made due to lack of funds, as well as to protect civil service employees and recognize seniority of service.<\/p>\n
Further, the legislator noted that the police officers were furloughed even as DPS continues to pay overtime, including to the commissioner himself.<\/p>\n
Sablan also called out Guerrero for his \u201cblatant misrepresentation of facts\u201d following the commissioner\u2019s claim that the furloughed police officers were advised of their rights to appeal their furloughs, pursuant to the civil service regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the hearing, I received a copy of one of the furlough letters he sent out, and it actually advises the officers that they have no option to appeal, which is just, plainly wrong, according to the civil service regulations. I hope they all appeal. Frankly, I hope they all sue. That would be within their rights,\u201d she said. \u201cThese are abuses of power. \u2026The question is, what are we going to do about it? DPS has long been overdue for oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the budget hearing, Guerrero became defensive at Sablan\u2019s questions on nepotism, furloughs, and civil service rules and later walked out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think more scrutiny on DPS is necessary,\u201d Sablan said. She urged House Speaker Blas Jonathan Attao (R-Saipan) to call in the Office of Personnel and Management, as well as agency heads who have implemented furloughs, to respond to lawmakers\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rep. Tina Sablan (D-Sablan) hopes that police officers who were furloughed from the Department of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":326666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-326621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-dps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}