Auntie Charo's Soapbox

This news item on former AG Kono continuing as a highly salaried classified employee of GovGuam is so indicative of the careless concern for how precious monies are spent. Just another example of the fraud, waste and abuse. In this case all three apply Charo.
CSC ordered to stop paying legal counsel
April 21, 2005 By Gene Park
Pacific Daily News epark@guampdn.com
The Civil Service Commission appears to have been illegally paying Robert Kono as legal counsel and as a classified employee, according to Superior Court of Guam Presiding Judge Alberto Lamorena.
The commission, which is responsible for ensuring a fair government
employment system, has until next month to show why the commission should continue to pay Kono in his position and explain why the government of Guam should not be reimbursed for Kono's salary and benefits since he was hired in December 2002, Lamorena ordered.
The attorney general's office earlier this month filed a lawsuit and asked the court to order the commission to stop paying Kono. Kono is being paid a salary of $105,000 plus benefits, according to the AG's complaint. Lamorena filed a decision last Thursday, ordering the commission to "desist and refrain from taking any further action to expend public money for the salary and benefits of the administrative legal counsel ... as a classified government employee until further order of the court."
"The commission is in receipt of the document, and intends to respond
accordingly with the court," said CSC Executive Director Vernon Perez,
declining further comment as of press time.As an alternative, the Civil Service Commission has until May 12 to explain why the commission should not be restrained from paying Kono, and why Kono
and the CSC should not be ordered to reimburse the salary and benefits paid to Kono as a classified employee from Dec. 9, 2002.
"We'll see how the Civil Service Commission is going to justify the hiring of former acting Attorney General Robert Kono," said Attorney General Douglas Moylan, adding that his office filed the complaint to ensure government officials follow the law and that taxpayer money is properly spent. Classification A month before Kono's transfer from the attorney general's office to the Civil Service Commission, the commission board voted to change its legal counsel position from an unclassified government position to a classified job, despite a law that prohibits the commission from making that decision, Pacific Daily News files state. Kono was transferred from the attorney
general's office to the commission in December 2002.Manuel Pinauin, a commission member who also served on the commission when Kono was hired, has said the job was changed to a classified position in
order to be consistent with a 1996 federal court ruling in the Alan Haeuser case, Pacific Daily News files state. Haeuser had been terminated from his unclassified job as a government attorney, but was ordered reinstated by the court. According to Pacific Daily News files, the Civil Service Commission has interpreted the case to mean that all government employees -- including those whose jobs are labeled unclassified -- are entitled to merit-system protection unless it is not feasible for their positions to be classified,
or permanent. Pinauin said one factor in making the switch to a classified position is the fact that the commission's legal counsel had been a classified position, but had been changed to an unclassified position. Not just another example of questionable GovGuam contracts, but it should make us all (taxpayers) question how many more cases like this haven't yet been exposed.
Isn't it odd the questionable questionable actions that take place upon adminstration changes? Not just the governor's office, but the mayor'soffices as well.
I wonder if that lady in Ordot/Chalan Pago is still cutting grass for $499 a whack. A news item for about a day or two and then, like all other questionable exposures, forgotten. Those in charge rely on the public either soon forgetting or forgiving. And so it goes...
105K could sure do more good for Guam citizens than being wasted on Kono. GMH comes to mind. The CSC needs to be made accountable for their role in GovGuam goings on. In fact, if I were in charge it would be the first agency to bite the bullet and be discontinued as detrimental to government operations. Do you get the feeling that agency directors have too much authority? I would suggest that the need to be reeled in and more closely supervised. Something governors don't seem to pay much attention to. Like the former governor who said he wasn't responsible for what his directors
did. So much for the buck stopping at the top, eh?