DOE getting salary increments

by Krystal Paco

Guam - When times are supposed to be tough, one government agency is getting increments. Despite Governor Eddie Calvo's executive order to freeze salary increments throughout GovGuam, the Guam Education Board made a unanimous vote early this morning to do so anyway.

Department of Education superintendent Jon Fernandez says there's money set aside in this year's budget to pay salary increments. The dilemma? They're frozen as part of the 15% reserve (or $30 million of the DOE budget) as directed by the governor earlier this fiscal year. To make payroll and pay utilities however, BBMR has been releasing funds to doe from the reserve.

With $16.5 million left, Fernandez says $2 million was previously budgeted to pay salary increments. Of that $2 million, $200,000 is owed to federally-funded employees. "We have federal employees and part of those grant dollars the increments are built into that and they are not getting paid their increments," he said. "We could pay them but there is the issue of equity when you pay your federal and not your local staff."

GEB member Joe San Agustin says the department has to pay its dues, especially to its federally funded employees this year or shoulder the costs from their local budget next year. "When there's an obligation you just pay it as long as you have the funding for it. Mr. Fernandez, you mentioned that you're putting aside $2 million then pay your obligations because no matter what next year you're still going to have another obligation, so all it's going to do is accumulate and next year we may not have $4 million."

According to DOE legal counsel Rebecca Perez, the attorney general released an opinion in April that says DOE has to pay up. "The opinion that came down from the AG's Office indicated that freezing it or not doesn't erase the obligation," she said.

DOE couldn't provide an exact number of how many of its 4,000 employees are owed increments, but increments would be retro from when it was due to the employee as early as October of last year.