Senators discuss salary increases in special session

 by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - Late Tuesday Lawmakers were called into session to discuss a bill aimed at repealing another measure that aims to give elected leaders and directors salary increases.

Senator Michael San Nicolas said, "It didn't feel right at all - if this was something that we really believed in we should have been really upfront with the people about it going into the election and not doing it immediately after."

While he wasn't on Guam for the November 21 session, Senator San Nicolas says he would have voted no on Bill 1-8-s. It was late last month when lawmakers were called into session by then-Acting Governor Ray Tenorio to implement the Competitive Wage Act for directors and elected leaders. Senators by majority vote passed the bill giving themselves along with the governor, the lieutenant governor, attorney general, public auditor and political appointees pay raises and retroactive pay. The bill was signed into public law.

San Nicolas's Bill 435 however would change all that. "It's a one-sentence bill that would repeal the public law that was enacted with that bill that turned into law and enacted all the raises," he said. San Nicolas has been against raises for elected leaders as well as political appointees since they were first proposed in the Hay plan in january. In fact, he even introduced a bill to halt the pay increase, but it was vetoed by the governor. A compromise measure was eventually passed and lapsed into law.

"Right now," the senator stated, "We have so many other priorities that need to be address and before we go putting money in the pockets of our elected and appointed leaders of this island, we first need to make sure the lives of our people are fully taken care of."

As for the Governor's Office, spokesman Julius Santos simply said, "We're disappointed, quite frankly."

Adelup had previously stated there needs to be a little more common sense when it comes to compensation. Santos continued, "The governor's been consistent this entire time in regard to the Competitive Wage Act, this is the something that the Hay study has planned out, it's empirical data, we've managed the finances of the government, so it's sustainable it's been projected."

San Nicolas says the government's finances are better, however any additional funds needs to go to improve the quality of life for our people first.

Senator San Nicolas added, "I have seen postings on Facebook and I have received some messages from people saying, 'What's the deal with this?', 'Why did this happen?', and that is all a byproduct of us not being upfront with the people about this process."  San Nicolas believes that Bill 1-8-s should have at least had a public hearing.

Santos said, "It wasn't the first time that the bill was introduced, it was introduced a lot earlier this year, so the public did have knowledge of it."  And he offers this advice to San Nicolas: "If he doesn't want a pay raise, he doesn't have to have a pay raise. He can donate his raise if he likes to ultimately, if that's what they want to do."

It was two weeks ago when Senator Brant McCreadie announced he would be using his increase to help those with hardships through an educational scholarship. "I think senators can go ahead and donate their salaries if they want, but what's a $25,000 donation going to do to fix a road?" argued San Nicolas. "We need to pull that money together and get priorities taken care of and once we do that, then the people will be satisfied with what we're doing and then we can move forward to get the mandate that we need in order for the people to support something like this."

Senator McCreadie meanwhile introduced an amendment that would not only rescind the raises but in addition repeal the raises senators gave themselves in 2010, in effect setting their salary back to $55,000. Senator San Nicolas objected to the amendment because it only targets senators and not other elected officers and cabinet members.

Senator Chris Duenas meanwhile supported the McCreadie amendment but also pointed out that Senator San Nicolas' bill as introduced would also repeal raises for mayors and vice mayors .

The McCreadie amendment eventually failed.

Bill 435 fails to pass with 9 no votes, 2 yes votes and three excused. Vice Speaker BJ Cruz and Senator Michael San Nicolas were the only senators to vote yes on the Bill.