Brown hopes CSC will investigate lawyer
Port general manager Joanne Brown is hoping the Civil Service Commission will take action to investigate its conflicts counsel.
December 10, 2014Updated: December 10, 2014
By KUAM News
By KUAM News by Sabrina Salas Matanane
Guam - Port Authority of Guam general manager Joanne Brown is hoping the Civil Service Commission will take action to investigate its conflicts counsel. She said, "There's still a cloud over this issue the commission is going to need to address."
When the CSC meets Thursday, Brown is hoping they'll decide to investigate the connection of former port marketing manager Bernadette Meno and the CSC's conflicts counsel, Attorney Vanessa Williams. "When this issue came up a few weeks ago this was the first we heard that the conflicts counsel that had been hire by the commission may have been involved with ms. Meno or even the Gutierrez-Gumataotao campaign," said Brown.
The CSC wrote to the Guam Bar seeking guidance over Attorney Williams and her alleged involvement with Meno in regards to the recent election controversy involving a cooler. Meno was terminated along with several other employees in December 2012 accused of misconduct. All the fired Port employees had filed an appeal with the commission. According to the CSC, Attorney Willilams was hired specifically as conflicts counsel to handle the port cases.
Williams has denied any professional or personal relationship with Meno.
The Guam Bar on Friday declined to render any advisory opinion as to the issue set forth in the CSC's letter. However according to Guam Bar Ethics Committee chairperson Attorney Mitchell Thompson any complaint the committee might receive alleging misconduct by a Guam lawyer is handled confidentially by the committee. "We hope that the commission will simply not leave it at this; I think that at the end of the day they will have to address this dark cloud that's over them and further investigate this issue themselves or have another means of doing it so that we at the end of the day we have some comfort we were given a fair opportunity before the commission right now this just doesn't appear to be the case," said the GM.
The commission is scheduled to meet Thursday at 5:45pm.
Guam - Port Authority of Guam general manager Joanne Brown is hoping the Civil Service Commission will take action to investigate its conflicts counsel. She said, "There's still a cloud over this issue the commission is going to need to address."
When the CSC meets Thursday, Brown is hoping they'll decide to investigate the connection of former port marketing manager Bernadette Meno and the CSC's conflicts counsel, Attorney Vanessa Williams. "When this issue came up a few weeks ago this was the first we heard that the conflicts counsel that had been hire by the commission may have been involved with ms. Meno or even the Gutierrez-Gumataotao campaign," said Brown.
The CSC wrote to the Guam Bar seeking guidance over Attorney Williams and her alleged involvement with Meno in regards to the recent election controversy involving a cooler. Meno was terminated along with several other employees in December 2012 accused of misconduct. All the fired Port employees had filed an appeal with the commission. According to the CSC, Attorney Willilams was hired specifically as conflicts counsel to handle the port cases.
Williams has denied any professional or personal relationship with Meno.
The Guam Bar on Friday declined to render any advisory opinion as to the issue set forth in the CSC's letter. However according to Guam Bar Ethics Committee chairperson Attorney Mitchell Thompson any complaint the committee might receive alleging misconduct by a Guam lawyer is handled confidentially by the committee. "We hope that the commission will simply not leave it at this; I think that at the end of the day they will have to address this dark cloud that's over them and further investigate this issue themselves or have another means of doing it so that we at the end of the day we have some comfort we were given a fair opportunity before the commission right now this just doesn't appear to be the case," said the GM.
The commission is scheduled to meet Thursday at 5:45pm.