The governor’s chief of staff, director of communications, and personal assistant all received multi-thousand dollar pay raises each, according to personnel action documents leaked to Kandit. The raises have been processed before rank and file employees in the General Pay Plan have received their statutory 22 percent pay raise senators authorized last month.
Kandit has been asking Adelup for information about source claims of pay raises among Adelup staff, and cabinet members for a week now. Adelup has yet to confirm or deny the claims.
According to the notifications of personnel action, governor’s chief of staff Jon Junior Calvo received a $15,000 pay raise, and taxpayers now pay him $130,000 a year, or $62.50 an hour.
The governor’s personal assistant, Cathy Flores, according to her notification of personnel action, received a $10,183 pay raise and now is paid $70,183 a year, or $33.74 an hour.
The governor’s director of communications, Krystal Paco-San Agustin, used to make $75,000 a year. She now is paid $85,181, or $40.95 an hour.
The personnel actions are not couched as pay raises, but as two separate actions. The first is a separation from the government of Guam, all taking effect on December 31, 2022. The second is a recruitment action, all taking effect on January 1, 2023.
All of the actions were dated January 25, 2023, which means the new pay rate was retroactive to January 1, or the equivalent of two pay periods later.
Whenever a government of Guam executive branch employee separates from the government of Guam, he or she is entitled to cash out the balance of their unused annual leave hours, up to 320 hours. In the case of Mr. Calvo, if he had 320 unused annual leave hours on December 31, 2022, and he cashed out his leave at his former rate of $55.29 an hour, the taxpayers would have paid him a gross lump sum of $17,692.80.
It is unclear whether that happened, or whether the retroactive payment the notifications of personnel action indicate happened was legal.
Kandit continues to wait for Adelup’s confirmation of these, and other claims of pay raises for other staff and cabinet members.
