Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The House Government Operations Committee will not made a decision on the Administration bill giving the Human Resources director “exclusive authority to promulgate rules” until they receive an opinion from the Attorney General (AG), Fainu’ulelei Falefatu Alailima Utu on the matter.

After the committee hearing yesterday morning, the committee supported a motion by Faipule Larry Sanitoa to seek a legal opinion from the AG before they move to the next step. It appeared after the committee hearing that most faipule were not satisfied with the language of the bill — their primary concern was that the amendment would take away authority to make decisions from the ASG Personnel Advisory Board

Appearing before the committee to testify on the bill were HR director Lynn Poluu-Alaimalo, Governor’s chief legal counsel Jason Mitchell and Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Marie Alailima.

The hearing was chaired by Faipule Vailiuama Steve Leasiolagi.

Attorney Mitchell explained that the executive branch is currently working on a comprehensive Administrative rule reform process and the department of Human Resources is one of the key areas on which they are focused.

He said currently there is no specific authority given to the Director of Human Resources to promulgate rules and the bill now before the Fono is to address that issue.

But Vice Speaker of the House Fetui Fetu Jr expressed concern that if the bill is approved the Personnel Advisory Board would be replaced by the Director of Human Resources, who would then make and enforce personnel rules at will.

He said what he was afraid of is policies adopted through the rule making process being treated as law. For example he said ASG is now allowing the hiring of former employees who were let go after testing positive for illegal drugs and people with criminal records.

Fetui pointed out that changes proposed in the bill would eliminate the role of the Personnel Advisory Board. He asked — if this bill is approved by the Fono, would that board no longer exist?

Mitchell responded no, and that the DHR director still serves as secretary to the Board, which still exists in other provisions of the law.

Rep. Mike Asifoa echoed Fetui’s statement saying that the Personnel Advisory Board, on which the Director of Human Resources sits is a fair and effective way to deal with ASG personnel, rather than giving one person full authority to set rules and enforce those rules.

He also stated that he’s concerned about the amendment because if a new HR director comes in, that director could make changes and that would become a complicated issue.

Mitchell explained that there isn’t an exclusive authority for the DHR director to promulgate or enact rules, he said, adding that other ASG agencies have such an authority, but it’s not made clear in the current statute that the DHR director also has such authority.

Mitchell said that he wrote the bill in order to allow changes to Title 4 of the American Samoa Administrative Code (which is an ASG regulation), “because I thought the authority to make changes to our personnel administrative rules was not clear.”

Sanitoa stated that if this is the case, then the new bill eliminates the board because the role of the board is to advise the director.