INDEPENDENT congressional delegate candidate Jonathan Diaz has been asked to tender his resignation from the University of Guam effective today.
An employee with UOG’s TRIO programs, Diaz said he was approached by the director of the program, who told him the university’s legal counsel has cited a clause in the Mini-Hatch Act.
Diaz said his contract is still valid up to Aug. 31.
“But yesterday, my director gives me a letter stating that with the opinion of the legal counsel, I have to resign,” Diaz said. “If there are any questions regarding that issue, the rule is very specific that they need to file with the Civil Service Commission. I don’t have anything to hide.”
It should be noted that classified employees are the ones who are required to resign and non-classified employees are exempt.
“They’re saying the exception does not apply for non-classified employees who are hired from time to time for professional services or for a specific fee,” he said.
“For me it’s hypocrisy, but if they want me to resign, I will be happy to resign. If they want the money back, I will be more than happy to pay back the money,” Diaz said.
Diaz revealed that before he filed his candidacy, he went to the human resources office which provided him a handbook that doesn’t follow the procedures of UOG, but is a Port Authority of Guam handbook.
“There’s nothing in there that a non-classified employee should resign. There’s nothing in there about any political activity,” Diaz said.
“If that’s what they want, they need to be specific,” he added.
Diaz said he won’t renew with the university and is going to focus on the people of Guam.
He believes the request to have him resign is political in nature.
“If this is retaliation then I’m totally prepared to answer for it. I can find another job after the election. I’m doing this personally on my own, no one is doing this for me. I’m doing this on my own,” Diaz said.
Comments
RSS feed for comments to this post