Transcript
SAVE LIUATO: I have not received a letter from any one of the people that resigned stating that they resigned because of their pay. I'm pretty sure that's probably one of the reasons but nobody really came out and listed that in their request as the reason for their resignation.
DOMINIC GODFREY: I've heard that people may be concerned, that if they did express that in a letter of resignation, that there may be possible recriminations for their family?
SL: No, I don't think that happens, we all understand that there are jobs off-island, especially in The States, that have got better pay than here in the local economy. I am pretty sure that there are some that did not see how they can continue to support their families financially with the kind of pay that they are getting here from American Samoa. I am pretty sure that it's part of the reason but they are not saying that in their request.
DG: The financial implications for your department must be considerable in terms of recruitment and replacement of officers for the territory?
SL: Yeah, that's a challenge for us to recruit more replacements. In fact, we're advertising next week or the week after next for people to apply for the police department. We're scheduling to have a new recruitment class hopefully starting the end of September, early October.
DG: The Department of Labor in the past has said that the Public Safety Department hasn't necessarily budgeted for overtime, and I think that's another issue that some of the officers, the rank-and-file officers, have been grumbling about...
SL: It's true that officers were working overtime. Their pay was delayed at no fault of the department but it was not in our budget. They eventually all got paid, I think it was last month when I was off-island... up to the end of July.
DG: Your department already has budget challenges, on top of what officers already see as the issue being they're not paid enough?
SL: The governor wants to increase the starting pay for the police officers and we have submitted a proposal. It's in the discussion stage now. We haven't finalised that issue yet but there is a move to increase the officers pay throughout the ranks.
DG: So what's the time frame on those discussions?
SL: I can't tell you when it's going to be finalised because there's no timeline. We're hoping the sooner the better.
