Former Interior Office of Insular Affairs, Director Nikolao Pula declares in a blunt March email, newly obtained by KHJ News, that his frustration with President Biden’s choice to head the office, meant he was probably on his way out. KHJ News Washington DC correspondent Matt Kaye reports…
“I am just blowing frustrating and sad air,” Pula writes in his email to OIA Deputy Assistant Secretary Keone Nakoa and top agency staffers…ending with, “I suppose I will be leaving this great institution soon, anyways.”
Well-regarded in the islands after his long service, Pula, also said to be interested in the Assistant Secretary post, protests in the email, and the president’s choice of State Department Ambassador to the FAS Carmen Cantor of Puerto Rico.
Pula writes, “The last Administration had a Puerto Rican as Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs—thank goodness he lasted one term…now, this Administration names another Puerto Rican.”
He complains that White House officials don’t understand that the Interior Secretary’s portfolio on the insular areas doesn’t include Puerto Rico.
But Pula goes further, objecting to Cantor’s work for State.
He writes, “Recent problems causing the stall and delay in on-going Compact Negotiations are mostly attributed to State officials; yet, the powers that be nominate a current State Department Ambassador serving in the FAS. How does that help the US territories?”
Pula says that DOI career staff have been fighting State for years, over Compact work.
He concludes in his March 11th email, reacting to the announcement of Cantor’s nomination, “I wouldn’t be so gloomy if they made Keone, Assistant Secretary and have the nominee be Deputy Assistant Secretary. I suppose I will be leaving this great institution soon, anyways.”
Knowledgeable sources for the earlier story on Pula’s leaving OIA, insist he was denied a request to work remotely from his new home in Montana and forced out by circumstances of his own making.
Pula claims his retirement was “completely voluntary.”
