Celebrate Citizenship Day with a rally!

Dear brothers and sisters of the CNMI,

We have reached a pivotal point in our lives where we can no longer sit in our dark homes and hope that our leaders solve our problems. They have failed us, and to this day, our leaders offer us no immediate relief or solutions to our problems. If you have been following the news, you know that Aggreko is nothing more than another temporary band-aid solution to our power problems. Aggreko’s 15 or 18 megawatts of power comes with a hefty price tag that we all will have to pay for—$500,000 a month, excluding fuel and other associated costs. CUC will have no choice but to raise our utility rates once again. My question to you is, can you afford another CUC increase? If you found your last power bill to be astronomically high, I want you to close your eyes and imagine what it will be like when you are actually paying for 24-hour power.

While this administration insisted on spending millions of dollars on renting high-speed engines from Aggreko, it ignored offers from Tinian’s Telesource to deliver 10 megawatts of power to Saipan. These two 5 megawatt, medium-speed engines are sitting idle on Tinian as we speak. My question is, why? I am sure Governor Fitial’s spinmeisters will come up with some excuse as to why Telesource’s 10 megawatts of additional, unused power continues to be ignored.

Certainly you must know by now that historically speaking, CUC’s problem has not been a lack of funding, but a lack of sound decision-making. While this administration inherited its share of problems with CUC, it did nothing to make things better. If anything, things are far worse today than ever in the history of CUC and our commonwealth. At a time when we needed the best and brightest to repair and rehabilitate our broken CUC engines, this administration sole-sourced “emergency” contracts to DCM and CISCO, resulting in none of the engines being repaired and rehabilitated. The nightmare we are living in today is a direct result of this administration’s complete failure and incompetence in providing affordable, reliable power to us all.

Take a look at all of CUC’s sole source contracts and the tens of millions of dollars that have been pumped into CUC during this administration. What is the end result? Multiple daily power outages and exorbitant power rates that have forced businesses to close, families to move, electronic equipment and appliances to break, and for many of our families to be cut off the grid because they can no longer afford to pay their utility bill. To add insult to injury, while we continue to cut back our power consumption in an effort to bring our utility bill down, our governor and lieutenant governor consume more power than ever, all because we, the CNMI taxpayers, pay for their CUC bill. Apparently, in the eyes of this administration, suffering and hardship is acceptable, as long as it does not affect them.

With our collapsed economy and our broken CUC, Governor Fitial still claims that he has a “plan.” In his “Road Map for Better Times” campaign in 2005, Governor Fitial laid out the 5 E’s for a better Commonwealth—Economy, Education, Environment, Essentials, and Ethics. I will not go into fine details, but I will briefly discuss each of Governor Fitial’s E’s.

EDUCATION

How can we strengthen education when our children cannot even go to school consistently, or how can our children study at home when there is no power and no lights? How can we strengthen education when Governor Fitial is demanding that our schools start two weeks later, after PSS has already delayed its opening by almost a month? The same federal government that Governor Fitial wants to sue is the same federal government that continues to increase federal funding to PSS while local funding continues to decrease. One federal official warned that federal funding for PSS should not take the place of local funding, but it has! Governor Fitial has failed to address the needs of our students at PSS and NMC! How many classrooms are falling apart, and how many students are sitting on the floor because of overcrowded classrooms? Thank God for our hard-working PSS administrators, principals, support staff, and of course, our dear teachers! They are miracle workers who deserve accolades and praise from every one of our leaders! Thank you!

ESSENTIALS

With regard to public safety, our police officers are often overworked and underpaid. Like all other agencies, they are underfunded, and it is fortunate that DPS receives federal funding. How can our police officers patrol neighborhoods and our streets when they are busy directing traffic? Burglars prey off of power outages, and the scheduled outages give them an advantage as they look for dark, empty homes to ransack. Thank you to every officer of the peace for your commitment to our community and in doing your best to keep us safe, but without proper funding and more officers patrolling our neighborhoods, we have come to a point where we must look at protecting ourselves from intruders. We must be vigilant and we must protect each other from the criminals who aim to take what little we have left. You know times have hit rock bottom when one of the things being stolen from homes and stores is baby formula.

ETHICS

One of Governor Fitial’s campaign promises was to “ensure that government laws and politics governing contracting, procurement, and administration of grants and licenses, are followed.” Is issuing out dozens of sole-source contracts Governor Fitial’s way of following strict procurement regulations? Why was DCM given a sole-source contract, out of all potential companies that could have honestly and effectively repaired and rehabilitated CUC’s engines? How long has DCM been in business? Is there any conflict of interest in hiring DCM? Who is DCM? How many power plants have they repaired and rehabilitated? Why is AG Matt Gregory not suing DCM over a breach in contract, and at the least, why isn’t he pursuing DCM’s penalty clauses? All of these questions continue to go ignored by Governor Fitial. What are you trying to hide? Our community has a right to know!

ENVIRONMENT

Governor Fitial promised to encourage energy conservation. When was the last time you heard Governor Fitial speak about energy conservation? The fact is, there have been numerous suggestions in forums and articles and letters on how we as a community can conserve considerable amounts of power, but it has always fallen on deaf ears. It is evident that Governor Fitial would rather have the public consume more power so that CUC could generate more revenue. As for our water supply? How many villages go days without water? And how many times have we read that our water supply is contaminated with bacteria such as E. coli? How many times do we unknowingly shower and bathe our children and have them brush their teeth with toilet water? E. coli is not the only thing we must worry about. How many companies continue to dump used oil and chemicals into our grounds, resulting in carcinogenic contaminants affecting our water supply? In a bad economy, the environment is often the least of anyone’s concerns, most notably companies struggling to survive. Sadly, some companies will cut costs by dumping used oil instead of having it properly treated, all in an effort to stay afloat. What exactly has Governor Fitial done thus far to address these and scores of other environmental concerns?

ECONOMY

The constant blackouts and exorbitant utility rates have been the biggest factor in shutting down businesses. In the last two years, we have seen the closing of many businesses who have been operating in the CNMI for decades. How many other businesses are on the verge of closing their doors? I spoke with a bakery owner last week who told me that her monthly utility bill went from $700 to $2,300 in the course of a year. She is seriously considering closing. So what happens when all of these businesses close? It is simple. Less BGRT’s mean less revenue for the CNMI, which means more bitter times for all of us. Governor Fitial has done absolutely nothing to help small businesses stay afloat, and he has done absolutely nothing to fix our problems with CUC.

My dear brothers and sisters, we have no choice at this point but to demand that President Bush and the United States federal government declare the CNMI a disaster area. We need more than just additional federal aid—we need federal intervention. it is a proven fact that this administration is not capable of fixing CUC. What we need is for CUC to be taken out of local hands and put into federal receivership. Can you trust this administration to fix CUC? Can you trust this administration to find the best contractor to fix our engines, after its failures with DCM and CISCO? After more than doubling our utility rates while we still face constant power outages? This administration has lost the public’s support and its sentiments, but most importantly, it has lost the public’s trust. Whenever this happens, it is time that we, the good people of the CNMI, take matters into our own hands.

I am pleading with you to take a stand for a better CNMI and for a better future for each and every one of us. Please join us at the Garapan Fishing Base on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 5:30pm, at the Garapan Fishing Base. What is so significant about Sept. 17 is that it is “Citizenship Day” in the United States, formerly known as “I am an American” day. It is high time that we call the attention of President Bush and our leaders in the U.S. Congress and that we demand an end to our deplorable living conditions! Will you join us?

If you are willing to join us on this historic date, we humbly ask if you can bring the following:

-a written or typed testimonial of the hardship you have had to endure at the hands of CUC.

-umbrellas and raincoats in case it rains.

-flashlights and candles for our candlelight vigil.

-black shirts to signify all the dark nights we had to endure without power.

-a sign that demands federal intervention for CUC. No hate-filled signs please, as this is a peaceful protest that signifies our suffering and our call for immediate relief through federal intervention.

I ask that you respond to me by e-mail at edpropst@gmail.com or call me at 483-7361 and give me your commitment that you will stand with us. United we stand!

P.S. Please remember that no one can be fired from their jobs for attending our peaceful protest and call for help. We need you to join us to send a strong, unified message that the people of the CNMI will no longer tolerate the status quo. Change begins Wednesday, Sept. 17, 5:30pm, at the Garapan Fishing Base. Please join us.