CUC emergency extended anew

In his latest extension of a state of disaster emergency for the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., Gov. Benigno Fitial said the Office of the Governor has been unable to find qualified candidates to hold positions on the CUC board of directors.

Under Public Law 16-17, the board is meant to oversee CUC’s activities. However, Fitial wrote in his declaration, qualified candidates are unavailable, and therefore, the governor gave full authority to CUC executive director Antonio Muña.

The act is necessary, as CUC must continue to function, the governor said. Key to CUC is bringing the utility agency back to solvency. CUC has been insolvent because it owes the Commonwealth Development Authority approximately $115 million from a loan several years ago.

Both CUC and CDA have come to terms and agreed to convert the debt to stock, but CDA requires CUC’s board to approve the transaction, Fitial noted.

“Therefore, it is critical that CUC be able to sign the deal with the authority of a board. My directive provides such authority to the executive director,” the governor wrote. “It also permits him to continue to run CUC, providing power, water and wastewater services, until the remaining members of a board can be identified, confirmed, and convened for business.”

The executive order, the 10th straight for CUC, lists many of the same reasons and directives as in previous orders, although the most recent includes some of the improvements CUC has been able to achieve recently.

Fitial said engine 7 at Power Plant 1 has been restored and CUC officials have identified 16 potential employees—seven mechanics, one welder, one machinist and seven operators. A major challenge for the utility company, Fitial said, was finding eight more mechanics and eight more operators, something Muña earlier said was necessary in order to repair the necessary engines.

However, of the 16 potential employees, only a few are U.S. citizens. PL 16-14 prohibits CUC from hiring anymore non-U.S. citizens besides the 19 presently employed with CUC.

“CUC plans to ask the Legislature for relief from this statute regulating the government’s workforce,” Fitial said. “In the meantime, CUC is concerned that any significant reduction in its present technical workforce, as by the feared swine flu pandemic, could seriously compromise CUC’s ability to generate and distribute power.”

The emergency declaration lasts 30 days.

The administration has said the executive orders will last at least through September, when the contract for the emergency generators concludes. The continuous declarations have allowed CUC to operate the generators despite bypassing procurement regulations.

Last month, Muña said he believes the executive orders will continue past September, because some of the issues relate to ongoing problems with the water and wastewater divisions of CUC.