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Local bill seeks to clip powers of acting mayor
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Posted on Aug 01 2011
In the wake of a Rota acting mayor’s termination of the Rota Health Center’s resident director, Rep. Teresita Santos (Ind-Rota) pre-filed yesterday a local bill that will clip the powers of any acting mayor to hire, fire, and reprogram funds.
“My intent in pre-filing this bill is to ensure employees are safeguarded, especially those with civil service contracts, by anyone in an acting mayor capacity. This was prompted by the abrupt termination of the Rota Health Center’s resident director. Other employees also feared for their jobs,” Santos told Saipan Tribune.
House Local Bill 17-54 says as a temporary appointee when the mayor is physically absent from Rota, an acting mayor should refrain from reprogramming funds not approved or sanctioned by the mayor.
It says the acting mayor should also refrain from making permanent organizational changes and adjustments within the mayor’s office or the resident departments.
“Accordingly, the Rota Legislative Delegation finds that in order to prevent any disruption in the services rendered to the people of Rota when an acting mayor is appointed, it is necessary to restrict the reprogramming and hiring/hiring authority of the acting mayor,” the local bill says.
Acting mayor Arvin Ogo fired RHC resident director Crispin Ayuyu two weeks ago, when Rota Mayor Melchor Mendiola was on leave. Ogo is the vice chair of the Rota Municipal Council.
The Rota Legislative Delegation’s chair, Sen. Juan Ayuyu (Ind-Rota), earlier said they will get to the bottom of Ogo’s decision to fire the center’s resident director to determine if the action is for the best interest of the island’s residents and if it violated the director’s constitutional rights.
