NMC board did not request AG opinion on term dates

The Office of the Attorney General told Gov. Eloy S. Inos this month that two seats held by Northern Marianas College regents have been “vacant” since 2014, and that “appointments must be made to fill the vacancies.”

However, interviews with board chair Juan T. Lizama and board member William Torres reveal that the board did not request this clarification.

Turns out Inos had already reappointed the “vacant” seats of board members Elaine Orilla and Torres. And that college president Dr. Sharon Hart and Lizama were the only ones to know about the requested opinion.

Four board members petitioned Lizama to hold a special meeting last Friday to discuss the AG’s opinion. Hart and Lizama, who appointed Orilla as vice chair at the meeting, were off-island.

During the meeting, Torres told Saipan Tribune that he made it clear on record that he disputed the AG’s opinion and that he would put it to a certified question in the Supreme Court.

“But we don’t need to do that,” he told Saipan Tribune over the weekend. Instead, he noted some salient facts confirmed by Lizama in an interview on Tuesday—that the board had not sought the AG’s opinion on office terms through official action, and that if they had, the chairman of the board, Lizama, should have been copied in the letter addressed to Inos.

The AG’s April 15 letter reads: “The Northern Marianas College Board of Regents raised concerns about the staggered terms of its members.”

“Specifically, the board sought clarification regarding the date upon which a new appointee’s term begins to run: predetermined dates as established by the 1986 appointments or the date on which an appointee is confirmed.”

The AG’s office said that practice has been to use the confirmation dates of new appointees to determine the beginning and end dates for the four-year terms.

But as a result, the purported expiration dates for the NMC Board of Regents are “erroneous and must be corrected.”

The AG clarified that Torres and Orilla held seats that, according to the staggered term dates, had since expired.

Torres holds the seat first held by Sister Mary Balzarina, a four-year term starting in 1986.

Orilla holds the seat first held by Isaac Calvo, also a four-year term starting in 1986. Other terms drawn in 1986 varied from two- to three-year terms.

Based on these staggered dates, the AG found that the terms of Torres and Orilla had “since expired and they are no longer members of the Board.”

“New appointments or reappointments must be made to fill these vacancies,” the AG wrote.

In an interview, Lizama said this letter did not have to be an “issue.”

He said the letter should not have required the calling of a special meeting, and that it should be discussed in a regular session.

He hopes the next meeting set for May 7 would look at the matter “calmly, amicably, and professionally.”

Asked to clarify the AG’s statement that the NMC board had shared concerns with the office on the terms, he indicated that the board did not.

He said, “You’ve gotta ask the AG that.”

Lizama said that Hart had made him aware of the issue. He explained that Hart was concerned over accreditation requirements that were “very strict” on staggered term dates.

“My take is, if she did [seek the AG’s opinion], I think she is working on WASC requirements,” he said. That was what the president was trying to correct, he added.

Saipan Tribune learned that after the special meeting on Friday, board members sought an audience with Inos on the matter.

Hart could not be contacted as of press time yesterday. It was gathered she was off-island.

Similarly, a message left with the AG’s public information officer was not returned as of press time.