Flores wants 62-pct. hike in his budget

The Municipality of Saipan currently runs at a “cost-cutting budget” of just $1.345 million. Now it wants a higher budget of $2.478 million for the new fiscal year—about 62 percent more—most of which will go to operational costs.

According to Teri Camacho, Saipan Mayor’s Office fiscal and budget officer, the budget they have right now is not enough because they “exceeded the proposed budget” due to equipment rentals.

For fiscal year 2015, the mayor’s office proposes a budget of $2.478 million, of which $978,202 will be used to pay its 39 personnel, while $1.5 million will be for other costs such as utilities, supplies, fuels, rentals, repair, travel, and equipment purchases.

Fiscal year 2015 is from Oct. 1, 2014, to Sept. 30, 2015.

According to Camacho, the increase in the fiscal 2015 budget is because the mayor’s office needs to buy heavy equipment worth $500,000.

Mayor Donald G. Flores noted that the budget is “based on actual demands and expectations my office received from the community.”

Flores pointed out that they saved on utility cost by designating a utility conservation officer-in-charge who makes sure all office appliances are shut down after office hours.

The mayor’s office also wants to hire an engineer and lawyer.

Heavy/light equipment needed

According to Flores, “it is just high time and truly long overdue to replace my office’s heavy equipment with new ones.”

In his proposed budget, the mayor’s office detailed its inventory of heavy equipment and other vehicles, 12 of which are out of commission. Two are working—the payloader and the grader—but are over three decades old and are in constant need of repair.

Flores noted that the equipment that are less than 30 years old are not in good condition and are not an asset to the office.

“In all honesty, the equipment have become so much of a liability that it is a shame to continue expending public funds to constantly repair them.” Flores stated. “They are not safe to drive on the highways.

He said the Department of Public Safety had given his crewmembers verbal warnings to stop driving the office’s trucks on highways. If not, DPS would impound the vehicles.

Dog control program

The Saipan Mayor’s Office’s Dog Control Program has been struggling because it is almost impossible to keep up with the growing population of stray dogs. Part of the challenge is the sheer number of dogs.

They also lack equipment to trap and catch dogs and money to pay for veterinary services to spay or neuter dogs before adoption.

“In my budget proposal, I inserted the acquisition of two light pickup trucks and fabrication of a 10-compartment dog trailer,” Flores said.

He said the program’s vehicles are not in good condition and repairing them would be unwise because “they will break down with another problem sooner than they are fixed. This is money down the drain.”

Rental of heavy equipment

Flores also cited his office’s high rental cost for equipment.

“With no dump trucks, backhoes, a payloader, or even an excavator, my office must rent in order to comply with its mandate,” he said.

The law requires the mayor’s office to repair, improve, and maintain secondary roads and other roads on Saipan. Without an excavator, which is used to extract coral from the quarry to be used for road repairs and maintenance, work cannot be fully done.

“Whether my office likes it or not, I have no discretion to not perform the mandates, as the CNMI Legislature made it a requirement,” Flores said.

Without the financial means and no operational equipment, work will “just have to be put on hold. …Doing this is not performing my statutory mandates and not protecting the lives of the public who use the roadways, which includes public safety personnel who have to respond to emergencies,” he said.

“It should not surprise anyone that my office has been plagued with problems time and again since I took office, and I believe it is time to deliver better and quicker services to the public by giving my office an adequate budget to acquire new heavy equipment,” he added.