Senate OKs CUC security deposit refund bill, other measures

The Senate passed during its Tinian session on Friday a bill requiring the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. to refund—after one year—the security deposit of its commercial and residential customers that timely pay their utility bills in full. It was among the at least 10 bills that senators passed on Friday, along with the confirmation of the governor’s appointee to the Commonwealth Development Authority board of directors, Matthew O. Deleon Guerrero, representing Saipan.
Senate Bill 18-39, Senate Draft 1, which now goes to the House for action, also prohibits CUC from requiring new residential customers to pay a security deposit based on the utility consumption of previous homeowners or renters.
The bill, authored by Sen. Pete Reyes (Ind-Saipan), ensures that CUC does not collect more than $300 in residential security deposit. However, such security deposit “may” be adjusted by averaging the new customer’s utility consumption for the next three months.
If and when the bill passes the House and becomes law, CUC commercial and residential customers will be required to pledge only a month’s worth of security deposit for their accounts, instead of the current two.

Under the bill, which the Senate Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications recommended for passage in the form of Senate Draft 1, all commercial and residential security deposits shall be refunded “one year after the payment of the security deposit with earned interest if the customer timely paid their utility bills in full during the one-year period or any one-year period thereafter.”
It also says customers shall receive the refunds “within 30 days” of the effective date of the bill becoming law.

The Senate also passed Sen. Paul Manglona’s (Ind-Rota) SB 18-47, establishing a CNMI Civilian Volunteer Police Reserve to provide additional manpower for crime suppression and for the preservation of law and order. The bill also now goes to the House for action.

Senators also passed House Bill 18-140, giving the Commonwealth Office of Transit Authority the power to adopt rules and regulations in furtherance of its duties. They also passed HB 18-144, HS1, reducing the number of members of the Commonwealth Transportation Advisory Board from 10 to six.

Also passed were HB 18-151, HS1, providing the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission with the authority to require management audits of regulated entities, and HB 18-153 reducing the insurance requirement for shooting ranges from $5 million to $1 million to address an oversight, among other things.