Saipan Municipal Council forms ordinance to create Saipan Municipal Charter Commission

Members of the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council present Saipan Mayor Ramon “RB” Camacho with ordinance 10-02-2010 to establish the Saipan Municipal Charter Commission. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

The Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council has enacted proposed ordinance 10-02-2010 to establish the Saipan Municipal Charter Commission authored by then-council chair Ramon “RB” Camacho and approved by then-Saipan Mayor Juan B. Tudela, on Jan. 8, 2010.

The municipal ordinance, according to council chair Marian DLG Tudela, will comply with and implement the underlying intent of the applicable provisions of the Constitution. The proponents stated that the Commonwealth Supreme Court, in Commonwealth vs. Tinian Gaming Commission, had previously ruled, “It is important…that each [senatorial] district, in enacting local laws by municipal ordinance, ensure that local laws enacted do not encroach upon or adversely impact upon those interests relating to the entire Commonwealth.”

The task of the commission is necessary in order to secure the benefits or participatory form of local governance, which affords the best public services possible to the local residents envisioned in the Constitution to be carried out on an equitable basis on a decentralized administrative arrangement, Tudela said.

The council and Camacho said the intent of the ordinance is to establish a local governance system that not only serves but also advances the general welfare, health, happiness, safety and aspirations of both present and future residents and citizens in the municipality through direct and active participation of the people in an open and transparent process of governance at the municipal level.

The purpose of the ordinance, Tudela and Camacho said, is to provide the people of Saipan and Northern Islands the opportunity to direct the course of local governance that fully complies and comports with the intent of the Constitution by delineating the responsibility, duty and function of the agencies of local government, including the form, method or incorporation, powers of elected officials and financing of the agencies of local government. Furthermore, the charter ordinance will present the municipal charter before the local electorates in the next general election or any special election held for the purpose or incidental.

Tudela said the council believes the municipal jurisdiction is relevant and falls within the scope of local matter of a predominately local nature with application and effect confined to the municipality of Saipan.

They asserted the ordinance relates exclusively to local matters in the Third Senatorial District affecting local government operations, programs, revenue generation, appropriation and expenditure of funds, including the delivery of efficient, effective and responsive public services.

“It is the intent and purpose of this municipal ordinance for the charter commission to incorporate among its task orders and activities and not to be restricted or limited to solely define and delineate the form, method of incorporation, powers, elected officials and financing of the existing agencies of local government or new agencies of local government intended to supplement or replace the agencies created in the constitution,” the municipality officials said.

The primary task of the commission is to undertake the necessary needs assessment and or conduct studies and perform review on the administration, management, and operations of the agencies of local government as prescribed in the Constitution, statute, or municipal ordinance on municipal government, he said.

Tudela said there shall be 18 members to be appointed to the commission but nine will be appointed by Camacho, to be confirmed by the municipal council, while the remaining nine will be appointed by the presiding officer of the council.

In the ordinance, the mayor and council chair stated that the operational funding for the activities of the commission may be incorporated in the mayor’s annual budget or supplemental appropriations.

The commission, they added, is also authorized to apply for federal assistance in undertaking its enumerated task as approved by the mayor of Saipan. (PR)