On My Mind

It is said that House member Ray A.N. Yumul, in introducing his infamous House Bill 14-42, or the Alien Worker’s Act for 2004, is fronting for the House speaker. That would make more sense than that Yumul himself supports the bill, since the bill seems to be decidedly anti-business—except for the provision to lift the cap on foreign workers. Certainly the provisions to ban transfers, and to require that worker contracts be renewed only after the worker has returned to his point of origin, do not favor the average businessman. Rather, they add significant employer costs to the hiring of each worker.

Which raises the question of on who’s behalf is House Vice Speaker Timothy P. Villagomez acting by introducing the equally infamous “Public Corporation Board Reform Act of 2004,” aka House Bill 14-154. The bill emasculates the boards of seven government agencies by reducing the boards to advisory status and giving the governor the power to appoint their directors—without Senate confirmation. The bill thus places the fiscal responsibility for the agencies in the hands of each agency’s director, instead of its board.

The agencies affected are the Commonwealth Ports Authority, the Commonwealth Utilities Commission, Marianas Public Land Authority, Marianas Visitors Authority, Northern Marianas Housing Authority, the NMI Retirement Fund, and the Telecommunications Commission. Though the bill purports to change the function of “boards of public corporations, authorities and commissions,” it has left intact the Law Revision Commission, the Election Commission and the Civil Services Commission. Moreover, the Retirement Fund is not a public corporation, an authority or a commission.

What the seven agencies that would be affected by this bill have in common is the large amount of money that flows through their hands. Not only does the bill appear to be a major power grab on the part of the governor; it also appears to be a major money grab, since each agency director would now no longer be encumbered by a board, but would serve at the pleasure of the governor.

Was Villagomez so frustrated by his board while CUC director that he actually supports this bill? Or has he, too, been pressured to introduce it on behalf of someone else?

* * *

And while on the subject of pressures, a high government official once told me that the CNMI cannot afford to get rid of its poker machines—they bring in too much revenue. It’s strange then, that the published reports of revenue sources for the CNMI do not list receipts from poker machines. Garment industry revenue, tourist industry revenue, are reported at least every quarter, but not the income generated from poker machines.

This “denial,” if you will, also colors the seemingly pious statements made by the governor when he talks about his interest in getting poker parlors out of sight of the schools, out of the villages—even off island forever—and then sanctimoniously says, “but I’m willing to compromise.” Indeed!

Without data there is no way of knowing whether the income generated by the poker parlors outweighs the costs incurred in dealing with the consequences, which are considerable. To some extent, the same is true of the garment factories. Yes, they provide an income stream. But at what cost? A thorough cost-benefit analysis—for both the poker parlors and the garment industry—would appear to be much-needed—and long overdue.

Balancing the budget is not an easy process. More is at issue than merely examining income sources. One must also look at the costs incurred by those alleged income-producing activities to make sure that the net sum is positive rather than negative.

* * *

Despite the fact that some people, being squeamish, have objected, I think the Guam Visitor Bureau decision to make “Balate Bob” a tourism mascot is a great idea! It’s creative, it uses local wildlife (rather than the CNMI’s exotic and distinctly non-local panda), it is pro-tourist, and, most important of all, it is thoroughly pro-environment.

“Balate” is the Chamorro word for sea slug. Sea slugs, while a delicacy on some Asian menus, often arouses queasiness in tourists as well as locals, due to the fact that it regurgitates its internal organs if disturbed. Since it is a productive inhabitant of the shoreline (it cleans the sand) however, it plays an important role in the ecology of the seashore. Making Balate Bob a tourist mascot educates the tourist to its usefulness, explains what the balate is doing, and promotes its protection. It also honors a long-time member of the UOG Marine Lab, Dr. Robert Richmond.

Very clever! Very creative! Very appropriate!

* * *

Short takes:
With the Fiesta Mall posing such a dilemma, seems like it wouldn’t be a bad idea to hold a CNMI-wide contest asking for ideas and suggestions as to what to do with it. There will be bound to be silly answers—like raze the whole thing (which might not be all that silly—it is a valuable piece of property), or put all the poker parlors (and strip joints) there—which also might not be all that bad of an idea either—but there might be some good ones as well. And it certainly beats letting it sit there idle, draining NMC’s resources.

*

Given the number of protests of bid awards—which not only tie up the courts and the projects but can incur considerable cost as well, wonder if it would help if periodic recognition/awards were given to those agencies whose Request For Proposals and Invitations For Bid don’t get protested?

*

It sure would have helped if the NMI Retirement Fund had done a better job of informing its members that the required re-registration for group life insurance, despite the urgency of the notices, could not be done at the Retirement Fund office, but will have to be done at the JoeTen-Kiyu public library next week ( May 24-28). Why wasn’t that information included in its notices in the papers?

*

I still don’t seem to have found the right button to push to get the table of contents of the Commonwealth Register published in the newspaper on a regular basis. The Register contains proposed regulations—which the general public has 30 days to comment on before they are adopted. But if the public does not know which regulations have been proposed, how can it make comments? To expect members of the public to go to the Attorney General’s office on a monthly basis to read the Register in order to determine whether there is a proposed regulation they wish to comment on is a deprivation of the public right to know, to participate in its governance. Having to pay 50¢ per page if they find one is also an impediment to the right to know, to participating in governance.

*

Were those 300-400 Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison who were released after news of prison torture there became public given any sort of de-briefing? Counseling? Apologies? Whether or not they were released in an effort to prevent their being questioned about torture at the prison—as some have said—releasing them without some sort of orientation is bound to have created yet another category of angry Iraqis with a grudge against the U.S.

*

Last but not least, does it scare anyone else to realize that the first person to be tried for mistreating Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison has already been arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced, barely two weeks after his misdeeds were first revealed to the media?

* * *

(The writer is a librarian by profession, and a longterm resident of the CNMI. To contact her, send email to ruth.tighe@saipan.com.)