‘Part-time legislature a good idea but…’

The proposed part-time legislature is a good idea but the measure creating it must be further refined if it is to be passed, according to individuals who attended Tuesday’s legislative public hearing on the issue.

A major concern raised is the possible conflict of interests if lawmakers are allowed to work part-time in government or in the private sector.

Likewise, putting statutory language in the Constitution setting a specific dollar figure for salaries and compensations of lawmakers and annual appropriation for the Legislature is not prudent, according to Northern Marianas College faculty Sam McPhetres and Northern Islands Mayor Valentin Taisakan.

“I am in full support of the legislative findings but I don’t agree with the idea of including statutory language in the Constitution….The inclusion of actual dollar figures into the Constitution should be discouraged and should be replaced with the term ‘as provided by law,’” said Taisakan in a written statement.

Taisakan also aired his position verbally in yesterday’s session.

McPhetres, who attended the hearing “as a permanent resident U.S. citizen of the Commonwealth,” said that including a specific sum of money in a constitutional document “is not the best way to deal with the issue of compensation.”

“The Constitution, any Constitution, is meant to be the foundation of the organization and not something that can be easily changed…Including specific monetary amounts into such a document has many pitfalls as we have seen over the years,” he said.

House Legislative Initiative 14-8, which aims to amend Article II of the Constitution to re-structure the compensation of members and to reduce the operating budget of both houses of the Legislature, proposes to get rid of lawmakers’ salary of $139,300 and reduce their operational funds from $155,000 to $50,000.

The bill, authored by Rep. Clyde Norita, said that making the CNMI Legislature a part-time legislature would result in $3.2 million savings for the government.

Under the proposal, the salary of the legislators will be a fixed amount and is based on their attendance: $120 per session and $60 per committee meeting. For Rota and Tinian members, airfare per session is $100 and per diem per session is $175.

Right now, off-island members receive $5,000 allowance every month. Committee officials, presiding officers and their deputies also receive additional funding.

The Legislature receives $5.2 million a year.

McPhetres said that if the goal is simply to cut costs, it may be more realistic to reduce the size of the Legislature by about 30 percent. This would mean six senators and 12 representatives.

Currently, the Legislature is composed of nine senators and 18 House members.

In his opinion, McPhetres said it had been raised that there was a serious danger of elected members of the Legislature employed in the private sector by companies that might be expecting favors from the law-making body.

He said, though, that this should not be reason enough to dismiss the concept. He said rules and regulations would have to be adopted “to assure that conflict of interest would require recusal on the part of any affected member.”

He said each member should file a disclosure notice with the Legislature and the Office of the Public Auditor indicating place of employment, position, salary, and any other appropriate information to avoid conflicts with penalties for violations.

“Perhaps the most difficult obstacle to overcome in reaching the goal of the part-time legislature is the issue of trust and integrity. It would mean that the Legislature would have to be assured through the establishing constitutional amendment that the executive branch would not be able to override or bypass legislative functions between sessions,” McPhetres said.

Meantime, the Attorney General’s Office, Office of the Saipan Mayor, the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council, and Saipan Chamber of Commerce represented by its president, Alex Sablan, expressed support for the initiative.

The AGO said HLI 14-8 “is a permissible legislative undertaking” and that it is both “constitutionally and legally sufficient.”

Tuesday’s hearing was presided by Norita on behalf of Rep. Jesus Lizama, chair of the House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations.