CUC joins CPA request to participate in Fund lawsuit proceedings

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has joined the Commonwealth Ports Authority’s motion to participate as intervenor in the proceedings on the lawsuit filed by the NMI Retirement Fund against the CNMI government.

CUC, through its counsel, S. Joshua Berger, joined CPA in its request to the Superior Court to permit the agency to assist with the resolution of the Fund’s lawsuit.

Berger said CUC wants a similar court’s order that CPA requested, so as to aid in the resolution of the matter, as well as to protect CUC’s interests.

Berger said initially, under the tutelage of Antonio S. Muna, then-CUC executive director, CUC has been closely watching this case and has been paying the exact percentages ordered by the court for the central government and some of the additional agencies such as the Public School System and the Marianas Visitors Authority.

“CUC simply wants to be treated the same as the central government and other agencies within this lawsuit,” Berger said.

The lawyer pointed out that since the court issued its order after the June 29, 2011 review hearing, which appears to have been issued Aug. 22, 2011, CUC has been contributing its employers contributions in the amount of 30 percent, as mandated by the court.

“From this point forward, therefore, and in light of the (Fund’s) huge increase which seems only to be directed towards agencies outside of this lawsuit, CUC requests that it be part of this lawsuit and thereafter be part of future orders,” Berger said.

CPA counsel Robert T. Torres in the motion to intervene said their interests are not and cannot be adequately represented by existing parties to the controversy.

“The government is attempting to figure out what it can do to stave off execution of its assets and how to continue to make its contributions,” Torres said.

The lawyer pointed out that none of the parties in this lawsuit, appear concerned with representing the interests of current contributing members or with CPA’s statutory duty.

“Should the parties to this action work a settlement or reach an alternative disposition that addresses only their interests, there is a real risk that CPA will be forced to bear an increasingly larger portion of employer contributions if the government continues not to pay,” Torres said.

CPA comptroller Derek Sasamoto in his declaration pointed out that in a memorandum to all government agencies and instrumentalities dated June 27, 2011 from Fund’s Board of Trustees, the Fund unilaterally directed all agencies to adjust their Fiscal Year 2012 budget submissions in order to provide for an increase in Fund contributions from 37.39009 percent of employee salaries to 60.8686 percent to become effective in October 2011.

“The memorandum was promulgated without notice to CPA; without the knowledge or input of CPA; without taking into account the budget, statutory mission, or obligations of CPA; and without taking into account the fact that unlike the government or the defendants who pay salaries from the general fund, CPA’s payment history is current,” Sasamoto said.