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4 other CNMI officials join Fitial in US
Four other government officials joined Gov. Benigno R. Fitial in the U.S. but unlike the governor who has an almost three-week taxpayer-paid trip, the others will only be staying there for a few days on official business.
Fitial left Saipan on July 10 for trips to Virginia, Washington, D.C. and California, among other states, and is expected to be back late this week or during the weekend. He left with first lady Josie Fitial and press secretary Angel Demapan.
His legal counsel, Jim Stump, followed in Washington, D.C. Stump has already ended his official travel and is not part of the CNMI delegation to California this week.
Acting press secretary Teresa Kim confirmed yesterday that three others-the governor’s special adviser for management and budget Virginia Villagomez, special assistant for administration Esther Fleming, and Tom Linden, coordinator for the CNMI Military Integration Management Committee-left over the weekend.
Kim said they were to attend the July 23 to 25 Federal Regional Council Meeting in San Francisco, California. They are expected to be back later this week.
Kim said Demapan has also terminated his official travel and is now on leave as he is participating in the first session of the Executive Leadership Development Program, funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs, in Guam.
While in the U.S., Fitial participated in the July 12 to 15 National Governors Association’s annual summer meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Fitial also attended a July 17 to 20 symposium on climate change and its impacts on indigenous coastal cultures at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. He delivered remarks in that symposium.
