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Measures to empower mayors, councils revived
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Posted on Jun 04 2004
The House of Representatives is set to hold a public hearing today on proposed measures that seek to grant lawmaking authority to municipal governments and local councils.
The chamber will tackle, in particular, House Legislative Initiatives 14-4 and 14-5, which aim to amend the CNMI Constitution to allow the local agencies to enact local measures.
Both initiatives are authored by Saipan Rep. Oscar M. Babauta.
The hearing will be held at the chamber at 2pm today.
HLI 14-4, titled Municipal Government Legislative Initiative Act of 2004, amends Article 6 “to treat each chartered municipality form of local governments on an equal basis and to further empower them to pass local laws exclusively on local matters.”
It said that, although several attempts have been made to make these local governments—municipalities of Saipan and Northern Islands, Tinian and Aguigan, and Rota—more involved exclusively on local issues, there still remain uncertainties and ambiguities as to the legal roles of these local agencies.
Further, it said that such local empowerment is necessary given the NMI’s population growth, which would translate to more complex issues of local concerns.
As such, the proposal said that certain local issues are “better left to their local municipal governments to deal with in the form of local municipal ordinances and decentralized deliveries of public services.”
HLI 14-5 shares the same opinion and believes that it is in the best interest of the people “that each municipality plays a more active role in local matters and issues strictly of local concern within their jurisdictions.”
Meantime, HLI 14-4 provides that the mayor shall have the executive authority limited to local laws that affect only the island or islands served by the mayor.
It provides that the mayor may propose municipal ordinances relating to local matters for enactment by the municipal council.
The mayor shall have 30 days to either approve or veto municipal ordinances.
Every ordinance enacted by the council shall be signed by the presiding officer of the council and submitted to the mayor.
The ordinance becomes a law upon the mayor’s signing.
