Previous Story
CUC questions legality of MPLA exchange deal
|
Posted on Oct 12 2004
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has questioned the legality of an exchange deal proposed by the Marianas Public Lands Authority regarding a Sadog Tasi property.
In a letter to the Attorney General’s Office, CUC legal counsel Kay Delafield reiterated the utility firm’s request for a legal opinion regarding MPLA’s condition for the designation of a property for the Sadog Tasi water reservoir and booster station.
Delafield said the reservoir project is intended to address the water situation on the island. However, MPLA would not approve the “much needed” land acquisition if the utility firm does not offset MPLA’s utility bills.
“As we have stated in the past, we believe it is inappropriate for MPLA, in determining whether CUC’s request for land for public purpose should be granted, to include a demand that is for the benefit of the agency rather than the public,” Delafield told assistant attorney general Alan Barak.
CUC executive director Lorraine Babauta had asked for the AGO’s opinion on the proposal last year.
In her Oct. 27, 2003 letter to then acting attorney general Clyde Lemons, Babauta noted that the disagreement between CUC and MPLA has been ongoing since 2001.
On March 21, 2001, the then Division of Public Lands sent CUC a letter approving a designation of public land for CUC’s use, on the condition that the utility firm offset “all utility charges present and future for [MPLA’s] offices on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.”
“CUC’s legal counsel has reviewed MPLA’s enabling legislation and found no basis for MPLA’s position that it may establish such a condition in a designation. By requiring the offset as a mandatory condition for designation, MPLA is essentially charging CUC a continuing fee for land designation,” Babauta had said.
CUC and MPLA had a meeting regarding the matter in late 2002. At the meeting, MPLA was asked to reconsider its position.
On Sept. 13, 2004, acting MPLA commissioner Frank Eliptico informed CUC that the MPLA board of directors, during an Aug. 13 meeting, decided to defer action on CUC’s request for the designation of the Sadog Tasi property “until such time that CUC and its board of directors accept the condition to offset MPLA’s utility charges.”
