Azmar runs to Babauta for help

Azmar International has turned to Gov. Juan N. Babauta for help, following the decision of the Marianas Public Lands Authority to decline the company’s application to extract and market Pagan pozzolan.

In separate letters to the governor, two ranking Azmar officials urged Babauta to make MPLA honor what they said had been agreed upon during a meeting in Los Angeles last September: that MPLA would issue Azmar a permit with a separate agreement stating that Azmar has 90 days to comply with MPLA’s requirements.

The meeting was held while CNMI officials were attending the business conference sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Present at the meeting were Babauta, MPLA chair Ana Demapan Castro, then MPLA acting commissioner Frank Eliptico, several CNMI senators, Azmar chair Ken Moore, and Azmar chief operating officer Greg Whitehorn, among others.

“Know that all of us at Azmar look to you for guidance and will, of course, abide by any wish or directive you may extend. You, sir, will always have our support and appreciation for the guidance you demonstrated in Los Angeles,” Moore said in a Dec. 5 letter to Babauta.

Whitehorn cited the same meeting in his own letter to the governor, also dated Dec. 5. He said Babauta displayed “tremendous leadership in orchestrating the meeting,” where he made clear his support for Azmar’s proposal.

“I find myself…asking for help, Mr. Governor…in order to resolve a problem with an agency in the CNMI which I believe…has a separate agenda from what is good for the people of the Northern Marianas,” Whitehorn said. “Whatever you can do to resolve this inexplicable action by the MPLA would be greatly appreciated. Their action makes no sense to Azmar, no sense to the international business community and no sense to the people of the Northern Mariana Islands.”

In their letters, Moore and Whitehorn related that following the L.A. meeting, they met with Castro, Eliptico, and MPLA attorney Alan Lane “to work out a game plan.”

They said Castro stipulated only eight conditions that Azmar needed to fulfill so MPLA could issue a permit and a separate conditional agreement. These are Azmar’s official name of business, corporate papers, charter and bylaws, business license, federal tax I.D. number, corporate resolutions, Moore’s personal financial statement, and a revised pro-forma or feasibility study.

MPLA was supposed to issue the permit once all these are submitted, the Azmar officials said. Then, the company will have 90 days to meet the subsequent demands; otherwise, MPLA will rescind the permit.

A copy of Castro’s Sept. 29 email to Whitehorn shows that she had confirmed this understanding.

The agreement, however, never materialized. Instead, the MPLA board of directors on Nov. 16 instructed the management to use a 26-page draft mining permit to initiate a 15-day negotiation with Azmar. The draft permit included a long list of documents required of Azmar.

The board met again on Dec. 3 to discuss the result of the negotiation. After finding that Moore in his counter-proposal has struck most of the items in the list, the board decided to deny the application.

“Having been told repeatedly that this was our chance to put in our ‘wish list,’ we did,” Moore said. “More than 20 man hours went into our review and re-submission. It was received within the 15-calendar day window only to be rejected without further comment, save for that in a personal letter to [Azmar attorney Jeffrey] Finley from Mr. Lane, wherein Mr. Lane stated that two days was enough time for the board to consider the amendments we had requested. For an organization known for its postponements and rescheduling, I dare say that was a most ‘capricious’ excuse.”