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Tenorio frets over weekly meetings
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Posted on Mar 06 2006
A House minority member expressed concerns yesterday about the weekly meetings between the Fitial administration and leaders of the Legislature.
Rep. Manuel Tenorio said that the Tuesday meetings at the Governor’s Office may be compromising the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government.
Tenorio said he understood that the governor’s intention in calling the weekly meetings was to foster closer ties between the administration and the lawmakers. But he maintained that the “integrity” of the Legislature must be preserved.
“We’re all one big family, but still we have our own thing to do. We should have some degree of independence,” he said.
Tenorio also raised concerns about the manner that laws had been passed recently. He said the Legislature should be looking at issues on its own accord, rather than relying on information from the Executive Branch.
“I feel like a Boy Scout going there (Governor’s Office) and listening to what they have to say about issues, instead of having them over here (Legislature) and questioning them,” he said.
“So if I don’t show up at the meetings, I don’t want the governor or anybody thinking that I’m not cooperating. I just want to put things in perspective and have a bit of balance [in the government],” he added.
House Speaker Oscar M. Babauta, an ally of Governor Fitial, maintained that the administration initiated the Tuesday meetings to address pressing issues facing the Commonwealth.
“It’s all about addressing the CNMI’s problems. It’s a meeting of the minds,” said Babauta, who belongs to the ruling party that controls not only the Senate and the House of Representatives, but also the municipal governments.
Fitial’s weekly meetings with the Senate and House leaders have led to the smooth enactment of the laws giving the governor full reprogramming authority and abolishing the Marianas Public Lands Authority as an autonomous agency.
Fitial has also moved to revive the Governor’s Council to foster the same close relationship with the mayors.
