Macaranas wants to empower supervisors

Newly installed director of Office on Aging Howard Macaranas was surprised to find out that the center’s employees were not given enough power to decide on matters they themselves could solve.

Macaranas, who assumed the top post of the Aging Office barely 20 days ago, said he was a bit surprised that supervisors and other employees are not given the authority to resolve internal issues regarding the care of the islands’ man’amko.

He said in an interview with Saipan Tribune yesterday that he would gradually change the process by empowering immediate supervisors to assist and decide for the benefit of the entire division.

The new director said he was amazed by how people and clients would knock on his office door and seek his assistance. He soon realized that most of the problems were matters that could immediately be solved by supervisors. Macaranas met with the supervisors this week and began the process of delegating some of these matters to them.

The Aging Office director said he also noticed that the office’s record system is not organized. “Everything is disconnected,” he said, adding that effective record keeping would be on top of his list.

Macaranas recently handed back the operations of the Call-A-Ride program to the CNMI Developmental Disabilities Council due to the absence of a memorandum of agreement between the previous administration and the Aging Office.

“[As the new director] my greatest plan is also to enhance the man’amko,” said Macaranas.

Among his other plans are:

– To add baking sessions to the man’amko’s usual bingo sessions since the center has a traditional oven.

– To make sure that the CNMI man’amko office building more energy sufficient by centralizing the air conditioning systems. He had found out that most of the rooms have independent air conditioning units rather a centralized system, which would be cheaper and cost effective, especially when it comes to maintenance.

– To construct an herbal garden within the premises of the Aging Center where the man’amko could serve as resource persons for schoolchildren who visit the center.

– To provide a library for the man’amko not only for their reading pleasure but to keep reference materials important for the man’amko that is also significant to the rich culture in the CNMI.

Macaranas said the post is not new to him. He said he worked for the man’amko in 1984 assigned on Tinian as a resident director.

He was elected to the 5th Legislature in 1985; in 1987 to 1994 he worked as a Housing Authority executive director’s representative. In 1994, he moved to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and worked as community development manager until 2002.

Macaranas left the federal office in 2002 to focus on his jewelry business at Town House in Gualo Rai. He said his business needed more attention since it required frequent travel to resource areas abroad.

The Fitial administration appointed him to replace previous Aging Office director Joseph Palacios.