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Palacios: Name CPA board appointees now
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Posted on Jul 18 2008
House Speaker Arnold I. Palacios reiterated his call today for Gov. Benigno R. Fitial to name appointees to the Commonwealth Ports Authority.
Palacios expressed concern about the delay in the submission of appointments, saying it should not be a reason to keep CPA under a state of emergency designation.
“Don’t tell me you can’t find seven good people in the Commonwealth. CPA has been under a state of emergency for 60 days. We need to resolve this issue immediately,” Palacios said.
CPA is now in the third month of being under the administration’s direct control. Fitial renewed the emergency declaration on Saturday, citing the lack of a functioning board to run the ports authority. The previous board members resigned in late May 2008 at the governor’s request.
To date, the administration has nominated two individuals to CPA—former Sen. Thomas Villagomez to represent Saipan and Manuel Villagomez to represent Tinian. The Senate, which must confirm any appointment to CPA, has yet to act on either nomination. There are five other vacancies to fill.
Palacios implied that the administration is taking too long to submit names because it only wants the governor’s allies on the CPA board.
“Just appoint qualified individuals, that’s all the law requires. Get people who can do the job. Never mind their political affiliation,” Palacios said.
Press secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. denied that politics is involved in the selection of board members. He said that neither of the two pending nominees belong to the currently empowered Covenant Party.
“We are doing our best to expedite the nominations and we apologize for the delay. We should have more nominations soon,” Reyes said.
Fitial declared a state of emergency to stave off a technical default on CPA’s airport revenue bond indenture.
