Taisakan questions bill creating a DPL board

Northern Islands Mayor Valentin I. Taisakan is urging the Legislature to conduct more public forums on the proposed measure reinstating the board of directors to oversee the Department of Public Lands.

While he agrees with the need to re-address land management policy and the function of DPL, Taisakan said the participation of the public in an open forum tends to produce a more permanent and stable land management policy for the benefit of all in the Commonwealth.

Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider recently introduced Senate Bill 16-42 to reinstate the board of directors that used to govern DPL’s predecessor, the Marianas Public Lands Authority.

Hofschneider said the bill would add greater control to an agency that has too much autonomy.

Hofschneider said Public Law 15-2, which created DPL, replaced the board with a single secretary. He said this arrangement has resulted in numerous complaints because DPL is “unresponsive” to the desires of persons of Northern Marianas decent “who own the public lands being administered by the DPL.”

Hofschneider said it had been three years since the law was enacted but the “homestead program has seen little, if any movement.”

DPL Secretary John S. Del Rosario was still preparing his reactions and views on the proposed bill when sought for comments.

In a letter to Rep. Ramon Tebuteb, chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Taisakan wrote that if the Legislature is dissatisfied with how DPL is managing the homestead program, they must inquire with the department about this.

“But if the Legislature strongly believes that the way to address and expedite the issuance of homestead lots to qualified applicants in the Commonwealth is by way of approving SB 16-42, then it must be clearly expressed in this bill as to how it will be done,” Taisakan told Tebuteb.

Taisakan said there is nothing in the proposed measure that provide ways to improve, develop and mandate the issuance of homestead to qualified applicants in the CNMI.

He said the reinstatement of the board is not a guarantee that the homestead program will be better developed and expedited because the bill may defeat its intended purpose.

Taiskan questioned a provision in the bill that states “no interest in public land shall be transferred except upon approval by the board of the particular interest and any attempted transfer of such an interest without prior board approval shall be void and of no effect.”

He said this contradicts how interest in public land shall be transferred, adding that it is an unjust policy to seek the board’s prior approval.

“This type of provision does not serve the Commonwealth’s best public interest and should not be authorized,” he said.

Another questionable amendment, he said, is a provision authorizing compensation to board members while attending official board meetings, including travel costs and per diem.

“We should learn from past experience that such openhanded provision or policy has been overly abused, which has cost the CNMI hundreds of thousands of dollars or more,” Taisakan noted.

He also questioned the lack of explanation on the functions of the deputy administrators, by the mayors of the respective senatorial district.

Such responsibilities will fall directly under the political supervision and management of the mayors, he said.

He also said that since the funding for the deputy administrator’s position for the first and second district will be source from DPL’s operations bank account, such withdrawal should be authorized only for such purpose.

But since this concern is not addressed in the proposed measure, such funds, he said, may be subject to abuse.

He said the CNMI could not afford to allow a separate land management policy to be established and managed by individual senatorial districts.