CPA approves contract renewal of airport, seaport managers

The Commonwealth Ports Authority board has renewed the job contracts of Saipan airport and seaport managers with no changes in their salaries. It also approved the immediate hiring of 14 other positions for Commonwealth airports and seaports.

CPA executive director Edward Deleon Guerrero recommended the renewal of contracts for Saipan airport manager Ed Mendiola and seaport manager MaryAnn Lizama, both longtime employees of the ports agency. Their contracts expired on Oct. 26 this year. The board offered them the same salaries of $55,000 per annum.

Deleon Guerrero said that both Mendiola and Lizama are outstanding employees. “These people have been with CPA for a long time and are very knowledgeable in what needs to be done in their respective areas,” he said.

The board also approved the immediate announcement of 14 positions for CPA, including the procurement officer post, which a new position. Deleon Guerrero said 13 of these vacant slots are replacements for employees who either retired or resigned last fiscal year.

“Even if we recruit these positions, we will remain at 198 employees because they are all replacements except for the procurement officer,” he said after Thursday’s board meeting.

Despite some financial challenges, he said that CPA is committed to an 80-hour biweekly work schedule for all employees until the end of fiscal year 2012 on Sept. 30 next year.

The agency has been enforcing internal austerity measures that include a hiring freeze on new positions, a ban on off-island travels, energy conservation, and keeping 30 positions vacant. It has an approved 228 FTEs, of which only 198 are occupied for two years now. These vacant positions will not be provided a replacement, unless the management classifies the post as critical to its operation.

CPA is an autonomous agency that operates using its own revenues, while majority of its programs receive funding from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Meantime, CPA is also working on revising the agency’s existing procurement and personnel regulation to come up with a unified bylaw that would cover both local and federal requirements.

According to CPA legal counsel Robert Torres, work on the revision of personnel rules and regulations are underway and he targets the end of the year to complete the draft. Torres is targeting full presentation to the board by early next year.

In his report to the board Thursday, Torres said they are now reviewing the existing CPA rules section by section.