CUC board already constitutes quorum

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board is almost complete.

Five members are already in place and only two more vacancies needs to be filled up. That already constitutes a quorum and empowers them to meet—their first.

According to CUC executive director Gary Camacho, the board’s first meeting will happen within this month.

“The governor asked if we could meet after Thanksgiving, so I am presuming that a final schedule will be out a week after. This will be confirmed, depending on the schedule that is convenient for the new board to meet,” he said.

As of now, the board has no structure yet. The first meeting would most likely involve an election among members to determine the officers like board chair and committee heads.

“We are looking forward to working with all of them. I am personally happy to have the body back together again,” Camacho said.

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres earlier asked the entire CUC board to resign after it approved a controversial deal to purchase an engine. The board later cancelled the project.

Since May, the administration has been looking to reconstitute the CUC board.

Camacho said it is important for the board to emphasize transparency.

“We need the board’s leadership as CUC is a very complex and sophisticated program where it’s very dynamic and a lot of variables are involved. We owe it to the stakeholders to be open and transparent.

“As executive director, I am here to support the board in what they want and the direction that they feel that the utilities must go. We are looking forward to working with the board and making it a better corporation for consumers,” he added.

Although no board was in place, CUC has managed to do its job. “I believe we stayed the course and are going in the direction that we need to go and I tip my hat to every employee within CUC. As executive director, I am the messenger of the hard work that each individual in CUC put in a day-to-day basis to provide services,” Camacho said.

“The overall objective of any utility is not only to serve and satisfy the consumer but also try to bring our utilities into a modern infrastructure, technologies and approaches to many of our areas to address and embrace the environment’s sustainability,” Camacho added.

CUC is doing better but Camacho said it still has a long way to go.

“Everyone in CUC are excited to embrace the new board. As for the vacancies, I understand that the administration is working on that and that will be resolved at some point soon,” he said.

The current CUC board members are Weston Deleon Guerrero and Matthew Holley, who were sworn to office last Wednesday; Jovito Paulino representing Tinian; Miranda San Nicolas-Manglona representing Rota; and Ignacio Perez, the Commonwealth Development Authority’s representative.