PBDC in jeopardy • Executive director quits By Al Hulsen

HONOLULU, Hawai’i —The future of the Hawai’i-based Pacific Basin Development Council (PBDC) is in jeopardy because of funding woes, apparent waning interest on the part of its directors and the loss of staff.

This week Executive Director Jerry B. Norris, who earlier had cut his work hours and salary to half-time, announced that he would resign effective November 15.

The council was organized in 1978 and incorporated in 1980 with the goal of supporting cooperation and development among four U.S. jurisdictions in the Pacific –– American Samoa and Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the State of Hawai’i.

Recently, PBDC assisted the U.S. Office of Insular Affairs in conducting a census of immigrants from the Freely Associated States — the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau — who now live in Hawai’i and the U.S. Pacific territories.

The census results were used to help determine the impact of Micronesian migration on U.S. health, education and other social services. Under Compacts of Free Association, citizens of the three Micronesian areas are permitted unlimited immigration into the United States.

Norris, in a copy of a letter of resignation obtained by the Pacific Islands Report to the PBDC President, Guam Governor Carl T. C. Gutierrez; Vice President Tauese P. Sunia, Governor of American Samoa; and Secretary/Treasurer Pedro P. Tenorio, Governor of the CNMI, said, “The lack of funding from the members, the lack of semi-annual board meetings, and the continued ‘rumors’ of disbanding, cutting back, redirecting, relocating or bringing in additional members of the Board, has made it difficult to maintain staff morale.”

Norris said, “It has been a tremendously emotional time, and other PBDC staff have personally and professionally suffered.

Several years ago, Hawai’i Governor Benjamin Cayatano elected to withdraw from the Council, having concluded that other priorities merited the annual dues previously expended by Hawai’i on PBDC activities.

Following Hawaii’s departure, the Council’s work was devoted primarily to the economic and social development of the American Flagged Pacific Islands territories.

Norris, in a telephone interview, said collecting dues from the three members in recent years had been difficult, resulting in a period of unpaid bills and the necessity to lay off staff.

“We couldn’t get the governors to do anything,” he said.

The organization now is debt-free, he noted, but will be without any paid employees when he departs November 15.

Norris said former Director of Programs and Planning, Carolyn Imamura, had agreed to assume responsibilities for PBDC assets on a voluntary basis, while the board member-governors determine the organization’s future role.

In his resignation letter, he said he hoped the governors would “redirect the organization to new levels of success.”