Reyes is new SNILD chair

Saipan lawmakers yesterday voted Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes as new chair of the local legislative delegation until 2002, replacing Rep. Heinz S. Hofschneider who assumed the post for the past two years.

Rep. David M. Apatang is the new vice chair and Rep. Brigida Ichihara, floor leader of the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation.

Mr. Reyes vowed to seek ways to empower the Saipan municipal council to appropriate local revenues for various programs, saying that it should work together with the mayor’s office.

At the same time, he will try to resolve the problems that have delayed completion of the street naming project, such as identifying funds necessary to implement the program.

“We like to move a lot of things. We need to look at some of the revenues that we collect under the Saipan legislative delegation so we can address the municipal council’s request for funding,” the SNILD chair told in an interview after the brief organizational session.

The 19-member local delegation also hopes to help the mayor’s office in the delivery of services to Saipan and Northern Islands residents.

Mr. Reyes underscored, however, the need to transfer most of SNILD’s functions to the municipal council as he noted that they don’t have enough power to take care of local matters, like appropriation of revenues.

“I’d like to see that they are empowered. I don’t mind losing my job as chairman when the responsibility is turned over to the municipal council,” he explained. “This is the direction we should look at so that we can give them more authority to legislate.”

Mr. Reyes stressed also that the street naming project will be given immediate attention after the previous delegation failed to settle differences on several issues, such as funding and the names to be used.

“We need to move forward with that. I don’t know whether there is funding, but we need to look at it, but I think we should carry on the work of the former chair to complete the programs that he has identified,” he said.

Street naming for Saipan has been hampered by bureaucratic problems over the last 10 years and the task has yet been completed despite creation of the commission in 1997.

Saipan Mayor Jose C. Sablan has said that his office will require close to $2 million to purchase equipment and put up the sign posts in order to complete the project.

Both the Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Post Office have urged the local government to hasten its completion, citing the need to locate streets for easy access and identification.