Council supports decentralization bill
Tinian — Tinian Municipal Council Chair Juanita M. Mendiola expressed support in the decentralization of functions being sought in a certain Senate measure which is now under review.
Historically, the role of legislative delegations was once the purview of municipal councils pre-empted by a constitutional amendment that granted such authority to legislative delegations.
“We’ve missed the very essence of returning government to the people in the long history of contentious bickering over the role of municipal governments,” Ms. Mendiola said.
“In the process, we’ve lost sight of the very essence of where government must reside — in the governance — who deal daily with problems and concerns at the municipal level.”
Ms. Mendiola stressed that returning the legislative delegation’s authority to the municipal level will be better addressed in a legislative initiative.
“It is for this reason that we encourage our legislative leadership to return government to the people via a legislative initiative that would reinstate the legal functions of municipal governments,” she said.
She pointed out that the anomaly created by this specific provision in the constitution relates to the Gaming Commission Law that earmarks some 13 percent of gaming fees to the municipal council here.
“We understand the history that gave rise to the abolition of municipal governments emanating from budgetary concerns of a bloated bureaucracy, but this isn’t a reason to supplant the very essence of leaving government to the people,” Ms. Mendiola noted.
