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SNIMC reports first 100 days
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Posted on Apr 27 2000
Success in securing an increased budget for Fiscal Year 2000 is only one of the 6th Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council’s many accomplishments since it first convened on January 10, 2000, an SMC 100 days progress report disclosed.
From $178,557 in FY 1999, SMC’s budget rose to $313,113 for FY 2000.
SMC leaders, in its report, also boasted of its success in making possible Municipal Council members to be legally compensated for attending regular/special meetings.
The council’s efforts at lobbying for a permanent site for the Saipan Cockpit facility also materialized, as the Division of Public Lands recently identified a 5,000 sq. meter public land for the proposed gaming facility.
In addition, SMC was able to develop a personnel and legislative handbook less than six months from its installation.
The council recently made official the handbook’s implementation among its staff.
In an effort to address the SMC site and structural problems, a collaboration with the Mayor’s office, the Department of Public Works, Commonwealth Utilities Corporation, and Northern Marianas College-Agriculture and Life Science Extension Programs has been reached.
Furthermore, the council was also instrumental in enacting significant resolutions aimed at improving SMC’s functions.
One of its pressing goals is to see the passage of a house bill granting municipal councils on Rota, Tinian, and Saipan the authority to legislate municipal ordinances affecting local matters not pre-empted by the Legislature.
It also aims to support legislation abolishing legislative delegations and transferring its existing authority to elected municipal council members on all three islands.
The Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council was established when the NMI 3rd Senatorial District voted for its creation in the 1997 general elections.
