Guerrero urges CUC board members to set aside their differences

The chairman of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s board of directors said that he had asked for the cooperation of board members during their last meeting, citing the example being set of the CUC management.

Francisco Q. Guerrero said in a statement that he had urged them to take a cue from CUC management and key staff who have demonstrated “the importance of cooperation by volunteering their time to support and assist the management” to improve the lone utilities agency in the Commonwealth.

“I have personally asked and urged each board member to engage in the spirit of cooperation, in setting a policy that will emphasize resolving our differences, solving our problems and cooperatively presenting solutions that will not hamper the delivery of essential utility services to the people of the Commonwealth,” he said.

Guerrero, who took back the helm of the CUC board last month, said he opened up his message by saying: “Last year CUC faced tremendous challenges in our utilities, from the escalation and increase of fuel charges, [to] the destruction of typhoon Pongsona on the island of Rota, not to mention the intermittent interruption of the main power plant outages on Saipan and two most recent typhoons, Tingting and Chaba destruction.”

He thanked the public and government agencies for their patience, and CUC employees “who put all their effort and hard work to assure that the customers receive the utility services expected.”

“It takes commitment from all of us to come to a decision to work together for the good of our valued customer. After all, our customers, our peoples, our islands and our Commonwealth deserve no less,” said Guerrero.

He conceded that there are times during board deliberations and debates that everyone is faced with difficulty in reaching full consensus.

“It saddens me, though, to know that there are times when few members would still choose to divide rather than to unite, and who choose to place adversities in our path rather than to unite with reason and compromise. This attitude is simply something I will not accept. I have expressed myself willingly to work positively and to do all that I can in a very positive manner to ensure that our customers receive the utility services they are entitled to and demand from their public utilities agency,” he said.

Guerrero made a commitment to the administration and the Legislature that in the coming months, CUC will begin to address status review and risk assessment of all the three basic utilities—power, water and wastewater—for Rota, Tinian and Saipan.

“CUC has set a goal to improve the electrical power that meets industry-wide reliability and cost-efficiency standards through privatization; the sewage collections and treatment facilities to protect the public and meet environmental consent orders and discharge permits, and last, to work in improving the water distribution with the…CNMI Water Task Force,” Guerrero said. He serves as vice chair of the task force.

Guerrero ended his message, saying “CUC’s valued customers should expect no less from their public utilities agency and their elected official.”