Senator backs abolition of municipal councils

If the functions of municipal councils will remain unchanged, they are better off being abolished and have the mayors’ offices empowered instead, according to Senate President Joaquin G. Adriano.

He agreed with what he termed as “people’s observations” that municipal councils do nothing else but issue resolutions recognizing achievements of people in the community.

“There’s so much resolutions and no solutions,” quipped Adriano yesterday. “So to me, you better empower them or totally abolish them because there’s nothing there.”

Adriano favors a further review and analysis of the pending bill at the House of Representatives that aims to expand the authority of municipal councils. He said the entire municipal government’s functions need to be reviewed.

“We should go back and take a look at the system of all this municipalities. How much power must be placed in each municipal government, such as the mayor’s office and the municipal councils?” asked Adriano.

The House deferred action on House Legislative Initiative 14-4, which seeks to grant municipal councils lawmaking authority, after it met scathing criticism from minority member Rep. Heinz S. Hofschneider, who thinks that such a proposal is worse than the controversial 80/20 initiative, which would have allowed each senatorial district to keep 80 percent of its income and remit only 20 percent of it to the CNMI Treasury.

Hofschneider said that, by passing HLI 14-4 as it is, the Legislature is giving municipal councils power to decide on local appropriations and other tax matters.

HLB 14-4 aims to transfer legislative functions from the local legislative delegations and transfer it to the municipal councils.

Each senatorial district—Saipan, Tinian, and Rota—have their own municipal governments, comprised of the mayor’s office and the municipal council.

The proposed initiative, titled Municipal Government Legislative Initiative Act of 2004, amends Article 6 of the Constitution “to treat each chartered municipality form of local governments on an equal basis and to further empower them to pass local laws exclusively on local matters.”

It cites greater local empowerment as necessary in anticipation of the CNMI’s population growth, which would translate to more complex issues to address.

The initiative also gives mayors the power to propose municipal ordinances relating to local matters for enactment by the municipal council. The mayor shall have 30 days to either approve or veto municipal ordinances. Every ordinance enacted by the council shall be signed by the presiding officer of the council and submitted to the mayor for signature.