Amendment on $300K grant for youth centers opposed

A $300,000 local grant for all youth centers in the CNMI was finally appropriated to the Youth Affairs Office but not before a lawmaker proposed an amendment requiring the equal distribution of the funding to all nine youth centers.

Special Assistant for Youth Affairs Florence Kirby said she was disappointed by the amendment submitted by Rep. Justo S. Quitugua.

She said that, in the first place, it is preposterous to divide the money equally among the different youth organizations because each organization has unique needs.

Kirby also said there are newly formed youth centers that will soon operate in the Commonwealth, and not including them on the list of beneficiaries would discourage the proponents of the centers.

She said there are also youth centers that have been established and know exactly how much funding they need for their daily operations.

House Bill 14-62 was submitted by Quitugua to amend Section 1 of Local Law 14-18, equally distributing the grant to the Garapan Learning Center, San Antonio Manhoben Center, Kagman Community Center, Tanapag Youth Center, Mayor Youth Learning Center, Karidat Teen Center, Gualo Rai Community Center, As Matius Learning Center and Koblerville Learning Center in the third senatorial district. The bill did not mention nor appropriate funding for another youth center, Youth with a Mission.

Kirby received the copy of the proposed bill last Monday and immediately called Rep. Arnold Palacios, one of the authors of Local No. 14-18. Palacios told her not to worry about it.

According to Kirby, Palacios assured her that Quitugua’s amendment would have a hard time getting passed.

Only after talking to Palacios did she decide not to forward a letter to Quitugua, which she composed shortly after reading the copy of the amendment.

Kirby, together with some youth centers representatives, went up to Capitol Hill last Thursday to follow up on the proposed amendment.

She said they met with authors of the public law, Reps. Joseph Deleon Guerrero, Ray Tebuteb, and Arnold Palacios. The congressmen assured them they would not support the amendment.

She said the legislators who enacted the public law appropriating the amount also made a mistake by putting “Special Assistant to Youth Services Office” instead of “Youth Affairs.” She said the Legislature finally fixed the mistake on the law Friday.

Kirby said the money granted them would come from the Marianas Public Lands Authority through the landing fees on Managaha Island.

She said that as of the moment, her office is submitting purchasing requests for office supplies of all youth centers. She also is also seeking to acquire 10 desktop computers for each youth center for the youth community to use for their school projects and homework.

The office is also gearing up for this years’ Summer Camp, which she said would ensure lots of fun activities for the youth of the CNMI.