Council makes it happen via strategic networking

The first ever women-majority leadership in the 9th Saipan & Northern Islands Municipal Council is applying creative strategy when it comes to working with a bare-bone budget in carrying out its mandates as provided in the CNMI Constitution, statutes, and existing municipal ordinances adopted by agencies of local government.

The office of the mayor and municipal council are the only two agencies established by the NMI Constitution.

The council’s formula: strategic networking.

Since the creation of the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council in 1987, the Council has faced multiple challenges in dealing with municipal-level issues. Not only has the council been saddled by under-budgeting, but the lack of specific jurisdiction over which its municipal authority is vested in adopting local ordinances has been in a stalemate for the past 26 years.

The constitution requires the Legislature to define and delineate the local matters that agencies of local government (i.e., municipal council) adopt through local ordinances. The Legislature has yet to act on this specific provision of the Constitution since the creation of the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council in 1987.

Consequently, the ability of the municipal council on Saipan & the Northern Islands, Tinian and Rota to directly and timely address the needs, challenges and expectations of the local municipalities is scuttled by the impasse.

Meanwhile, the people’s needs and interests in villages, hamlets, farm sites, and the district community continue unabated.

Undeterred by under-budgeting and legislative inaction on the subject matter for local ordinances, the leadership trio of the 9th Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council—consisting of chairwoman Marian Tudela, vice chairwoman Antonia M. Tudela and Council secretary Angel S. Hocog—are nonetheless making headways in off-island medical attention and care, municipal college assistance, inter-island cultural exchange programs and inter-island municipal governance.

Earlier this year the council leadership aligned with the Office of Saipan Mayor Juan B. Tudela in seeking the support of Guam Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo and the CNMI’s Office of Washington Representative and successfully petitioned the two representatives in Washington, D.C. to include the Northern Marianas and Guam in the Medicare beneficiaries for medical attention and care outside of the CNMI.

As a result of the initiative, residents of the Northern Marianas and Guam who were previously denied the use of Medicare benefits for medical attention and care in foreign countries pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 1395f(f), otherwise found in section 1814(f) of the Social Security Act, can now avail of this valuable benefit.

Section 1814(f)(2) of the Act “permits payment to be made to a foreign hospital for emergency inpatient services provided to a beneficiary where the beneficiary was present in the United States at the time the emergency that necessitate the inpatient hospital services occurred and the hospital outside the U.S. was closer to, or substantially more accessible from, the place where the emergency arose than the nearest adequately equipped hospital within the U.S.”

Section 1814(f) of the Social Security Act includes Guam and the Northern Marianas in the definition of the United States inclusive of the 50 states, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Simple, straightforward and inexpensive, the 9th Council leadership preferred using this time-tested approach, and not waste time over semantics in advancing its constitutionally delegated and implied power and authority of the council to adopt local ordinances as an agency of local government established in the constitution.

Still, the council leadership plans on holding open forums with the legislative leadership of House Speaker Oscar Babauta and Saipan Delegation chair Sen. Pete Reyes. The council also plans on inviting Saipan Mayor Juan B. Tudela and Northern Islands Mayor Valentin Taisakan in the coming months to map out a system of local governance directed in the constitution to be adopted by agencies of local government at the respective municipalities of Saipan and Northern Islands, Tinian and Rota.

The 9th council discussed the subject with their counterparts from Tinian and Rota while in Guam for the 14th General Assembly of the Association of Mariana Islands Mayors & Municipal Councils on Oct. 20. The three island councils have agreed to pursue the matter with their respective legislative delegations.

One of the high point at the Guam summit was the adoption of AMIMM’s guidelines and criteria for the association’s first postsecondary scholarship. The youths of Saipan, Tinian, Rota and Guam are the primary beneficiaries of the program and will soon compete for the AMIM scholarship. The scholarship funds will be used for postsecondary education expenses while in college on Saipan, Guam or elsewhere. Each island entity will screen and make the scholarship award based on the AMIM criteria and guidelines.

It is anticipated that the program could begin receiving applications for the Fall 2007 term, if not earlier upon the completion of the application forms and procedures.

The AMIM organization consists of the island mayors of Guam, the CNMI, and the respective municipal councils of Saipan and the Northern Islands, Tinian and Rota.

In addition to the AMIM scholarship, the NMI group also took part in AMIM’s round table discussions in the four standing committees they are members of.

The committee membership in the Socio-Cultural Committee includes Saipan Council Chair Marian Tudela with jurisdiction over the AMIM scholarship and exchange program, among others. Council Vice Chair Antonia M. Tudela seats on the Environmental and Natural Reources Committee which deals with municipal level concerns for the preservation and protection of the islands fragile land and ocean resources, including issues on the islands exclusive economic zone. Council Secretary Angel Hocog, on the other hand, seats on the Economic Development Committee with a particular focus on the islands’ premiere income generating tourist industry and municipal level revenue generating projects and activities.

The 14th AMIM General Assembly also finalized work on the association’s inter-island cultural and educational exchange project for students, senior citizens, local artists and crafts and goodwill games and competitive sports programs.

The council leadership is considering an invitation to join a regional alliance league of mayors, municipal council and other elected officials from Guam, the Philippines and the Northern Marianas. This invitation comes on the heels of the council leadership combining forces with Saipan Mayor Tudela in the mayor’s project destination enhancement with Japan, in which the mayor and council members recently returned from Aizu Wakamatsu City in Japan for the formal signing ceremony of the first ever amicable city agreement between the city and the Saipan municipality. Aizu is the birthplace of Haruji Matsue, for whom Sugar King was named after, located adjacent to the Garapan Central Park. Also under construction at the Sugar King Estate is phase 1 of a three-phase capital improvement project at the estate ground by the mayor and council.

On the 20th of this month, Saipan will witness another formal signing ceremony of amicable city agreement between the municipality and the City of Noboribetsu in Japan, part of an on-going effort by the mayor and the council leadership in enhancing the destination appeal of Saipan for tourists, investment and business for both off-island interests and residents.
[B] Exchange programs[/B]

The council leadership met with Guam mayor of Barrigada Jessie B. Palican last Oct. 27 on Saipan to discuss the upcoming Northern Youth Basketball Association Invitational Tournament. The competitive tournament will be held at Saipan’s Ada Gym during the Thanksgiving week of November 19-25.
The council members last Friday pledged its full support behind AMIM’s inter-island exchange program involving the island youths, and also committed to hosting an event for the visiting youths from Guam, Tinian, and Rota together with the home team from Saipan next month for the Saipan invitational game.

Engaging in strategic networking has so far worked well for the 9th municipal leadership trio. The council will soon unveil other community projects that are designed to benefit the community and residents of Saipan and the Northern Islands.

Meanwhile, the council is poised to complete its annual cycle of regular sessions this month, when the leadership plans on tackling a neighborhood watch municipal bill for action by Saipan Mayor Juan B. Tudela. [B][I](PR)
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