Flashback September 30, 1999

[B]September 30, 1999

PSS to release retirement bonus[/B]

The Public School System will begin cutting checks for the retirement bonus of 37 PSS employees whose cash benefits have been withheld since December due to funding problem, education officials said yesterday. The Board of Education has approved Commissioner Rita Inos’ move to reduce funding for different PSS programs in order to raise $525,000 in retirement obligation.

[B]Resumption of Korean Air service still uncertain[/B]

An official of Korea’s Civil Aviation Bureau has informed Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio that the resumption of Korean Air’s service to Saipan will depend on the results of the investigation on the airline’s 1997 tragic crash in Guam. According to Sung-Ho Yang, director general for international affairs of CAB of the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, the outcome of the probe conducted by the U.S. Transportation and Safety Board will be made public next month.

[B]September 30, 2002

“No Tinian, Rota reorganization'[/B]

Saying he is finished with personnel termination or reorganization, Northern Marianas College president Kenneth Wright said he has no plans to undertake a similar move on NMC’s satellite campuses on Tinian and Rota. “If you’re asking me do I plan a reorganization that’s going to affect personnel there? absolutely not. I’m done with reorganizing as it impacts people as dramatically [as it has here],” he said in an interview Friday. “I’m not coming back to do that,” he added.

[B]CHC’s staffing contracts may be extended for 3 more months[/B]

The one-year extension given by the government last year to three staffing agencies that supply nurses to the Commonwealth Health Center may be further extended for at least three more months pending protests by two bidders. The one-year extension, which was authorized by the Department of Health, expires today. But this would not happen because the Procurement and Supply Office has not awarded new bids yet.

[B]Wright to overhaul BoR policies too[/B]

To achieve maximum organizational change, Northern Marianas College board policies have to be reviewed and overhauled, too, in relation to the recent reorganization at the college, according to NMC President Kenneth Wright. Wright said he and the members of the Board of Regents have agreed on the issue. “it covers the whole board policy…I discussed it with the board and they agreed that we’re going to discard all the existing board policies and start building from the ground up,” he said. Wright said it would be done “step by step.”

[B]September 30, 2003

Reluctant House passes FY04 budget[/B]

The Senate majority’s unyielding position against a conference committee prompted the House yesterday to reinstate the Upper House’s amendments to the $213.95 million FY04 budget bill—essentially slashing over $900,000 from Rota’s allotment. Backed into a corner, 17 House members agreed to recall the action they made Friday, when they decided to send House Bill 13-335, HD3, SD3 to a conference committee in hopes of renegotiating the cuts made on Rota’s budget. The amount cut from Rota was given to Tinian.

[B]Mayor condemns action on budget[/B]

Rota Mayor Benjamin B. Manglona condemned yesterday the Legislature’s decision to take away close to $1 million from the First Senatorial District under the proposed FY04 budget, branding the move as an “action of the devil.” The Rota official, reacting to the House’s passage of the Senate-amended House Bill 13-335, accused the Legislature, especially Saipan and Tinian lawmakers, of promoting disunity among the Commonwealth senatorial districts.

[B]Hotel told to shut down its generator[/B]

The Coastal Resources Management issued a notice yesterday to Plumeria Hotel, practically demanding that it shut down its generator and immediately hook up with the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. for its power needs. In a notice addressed to Plumeria Hotel general manager Toshiyuki Kobayashi, CRM director Jack Salas said the hotel’s power generator “has created adverse environmental impacts” during the past two years.