Saipan Mayor’s Office resorts to multitasking, cost-cutting

The Saipan Mayor’s Office is enforcing a multi-tasking policy for all its employees so it could sustain the municipality’s operations until the end of fiscal year in September.

From the previous 64 personnel assigned at the mayor’s office, only 34 employees are now left to work for Mayor Donald Flores, who took over from Juan B. Tudela in 2009.

Despite the significant cuts in personnel, Fiscal and budget officer Terri Camacho said the office has managed to retain all its programs and community projects. Multi-tasking and volunteerism, she said, is key to the continuous survival of these programs.

She disclosed that the mayor’s office has been allocated a minimal budget of just over $900,000 for fiscal year 2011. Of that amount, over $800,000 is allocated for personnel wages; only about $125,000 is left for the municipality’s operations.

The meager allocation even went down in the middle of the fiscal year when the administration implemented a 7.6 percent across-the-board cut in all agencies’ budget starting in April 2011. Camacho said this meant a reduction of about $90,000 from the mayor’s office allotments until the end of the fiscal year.

She said that constant meetings with staffers also help the municipality survive because employees are made to understand the situation.

Camacho, who also helps with some clerical and administrative work for the Saipan Higher Education Financial Assistance, said all employees are doing more than their share of work, free of charge.

SHEFA is a scholarship program administered by the Saipan Mayor’s Office. Because of budget constraint, its administrator, Henry Hofschneider, is also being paid under the mayor’s office personnel account.

Camacho expects a more challenging year for the municipality starting October this year. The CNMI government projects revenue to reach just $102 million in fiscal year 2012.

Aside from freeze hiring, travel bans, and multi-tasking, the municipality is also enforcing other aggressive cost-cutting measures such as minimizing gas expenses and office supplies. It also conducts regular maintenance of its vehicles and other property to save on rental expenses such as heavy equipment.

Since Flores assumed office, Camacho said the municipality also eliminated the hiring of in-house counsel and consultants. The office taps legal services on a case-by-case basis.