By a separate vote of 8-0, the Senate confirmed the governor\u2019s appointments of Larrisa Larson as Department of Finance secretary and Ray Mafnas as Department of Public Safety commissioner during a session witnessed by a crowd mostly of local law enforcement officers from different agencies.<\/p>\n
But Mafnas said his confirmation is \u201cbittersweet,\u201d referring to the challenging search for missing sisters Faloma and Maleina Luhk, who have been missing since May 25. He said as of yesterday afternoon, the sisters have yet to be found.<\/p>\n
Mafnas, in an interview with reporters, said he welcomes those who question his credibility and qualifications to meet with him so he could show them proof that he was honorably discharged from the Marines and that he was acquitted in a case involving assault of a teacher.<\/p>\n
He also told Saipan Tribune that the Department of Public Safety will undergo \u201creorganization\u201d to make it more efficient, among other things. <\/p>\n
He said this is separate from the planned merger of DPS and the Department of Corrections, which he used to lead.<\/p>\n
The Senate also confirmed the nomination of Ignacio Perez to serve on the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission. The House also needs to confirm his nomination.<\/p>\n
Only seven senators initially voted \u201cyes\u201d to adopt a committee report recommending Mafnas\u2019s confirmation, because Senate floor leader Pete Reyes (R-Saipan) abstained from voting. <\/p>\n
Reyes told his colleagues that Mafnas is his brother-in-law so he didn\u2019t vote. Only Sen. Juan Ayuyu (Ind-Rota) was absent from the session.<\/p>\n
But Reyes later changed his vote to \u201cyes\u201d after Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) said the relationship is \u201cnot so direct,\u201d and after legal counsel Matthew Meyer said it would be up to the senator\u2019s conscience.<\/p>\n
The crowd at the gallery and chamber applauded when Mafnas and Larson were confirmed. Both thanked the governor and lieutenant governor for believing in them.<\/p>\n
Larson later said \u201cwe have a long and difficult road ahead of us.\u201d <\/p>\n
She said one of the major tasks is to prioritize the use of limited funding available, and this includes timely payment of vendors especially in programs and projects funded by the federal government, and making timely payroll.<\/p>\n
Sen. Frank Cruz (R-Tinian), chairman of the Senate Committee on Executive Appointments and Governmental Investigations, said they did not receive opposition to Mafnas and Larson\u2019s appointments and confirmation.<\/p>\n
The Fitial administration had said the two posts are very critical and difficult to fill, \u201cso we definitely would like to secure the confirmation of these nominations,\u201d press secretary Angel Demapan said.<\/p>\n
Larson\u2019s confirmation came barely six days after the Senate held a public hearing on her nomination as Finance secretary. The Senate held a public hearing on Mafnas\u2019 nomination on May 2.<\/p>\n
Mafnas, a former commissioner of the Department of Corrections, also served as Gov. Benigno R. Fitial\u2019s senior policy advisor. Larson, meanwhile, worked at the Northern Marianas College, the Office of the Public Auditor, and the Office of the Lieutenant Governor. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s no schedule yet when Mafnas and Larson will be sworn in by the governor. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By a separate vote of 8-0, the Senate confirmed the governor\u2019s appointments of Larrisa Larson as Department of Finance secretary and Ray Mafnas as Department of Public Safety commissioner during a session witnessed by a crowd mostly of local law enforcement officers from different agencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}