It was an honor to receive a signed copy of Uncle Dave\u2019s book, A Degree of Success Through Curiosity. Uncle Dave\u2019s book was basically a piece about the family origin (Sablan), his younger pre-war days; experience during the naval administration and the \u201chard days night\u201d as a student in Guam in the mid-\u201950s. Immediately after high school, he started working as a clerk at a shipping firm run by Atkins Kroll Guam.<\/p>\n
Elias P. Sablan was my grandpa, Felix Sablan, great grandpa, and Mariano DelRosario Sablan, great-great grandpa. Mariano was the first appointed governor of these isles during the Spanish era.<\/p>\n
Grandpa Elias served three consecutive four-year terms as mayor of Saipan. His vision of closer U.S. ties came to fruition in what\u2019s our relationship today with the federal government.<\/p>\n
The name Sablan is Hebrew, meaning \u201cto deal with issues\u2026tolerant of others.\u201d DelRosario is simply the rosary. I\u2019m blessed! My great-great grandpa left behind a pedigree of leadership.<\/p>\n
With a humble beginning, Uncle Dave never lost sight of his burning determination to succeed. He\u2019s done banking, established AK here (then Microl Corp.) and led the building of the Saipan Beach Intercontinental Inn (now Fiesta Resort) and founded business and civic organizations like the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and the Saipan Rotary Club.<\/p>\n
For his business acumen, this is one person who could have become a multi-millionaire had he decided to go it alone. But there\u2019s that DNA we\u2019ve picked up from Grandpa Elias P. Sablan, focusing on \u201cservice to others\u201d so they too could see brighter tomorrows. He never ingratiates himself though highly successful in his attainment of pinnacles in his career in private industries.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s one person I can\u2019t compensate for his generosity, grand sense of compassion and mindfulness. He was by my mom\u2019s side when dad died in 1955. Even beyond his golden years I still enjoy his intellectual acuity and even more, his character or intellectual integrity. He\u2019s a godsend and a uniquely blessed Chamolinian.<\/p>\n
Uncle Dave was my beacon light for most of my high school years. He coached me in a speech competition during my freshman year. Won first place and repeated the same feat for the next two years coming out number one, three years in a row!<\/p>\n
Si Yuus Maase, Uncle Dave!<\/p>\n
Trust but verify<\/strong> For instance, last week I wrote about CHC\u2019s need for a financial bailout. Legislators must not rush to judgment. It\u2019s your responsibility to figure out the beast or lead, not pander.<\/p>\n Did CHC submit a balanced budget to the Legislature in the last three fiscal years? Approved or otherwise, was the planned expenditure followed as a matter of accountability following the fiscal blueprint? Now, if the answer is in the affirmative, then how come the hospital is bankrupt?<\/p>\n If the CEO did her own fiscal somersault, what areas were violated (in her balanced budget submission) and by how much? I raise this query based on word of salary promotions rendered to \u201csome\u201d hospital staff while skipping others. If this was ransom to buy loyalty it may have worked.<\/p>\n However, the fiscal somersaulting isn\u2019t an accomplishment but a half-inclusive policy decision. It\u2019s the obvious perversion of fairness against non-recipients who may be victims of salary stagnancy for years. An across-the-board increase would have settled the score peacefully from the outset where everybody\u2019s a happy camper.<\/p>\n A balanced budgetary blueprint doesn\u2019t necessarily leave much room for politicking lest such hasty decision means sacrificing critical programs in the process. For instance, doctors and nurses have learned to work under familiar theme of \u201cno supplies.\u201d This piqued my interest\u2014specifically what supplies aren\u2019t available in the ER, ICU, pediatrics and the regular floor?<\/p>\n You see, the power of the purse rests with the Legislature, not department or agency heads. DPL\u2019s budget is the only constitutionally protected submission from legislative disposition. Everybody else must follow the approved blueprint. Additional funds must undergo supplemental budgetary request and approval.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, CHC is under fiscal life support system now. It can\u2019t even meet its utility bill. Such being the case, it is into deficit spending while pinned down with more debts than its annual revenue collection or funds from upstairs.<\/p>\n More the reason why the board must be given oversight authority so there\u2019s consistent review and evaluation of the CEO\u2019s performance. The goal is the enhancement of services. Let\u2019s end spouting one thing while doing the exact opposite. Accountability is imperative! After all, it\u2019s our tax dollars!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was an honor to receive a signed copy of Uncle Dave\u2019s book, A Degree…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20,56,91,1560],"class_list":["post-193045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-budget","tag-business-3","tag-chc","tag-uncle-dave"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193045","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWhatever you do there\u2019s a measure of confidence in your dealings with others. Though this may be the case it\u2019s always good practice to \u201ctrust but verify.\u201d<\/p>\n