In an expected outcry, the Department of Public Lands is vehemently opposing a House bill that would abolish the department and replace it with a body outside of the Executive Branch\u2014countering allegations that they say has misinformed the genesis of the bill.<\/p>\n
House Bill 19-89 wants to abolish Public Lands\u2014due to perceived failures in DPL\u2019s management\u2014and replace it with a Marianas Land Corporation with a board of trustees who would manage and control public lands in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
In a letter Monday to House lawmakers signed by acting DPL secretary Patricia Rasa, she said DPL is meeting its constitutional, statutory, and fiduciary duties and mandates.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no need to reinvent the wheel, or to create the additional bureaucracy and expense of a governing board,\u201d said Rasa in the letter. \u201cManagement of public lands is an executive function, and I respectfully request that the Legislature defer to the governor in doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n
The House bill complains that DPL has been operating and making independent decisions on public lands without the presence, input, and advice of an advisory board, as mandated by the public law that created DPL.<\/p>\n
Rasa said this concern is based on a misconception. She said the only specific topics that the DPL secretary is required to consult with the advisory board are a comprehensive land use plan and adoption of any homestead program.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the secretary and the secretary alone who by law has been placed as fiduciary over public lands,\u201d said Rasa.<\/p>\n
Pete A. Tenorio is DPL secretary.<\/p>\n
Rasa said the absence of a board does not hinder Tenorio in his responsibilities.<\/p>\n
Further, DPL should not be made out to be the villain for something it has no control over\u2014the absence of an advisory board, Rasa said, adding that they are powerless to establish one because the governor and the CNMI mayors appoint its members.<\/p>\n
The DPL secretary has, in fact, repeatedly requested these appointments, she said, and the final member needed to launch the board is the governor\u2019s appointee.<\/p>\n
DPL\u2019s pot of gold<\/strong><\/p>\n Some House lawmakers have recently criticized DPL for depositing lease revenues in time certificate deposits, calling these accounts a \u201cpot of gold\u201d that should be rightfully remitted to the Marianas Public Land Trust as mandated by law.<\/p>\n However, Rasa said Monday that the accounts were \u201cappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n DPL, she explained, collects security deposits from its lessees and must return these funds with interests when leases expire, or in cases when development or improvement mandated by the lease is completed.<\/p>\n She confirmed that these funds are held in term certificates of deposit and are not invested by MPLT, but this was appropriate, given they must separate these deposits from trust funds and make sure the funds are protected and not \u201ccomingled\u201d with other funds.<\/p>\n She said certain funds are on deposit with Bank of Saipan and have been since 2004.<\/p>\n She said withdrawal of these funds are restricted as they are subjected to \u201cDepositary and Non Withdrawal Agreement\u201d stemming from the bank\u2019s receivership issues in August 2004.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Department of Public Lands inherited these problematic accounts from its predecessor, [Marianas Public Lands Authority], and thus should not be criticized for their existence,\u201d Rasa said. \u201cWe are making periodic withdrawals as permitted by our agreement, and such funds are then remitted to MPLT as mandated by the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n Inconsistent lease policy<\/strong><\/p>\n House lawmakers have also raised issue with what they describe as DPL\u2019s \u201cinconsistent treatment\u201d of Kan Pacific Saipan, the owner of Mariana Resort & Spa lands\u2014which are currently out for bid\u2014calling the decision to seek competitive bids a complete change in policy and appears to accommodate new investors while sacrificing those that have been loyal and long term partners for years.<\/p>\n Kan Pacific itself\u2014in a letter to DPL in October\u2014reminded Tenorio of a timeline of negotiations between himself and the hotel for an extension of their lease, which happened to suffer \u201capparent interruption,\u201d blamed on Best Sunshine International Ltd.\u2019s pursuit of these properties.<\/p>\n Rasa, in her letter, admits that there have been inconsistencies in DPL\u2019s approach in the past. However, she defends Tenorio, saying he has made great strides to normalize the management of public lands.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the past 12 months [Tenorio] has tasked his staff to develop regulations governing the temporary and long-term use of public lands,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The regulations, she said, have been formalized, proposed, and published in the Commonwealth Register in November.<\/p>\n The proposed regulations include underwriting standards for commercial leases; regulating all uses and providing an enforcement mechanism to ensure compliance with standardized lease terms; ensuring that DPL receives a portion of revenue generated by all lessees of public lands; and establishing a minimum annual rent of 5 percent of market value of the lease property, among others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In an expected outcry, the Department of Public Lands is vehemently opposing a House bill…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[175,194,161,2331],"class_list":["post-216281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-dpl","tag-house-bill","tag-mplt","tag-public-lands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216281","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}