Brad Ruszala will be officially separating with the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. on Monday after its board of directors abolished its public information office in January. <\/p>\n
Ruszala, who has been with CUC less than a year but has played a vital role in the aftermath Typhoon Soudelor, thanked the public for the opportunity to serve them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am and will forever be grateful to the people of the CNMI for the love and support they provided our team during the Typhoon Soudelor recovery efforts\u2026It was indeed and honor and a privilege to serve our community as the public information officer for the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.,\u201d Ruszala said. <\/p>\n
He added that the experience was one of the most rewarding experiences he\u2019s had in his 12 years as a communications professional in the Marianas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never fully appreciated the power of communications until serving our people as CUC\u2019s public information officer. Knowing that my job made a difference in my community provided me with the fuel I needed to get through the most challenging times,\u201d Ruszala said.<\/p>\n
Since serving as PIO last April, Ruszala said his greatest contribution to the corporation was to put a face on the \u201cdedicated and hardworking team\u201d of CUC.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal was to put a face, or rather faces, to the corporation so the people of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota could better appreciate the efforts of the men and women who work around the clock during the most dangerous conditions,\u201d Ruszala said, \u201cHaving someone in the field to document their efforts showed our customers just how courageous and dedicated our employees are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conflict of interest?<\/strong> However, an instance prior to Ruszala\u2019s hiring showed one of the board members\u2019 \u201cdeep personal bias against\u201d him and \u201ca potential conflict of interest in his handling of the matter.\u201d <\/p>\n This was shown in a memorandum dated Mar. 2, 2015, when Ruszala was just a candidate for the PIO position. <\/p>\n Then executive director Alan Fletcher wrote to the board \u201ca matter regarding the reported conduct of CUC board director Eric San Nicolas in regards to a human resources matter.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was reported to me last week by Frankie Cepeda, Human Resources Manager, on Friday, February 20, 2015, Director San Nicolas made a threat against a job applicant for the Public Information Officer position,\u201d Fletcher said in the memo.<\/p>\n The memo further states that San Nicolas conversed with Cepeda in Chamorro saying that \u201cif I (Director San Nicolas) had a gun I\u2019d shoot him, I am serious I am not kidding\u201d and that \u201che will not be hired.\u201d<\/p>\n When the board brought up the abolishment of the PIO position in Jan. 25, it was San Nicolas who seconded the motion to abolish made by director Albert Taitano.<\/p>\n With Ruszala\u2019s position being abolished after four yeses from chair Adelina Roberto, San Nicolas, and directors Taitano and Diego Songao, the responsibility to disseminate information to the public now rests with the office of the executive director, currently being headed by Gary Camacho in his acting capacity.<\/p>\n Added responsibility<\/strong> Camacho himself shared that they have a lot of work going on at CUC right now.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got a lot of work to do right now. We have maintenance for water, we\u2019re coming out of the Typhoon Soudelor recovery program and then we\u2019re doing a lot of the internal, financial submittals for FEMA for reimbursement and we\u2019re trying to prepare apprenticeship program, staff development programs,\u201d Camacho said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to make necessary adjustments, I think the staffing will,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cGary Camacho oversaw the complete rebuilding of our island\u2019s power transmission and distribution system from scratch in the aftermath of Typhoon Soudelor. He knows our utility, he knows our people, and he\u2019s a proven problem-solver. I learned a lot from him in the past year and I wish him the best,\u201d Ruszala said. <\/p>\n Ruszala only hopes that CUC would be transparent to giving information to the public.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a loyal, bill-paying CUC customer for the past 13 years, I hope our public corporation continues to embrace a transparent approach to the flow of information to our community. CUC is not a private business and the community is entitled to know what\u2019s happening with their utility,\u201d Ruszala said.<\/p>\n With his separation from CUC, Ruszala said his immediate plan would be to spend more time with his family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brad Ruszala will be officially separating with the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. on Monday after its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,1421,9950,6333],"class_list":["post-221793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cuc","tag-eric-san-nicolas","tag-ruszala-it","tag-typhoon-soudelor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221793","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\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRuszala declined to comment when asked if he saw the removal of his position as the board\u2019s intention to fire him.<\/p>\n
\nAsked if he can handle the added responsibility, Camacho said, \u201cFirst of all, the board made a decision, we have to move forward. There was a certain period of time when managers and along with my position, my current position, would take on that responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n