{"id":232712,"date":"2016-07-21T06:06:09","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T20:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=232712"},"modified":"2016-07-21T06:06:09","modified_gmt":"2016-07-20T20:06:09","slug":"time-running-carryover-funds-homestead-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/time-running-carryover-funds-homestead-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Time running out for carryover funds for homestead projects"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Marianne<\/a>
Marianne Teregeyo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Members of the House of Representatives fiscal committee and the Department of Public Lands want Gov. Ralph DLG Torres to approve a \u201ccarryover\u201d of over $800,000 in previous fiscal year funds to finance homestead infrastructure projects that have been on standby on Rota, Tinian, and Saipan.<\/p>\n

DPL, in a budget hearing held by House fiscal chair Rep. Antonio Sablan (Ind-Saipan) and committee members, discussed the request of $893,000 for carryover funds from fiscal year 2015 to FY 2016 yesterday morning.<\/p>\n

DPL Secretary Marianne Teregeyo told lawmakers that they could not approve the funds until the governor \u201cidentified\u201d them in a revenue submission to the Legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had several discussions all in favor,\u201d she told lawmakers on previous meetings with Torres on the issue. \u201cWe\u2019ve talked about it several times\u2026he was alluding that it would be submitted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Angel Demapan (R-Saipan) said it was \u201cdisturbing\u201d that at this point in the budget process that funds would \u201csit idle somewhere\u201d without appropriation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so close to the appropriation process,\u201d without a supplemental budget identifying these resources, he said, referring to ongoing fiscal budget deliberations and action on a budget before the end of the fiscal year in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate to see the projects become stalled for another year because of lack of funding,\u201d Demapan said. <\/p>\n

He urged DPL to reach out to the governor to see if he could identify revenues between now and next week for the projects.<\/p>\n

In a March 23 letter to the governor, Teregeyo said DPL had reassessed its budgetary needs for FY 2016 and determined a need to request to carryover budget appropriations from last fiscal year into this one.<\/p>\n

She notes that DPL had originally intended on submitting a timely request to Torres by October 2015. However, this was not possible due to the recovery phase after Typhoon Soudelor which pushed back some of DPL\u2019s processes, she added.<\/p>\n

Public Law 15-02 mandates DPL to hold sums required \u201cfor approved homesteads or other department programs in the next two fiscal year,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certify that this carryover request will not cause DPL to exceed this threshold,\u201d Teregeyo wrote in the letter. <\/p>\n

The total of $893,000 in carryover funds is divided into $100,000 for Homestead Finafa on Rota, $556,000 for Homestead Marpo Heights on Tinian, $200,000 for Homestead As Gonno on Saipan, and $37,000 for a DPL Compliance division vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026I consider these important to keep DPL\u2019s progress ongoing,\u201d Teregeyo said.<\/p>\n

Sablan wants clarity on Mariana Resort issue<\/p>\n

Fiscal chair Sablan and other lawmakers yesterday also sought clarity from DPL on the reported agreement between the Saipan casino, Imperial Pacific International, and Kan Pacific Saipan Ltd., on transitioning Kan Pacific\u2019s lease of the Mariana Resort and Spa property in Marpi to the casino company.<\/p>\n

IPI last week was issued an \u201cintent to award\u201d from DPL for an open bid for a new lease for these lands. They had earlier announced an agreement between the two companies to transition the lease to the casino, which DPL had argued in court as collusive, forcing a settlement of which DPL said they got $1 million from.<\/p>\n

Sablan asked Teregeyo yesterday if the Kan Pacific\/IPI agreement remains \u201cvalid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Is that agreement still being honored?\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n

Teregeyo said she believes it was still honored by both parties but noted DPL is not a party to the agreement. \u201cWe didn\u2019t sign off on it. Henceforth the lawsuit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The reported deal would allow Kan Pacific to assign its remaining lease to IPI and that they would continue to operate the Mariana Resort & Spa \u201cfor at least a year.\u201d Kan Pacific\u2019s 40-year lease ends in April 2018.<\/p>\n

Sablan asked that because two years were left on the lease, if operations were going to shutdown during the remaining last year.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026There are a whole lot of resident workers currently employed down there and we don\u2019t want these people to find out on the 11th hour that they don\u2019t have a job,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n

Teregeyo responded by saying that Kan Pacific would continue to operate to the end of the lease, that they were not privy to the casino agreement, could not speak to all employees, but that payments were being paid and Kan Pacific \u201cwill operate all the way until the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we need to hear,\u201d Sablan said. \u201cThe only agreement between DPL and Kan Pacific is the one that you guys have. Under that lease agreement Kan Pacific is obligated to comply and meet the conditions of that current lease which means operating the hotel and I surely hope that will be the case…that Kan Pacific continues its business operations until the last year…under the current lease.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said this is to ensure that the no one is surprised on the 11th hour that they are shutting down operations. \u201cWe hear this from employees out there that they are being told that they are being shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sablan asked that DPL \u201cverify\u201d this agreement and \u201cwhat exactly is going to happen on the remaining two years\u201d and if there is any intention to shut down operations a year in advance of expiration.<\/p>\n

Managaha vs Mariana Resort<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lawmakers also questioned DPL\u2019s plans for the concessions lease for Managaha Island, for which the concession agreement with Tasi Tours expires in August.<\/p>\n

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres has stressed his desire to re-negotiate a lease with the Japanese company and has indicated a competitive bid process is not needed since the concessions agreement does not statutorily require a RFP. <\/p>\n

On this issue, Teregeyo stressed that her and her legal counsel were looking at the \u201clegalities\u201d and \u201chaven\u2019t reached a conclusion\u201d so far on the direction of the concession agreement, when asked by lawmakers.<\/p>\n

She noted that the existing concession agreement is not a lease and would expire next month and would go into \u201choldover\u201d\u2014for which DPL charges 150 percent of current case\u2014if an agreement were not reached.<\/p>\n

\u201cManagaha has been treated as a concession agreement since the beginning,\u201d Teregeyo said during her discussion with lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Sablan said he sincerely hopes that because DPL had come out with the statement and policy for a need for RFPs to maximize the returns on public lands, that they follow the same justification for Managaha concessions.<\/p>\n

Renegotiating the concessions agreement over putting it out for bid would forgo the chance for other competitive offers, the kind of competitive bids that former DPL secretary Pete A. Tenorio touted when he announced last year that DPL would seek an RFP for the Kan Pacific property over a re-negotiated lease, much to the dismay and outrage of the hotel owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect robust competition for a parcel of this magnitude,\u201d Tenorio said in a Nov. 2 , 2015 letter to Saipan Tribune last year.<\/p>\n

The Saipan casino was the only bid for the award, according to Teregeyo this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that same justification is used for the Managaha issue,\u201d Sablan went on to say. \u201cWe cannot be talking apples and oranges on the same issue. We have to be consistent on how we put forth policy.\u201d Not only for Managaha, he said, but also for upcoming leases for major hotels due to expire in the next few years.<\/p>\n

Teregeyo responded by saying she agreed with Sablan and for Managaha, they would be tasked with \u201cgetting the highest value.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, Managaha and Kan Pacific are two different agreements,\u201d she said, noting that the Managaha agreement is treated similar to beach side or road vendors they negotiate with. \u201cKan Pacific is a lease,\u201d she went on to say. \u201cThose are the legalities we are working on.\u201d<\/p>\n

She stressed that in reviewing the existing concessions agreement that there were \u201ca lot of things\u201d they would like to \u201cremove\u201d if the concessions agreement were negotiated.<\/p>\n

Sablan agreed the two agreements were different but the \u201ccommonality is public land resources. The RFP was to maximize returns on public land resources under DPL\u2019s care\u2026 I hope that we keep that in mind when we negotiate with Managaha.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the House of Representatives fiscal committee and the Department of Public Lands want…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":232750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[20,256,175,3092],"class_list":["post-232712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-budget","tag-casino","tag-dpl","tag-kan-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232712","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=232712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}