Former Saipan senator Ray Naraja Yumul is considering serving as chief executive officer of Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC, saying he wants the casino industry to succeed and resolve the many issues that IPI is facing in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
Among those issues are legal disputes, the reported humanitarian crisis affecting many former employees, and unpaid payrolls, among other things, and that\u2019s the challenge for the next CEO, Yumul said in an interview yesterday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad that IPI is now finally considering a local boy, basically, for the casino industry,\u201d said Yumul after a status conference in two cases filed against IPI at the Commonwealth Casino Commission\u2019s conference room at Springs Plaza in Gualo Rai.<\/p>\n
Yumul attended the status conference, but did not participate.<\/p>\n
The former senator said he wants to make sure that IPI comes through and survive. \u201cI want them to succeed. The community wants them to succeed because if they fail, it\u2019ll be years, who knows how long, before another licensee comes up,\u201d he pointed out. <\/p>\n
Yumul cited the case of the defunct Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino. He said the Tinian casino law allows for five casinos, but when Tinian Dynasty shut down, they were unable to muster a replacement casino. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo if IPI fails, there won\u2019t be another investor for years to come, if at all. That\u2019s a very strong possibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Yumul said COVID-19 is going to be with the CNMI for the rest of this year, and nobody knows if it\u2019s still be here next year. He said investors are not going to jump in next year or maybe the following year, as they want to see first how the economy here rebounds and recovers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then they have to go through the process of being graded. \u2026So that really is not in the best interest of everybody,\u201d Yumul said.<\/p>\n
He said people want to keep what the CNMI has, fix the problems, and move forward.<\/p>\n
On the CEO position, Yumul said he and IPI are still in negotiation, but that CCC executive director Andrew Yeom was right when he told the CCC board during Wednesday\u2019s board meeting that he (Yumul) and IPI have a verbal agreement. <\/p>\n
Yumul said he has many conditions, though, and will be giving IPI a document that will itemize those conditions. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what I\u2019m doing right now. That\u2019s why it\u2019s not formalized because, upon [IPI\u2019s] acceptance [of the conditions], then I will accept the position,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Some of those conditions, Yumul said, are obviously the biggest concerns that are confronting IPI now\u2014the cases in federal court, and the humanitarian issue. He said those are concerns that he wants to resolve. <\/p>\n
Yumul said he finds it \u201cvery interesting\u201d that the prior CEO did not accomplish one critical task despite being on the job for seven months. Although he did not mention any name, he was obviously referring to Donald R. Browne, who resigned as CEO last month. <\/p>\n
When asked why IPI had no lawyer for the CCC hearing yesterday, Yumul said his understanding is that IPI lawyer Michael W. Dotts had another pressing issue and was probably in another court hearing. <\/p>\n
He said he is aware that U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona issued an order yesterday that stopped all IPI employees from working except those in charge of payroll and security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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