Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther Mu\u00f1a and Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board chair David J. Sablan took the witness stand yesterday as the legal battle between the two agencies continues in Superior Court. <\/p>\n
Assistant attorney general David Lochabay, counsel for CHCC, presented Mu\u00f1a as a witness to support CHCC\u2019s motion for preliminary injunction that seeks to prohibit CUC from disconnecting electric, water, and sewer services to the Commonwealth Center Center, which CHCC runs.<\/p>\n
James Sirok, legal counsel for CUC, called Sablan to the witness stand to support CUC\u2019s opposition to the motion for preliminary injunction.<\/p>\n
When Saipan Tribune left the courtroom late afternoon, Sirok had just called CUC\u2019s next witness, Dan Jackson, who is CUC\u2019s rate consultant from economist.com.<\/p>\n
Associate Judge David A. Wiseman presides over the hearing. Last week, Wiseman granted CHCC\u2019s request to issue a temporary restraining order against CUC.<\/p>\n
In granting the TRO, Wiseman said the hospital would suffer immediate and irreparable harm should CUC disconnect any of its utility services as CHC would become unable to provide critical healthcare and public health services.<\/p>\n
CUC has threatened to disconnect unspecified utility services to the hospital due to CHCC\u2019s outstanding utility bills.<\/p>\n
Lochabay said they don\u2019t deny that CHC owes CUC a big amount but the hospital would suffer immediate and irreparable harm if CUC disconnects any of its utility services. He cited, among other things, that if disconnected of power, the doctor service in the hospital will be disrupted.<\/p>\n
Sirok said the court has no jurisdiction over CHCC\u2019s complaint because administrative remedies have not been exhausted; that CUC has a legislative mandate to disconnect; and that CHCC has the opportunity to do something about the arrears other than going to court.<\/p>\n
Citing laws and regulations, Sirok said all customers with past due bills are subject to disconnection of utility services.<\/p>\n
When called to the witness stand, Mu\u00f1a testified about, among other things, CHCC\u2019s budget, cash flow report, and personnel costs. She explained the impact on CHCC\u2019s public and administrative services if electric services are turned off. <\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1a admitted that, lacking a sufficient budget, CHCC paid only about 28 percent of its utility billings in 2013 and 22 percent so far in 2014.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1a said CHCC came up with a payment plan but that, in a meeting with Sablan, he was yelling and telling them what to do.<\/p>\n
Sirok mentioned that Sablan gave Mu\u00f1a three months to come up with a realistic payment plan and that he indicated that it is not a total disconnection of utility services to CHCC, to which Mu\u00f1a said, \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1a said CHCC is going to pay its bills and in fact they actually offered an amount that, in their opinion, was appropriate based on their cash flow and more than they consume in a month.<\/p>\n
It was reported that CHCC offered to pay $325,000 for its monthly utility consumption, but CUC rejected it as CHCC\u2019s average consumption is about $540,000 a month.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1a said their generator is only for emergency purposes. She also cited that they are implementing a \u201cpower watch,\u201d checking the air-conditioning systems, and applying for grants to have more energy efficient equipment.<\/p>\n
Sablan testified that he gave CHCC a conservation plan, which needs input from CHCC. He said it is up to the hospital to decide what conservation measures to implement if they want to avoid being disconnected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not inhumane. We have to help them conserve. That\u2019s what I advised Mu\u00f1a and two board members,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sablan said he has not seen in writing CHCC\u2019s conservation measures.<\/p>\n
He said there is no CUC policy that provides free utility services to customers, including CHCC.<\/p>\n
In December 2013, CUC filed a lawsuit against CHCC to collect utility services in the amount of $9,690,875, together with pre-judgment interest. It was last reported that the hospital owes CUC $11 million in past due accounts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther Mu\u00f1a and Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board chair David…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900,4],"tags":[20,666,49,244],"class_list":["post-37317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-local-news","tag-budget","tag-chcc","tag-cuc","tag-utility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37317","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}