The Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s search for a deputy executive director is back to square one after the chosen candidate backed out for unclear reasons.<\/p>\n
CUC executive director Alan W. Fletcher confirmed with Saipan Tribune yesterday that the selected contender from off-island withdrew his application. <\/p>\n
The position is mandated by federal stipulated orders. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gives the final approval on who would be hired.<\/p>\n
As of a result of this development, Fletcher said CUC recently asked to be given more time to recruit one as they have been unable to find a suitable candidate.<\/p>\n
Saipan Tribune learned that CUC began the nationwide search for applicants to fill the vacant deputy executive director position in the summer of 2013. After a review of 48 applicants and six interviews, CUC submitted the four final candidates to EPA for review and approval. <\/p>\n
Of the four, Fletcher revealed that EPA did not comment on one applicant, rejected two contenders, and approved one candidate as meeting the required qualifications. <\/p>\n
The approved candidate, however, later withdrew his application from consideration. As a result, the position is again being advertised. <\/p>\n
Fletcher said he doesn\u2019t know why the chosen candidate withdrew. The name of the selected candidate was withheld.<\/p>\n
It was earlier disclosed that CUC may be penalized if the agency fails to hire a qualified deputy executive director within 150 days starting in February 2013\u2014the date when Fletcher officially became executive director of the agency. Since then the position has been vacant.<\/p>\n
Besides the deputy director position, CUC will also lose its chief financial officer\u2014another SO-mandated position\u2014after the resignation of Charles Warren, who will leave the agency next month. <\/p>\n
Fletcher said yesterday that they are putting the finishing touches on the job vacancy announcement for the CFO position and will soon be conducting a nationwide search.<\/p>\n
Just recently, CUC formally asked the EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice to waive the fines and penalties that have accrued against CUC under the stipulated orders.<\/p>\n
Based on CUC\u2019s calculations, potential exposure to DOJ and EPA for SO-related penalties and fines is at least $64.3 million to date.<\/p>\n
Saipan Tribune learned that the $64.325 million represent penalties that have piled up since the stipulated orders were issued five years ago. <\/p>\n
There are four major SOs, which have been entered in this matter, with SOs 1 and 2 being the primary orders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp.\u2019s search for a deputy executive director is back to square one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,112,352,38],"class_list":["post-37748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cuc","tag-environmental-protection-agency","tag-epa","tag-saipan-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37748","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\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}