{"id":382707,"date":"2023-01-04T06:06:06","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T20:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=382707"},"modified":"2023-01-04T06:06:06","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T20:06:06","slug":"saipan-mayors-office-transition-is-done-and-went-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/saipan-mayors-office-transition-is-done-and-went-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office transition is done and \u2018went well\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

With just five days left before the inauguration of the new administration on Jan. 9, the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office is now ready and prepared for mayor-elect Ramon \u201cRB\u201d Camacho to take the reins after a smooth transition of power.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 9, 2023, at 8:30am, Camacho will be officially sworn into office by U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona in front of the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office in Oleai. Camacho will be joined by his family. Invitations have been sent to Guam mayors, the Office of the Consulate of Japan, and members of the Legislature, among others.<\/p>\n

Lieutenant governor-elect David M. Apatang wasn\u2019t available for an interview or comment, but it was learned from Henry Hofschneider, special assistant to the mayor, during an interview last week that the transition is done and it \u201cwent well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camacho\u2019s transition team met with the current team at the Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office about two weeks ago with written requests submitted, then a meeting was held with Camacho to inform him about what to expect when he assumes his role as mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just hope the new mayor comes in and realizes that this work is very important to the local community,\u201d said Hofschneider.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Saipan Mayor\u2019s Office in Oleai. (LEIGH GASES)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hofschneider also said that Camacho was \u201cvery happy to see what this office has done to prepare for him to come in and continue the work of this office. I hope, and Mayor Apatang also hopes, that this mayor-elect, when he assumes office, will continue the work that [Apatang] has been doing. There\u2019s still a lot of new other projects that we want to do, but I think we just ran out of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hofschneider assured that Camacho will be coming into what he describes as a \u201cturnkey office,\u201d meaning that \u201cthere\u2019s very little that he has to do within his first two years in office, other than just maintain what\u2019s available right now. We have heavy equipment coming\u2014in brand new ones. We have heavy equipment that we have now that are working. His field operations crew are equipped, they have adequate tools, safety gear, and everything they need to do their work up there safely. The staff are wonderful. His support staff will be here and they\u2019re going to continue to do their best to support the mayor.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about Apatang\u2019s two terms in office, Hofschneider, who has worked with him in all those eight years, said, \u201cThe transformation of this office from late Mayor Donald Flores has gone from a very neglected agency to a fully functioning agency. Mayor Apatang came in, bought new equipment, bought new tools for the operations group. We got this office hooked up to the internet\u2026 \u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, I think, with accountability, Mayor Apatang did very well. I can vouch for that because I\u2019ve worked with him for years and he was great, because he constantly asked for our budget status or outstanding liabilities, and all the assets that we acquired. He wanted to know where they are. Are they broken? Or are they getting fixed? And he worked well with the local delegation and, of course, the governor before the election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hofschneider added, \u201cI\u2019d say he did more than anybody else. I\u2019m not putting down the other mayors because times were different and situations were different, but Mayor Apatang came in when the casino law went into effect. That could\u2019ve been a factor for more revenue, but there was more work, more complexity, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hofschneider also told Saipan Tribune that he will be stepping down from his role as special assistant this month.<\/p>\n

When asked who will be the next special assistant to the mayor, he said it has not been announced yet. \u201cI think anyone can come in and do it. I\u2019ve been doing it and I think it\u2019s pretty easy. But whoever that may be, they must be very resourceful, knowing where to look for information, what resources are out there, and how to get them, and how to use them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With just five days left before the inauguration of the new administration on Jan. 9,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":382709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1507],"class_list":["post-382707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-saipan-mayor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382707","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\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}