Senate minority leader Pete P. Reyes is questioning the recent appointment by the governor of members to the Saipan Zoning Board, making the issue a top agenda in tomorrow\u2019s session of the Saipan and Northern Islands legislative delegation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is question. I want to question that during the session. I don\u2019t think the governor has the authority [to appoint the members],\u201d Reyes, who chairs the delegation, said.<\/p>\n
He said the time for the governor to appoint members to the board had long expired. The zoning law was passed in the 9th Legislature.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt actually expired,\u201d he said, declining to elaborate except to say, \u201cIt\u2019s going to be interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The delegation meets tomorrow at 10am.<\/p>\n
When reached, Gov. Juan N. Babauta said that he made the appointment after consulting with his legal counsel and the Attorney General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew about the concerns and so I had it reviewed by my legal counsel and AGO. It\u2019s determined that I could still make an appointment,\u201d Babauta said. \u201cAnd given the fact that we need a zoning board badly, I went ahead and made the appointment of seven people to the board. This is a very dynamic group, a very diverse group. I think they\u2019re going to make an excellent job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Babauta said that, if the concerns are legitimate, he would be more than happy to work with the Legislature and the local delegation. <\/p>\n
Citing the need to rid Garapan of illegal operations, Babauta last month reconstituted the Saipan Zoning Board, naming his appointees to the panel: Maria Pangelinan, Rex Kosack, William Concepcion, Andrea Alepuyo, Connie Coward, Henry Hofschneider, and Isidoro Cabrera.<\/p>\n
The governor said the board is tasked to zone the Garapan commercial district area and the rest of Saipan \u201cso that there is order in the house.”<\/p>\n
Authorities aim to transform Garapan from a red-district area to a wholesome, family-oriented destination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Senate minority leader Pete P. Reyes is questioning the recent appointment by the governor of members to the Saipan Zoning Board, making the issue a top agenda in tomorrow\u2019s session of the Saipan and Northern Islands legislative delegation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86389","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}