I MUST first say KUDOS to Mayor Tudela and the Saipan Municipal Council for signing the neighborhood watch ordinance and forging ahead to protect their constituents on Saipan. They also saved the state level government from being held accountable for crimes that could have been prevented with the program given the state government didn’t want us to have a neighborhood watch plan, which is the saddest part about all of this — we can’t protect ourselves at the local level — what a disgrace to our form of government. They also saved the Legislature some time and work in creating the ordinance because now they don’t have to create a law for us. Common sense tells me the Saipan mayor and council are doing the right thing and the burden of proof to deny them the right to create the program is now on the government if they want to continue opposing this right of the Saipan council and mayor to govern at the Local level.
Anyone with common sense can also see that the two bills pending with the governor clearly violate the people of Tinian rights to determine what they should do with their OWN funds. H.B. 15-23 and H.B. 15-35 are bodesigned to take money from Tinian’s license collections to pay for Tinian scholarships and “OTHER” programs on Tinian. Common sense tells me the people of Tinian don’t need the state legislature to tell them what they should do with license fees, especially when it is THEIR money. Our state level officials have never really respected the local government and these newly proposed laws are clear indicators of the contempt that the state legislatures has for the people of Tinian and their local government. Common sense dictates the municipal council could have just as easily made a determination about the money but our state level reps and senators appear to want the credit for the scholarships and other programs on Tinian that will be financed with money that actually belongs to the people of Tinian, which should be controlled by the municipal council and mayor of Tinian.
It would be pure arrogance on the part of our state level officials to continue dictating this type of legislation at the local level, not to mention the waste of valuable legislative time. It would have been much better legislation to give the municipal council of Tinian full control of their portion of the license fees and end the state level legislative merry-go-round on Tinian’s money. But I’m sure every citizen with common sense can see the state legislatures wants to maintain control of Tinian’s purse strings in case they hit it big with the casino industry so they can figuratively rob Tinian like they have done the Retirement Fund, which is much easier than doing the necessary and proper WORK to improve our economy. It’s not everyone in the Legislature but it is a reflection of the majority as evident in the passage of the two bills in question. The governor should veto the bills and tell the Legislature to create ONE bill so ALL the municipal councils of Tinian, Rota and Saipan can control their money and end this ridiculous scatter-brained and unstructured approach to governing at the state level and in the local municipalities at the same time by the same legislative body and executive.
The truth doesn’t get much clearer on state vs. local matters given these two laws that were passed. Common sense should tell everyone that had the Tinian municipal council been allowed to make a determination about the use of their OWN money it would have been less expensive to our governance system because it would have freed up the Legislature to dedicate more time and efforts to do their job of serving the entire CNMI. Common sense should tell everyone in examples like this that councils presently DON’T need the extensive support system of a state legislative body. So why tie up senators and representatives from Saipan and Rota with local issues on Tinian? It doesn’t make common sense and it is poor governance matters like this that continue to side-track our state level officials from the bigger picture and our highest priority of starting more industries.
Once the Legislature passes a budget, the municipalities should be allowed to determine how funds are used that are not earmarked in the budge and full control of the additional funds they collect, which would free up the senators and representatives on Saipan, Tinian and Rota to work on ways to improve the state level budget. It has already been proven the Legislature can’t function properly as a state and local government. Furthermore, unless they relinquish power to the municipal councils they will forever be going from state to local to state to local and back to state issues in a never ending political, social and economical merry go round that’s getting us no where fast just to keep ALL power in the Legislature. Einstein said, “you can’t fix a problem with the same mentality that caused the problem.” Duh!
We see the merry-go-round affect all the time because our state level officials are so busy with local political matters they don’t devoted the necessary and proper time and efforts to state matters to do what is necessary and proper like wage increases and stronger enforcement of labor laws, which is the biggest part of the reason we are in the shape we are in today — figuratively staring down the barrel of federalization! I am truly tired of seeing state officials doing the job of local officials and I’m sure there are many voting citizens that are waking up to this phenomena driven by the age old political power plays for keeping power to prevent from sharing power and being held accountable. The people on Saipan and Rota will never seriously hold state level officials accountable for something that only affects Tinian and the people on Tinian can never hold state level officials accountable by themselves — our politicians know this in the Legislature.
I’m sure anyone with common sense can now see how and why the Legislature has avoided empowering municipal councils and keep us (the people) hogtied and sidetracked in state level politics. This is as clear as it gets and if you can’t see it, you may need to clear the mud out of your eyes and/or take a course in U. S. government with emphasis in political science because it is a science with predictable outcomes. It is good to know that there are some reps and senators in the Legislature with common sense and a knowledge of political science to realize it is to their advantage and the CNMI for the municipal councils to share some of the power and the work load which also comes with sharing the “political burdens and accountability” for serving the people but they are helpless to make changes without the support of the powers that be in the Legislature. But at the same time I would also be willing to bet that there are a few people in the Legislature that can’t even draw an accurate diagram showing the structure of our federal system with the CNMI in the right place in the structure —but my high school students can.
I’m confident the average parent and citizen with common sense understands and appreciates the fact that we are required to teach students about the structure of the U.S. and CNMI governments and the roles of federal, state and local governments in our system of government even though our own government is not being true to the structure and the intent of that structure. There is an expectation that our children will be smarter than us, which is why an educated society continues to improve and this is clearly a case where the students in high school understand the structure and intent of our government better than some of our adult leaders and citizens.
Local government is the closest part of our government structure to the people and common sense should tell every one the powers that be at the state level don’t want this dramatic shift in political power so close to the people. It’s about power and everyone with common sense knows that power corrupts and that absolute power absolutely corrupts. We (the people) should know by now that we can NO LONGER allow the state level government to maintain ALL POWER at the state and local level of government — look at what it has gotten us (or) should I say what it HASN’T gotten us. Full empowerment of local government will help the state and local governments do more for the people. It will also do more for the people because the people will have “local” representatives doing more work for them and finally, a real check will be placed on the state level legislature because the representatives and senators in the Legislature will no longer have control of local politics. A fully empowered local government will complete the conduit of governance in our government with a more “direct” connection to the people.
Common sense legislation is legislation of, for and by the people and in no way can the Legislature ever say the two Bills solely for Tinian are a result of nor by the people of Tinian because the bills are indeed the result of political posturing on the part of the legislature as a political power play to keep ALL power. I’m sure the Tinian representatives and senators had NO CHOICE if they want to continue getting things done for their municipality. But they need to know that bills that violate the rights of THEIR local municipalities only compound the problems and put off definitive solutions on future generations to correct like we have already done with wages and immigration for more than a decade. I just wonder when our Legislature and executive as a whole will get it right and decide to do their job at the state level and let the local municipal councils do their job at the local level? One people, one direction for a government that will truly be of, for and by the PEOPLE at the state and local level.

AMBROSE M. BENNETT
Kagman, Saipan