THE House of Representatives on Tuesday unanimously passed Senate Vice President Justo Quitugua’s Senate Bill 22-26, which will require a special election to fill a vacancy on the Board of Education in case the next highest vote getter declines the governor’s appointment.
All 18 House members present voted yes to the bill, which now goes to the governor.
Reps. Denita Yangetmai and Joseph Leepan Guerrero were excused.
The current law, 1 CMC § 2263, allows the governor to appoint the candidate who received the next highest number of votes in case of a vacancy on the BOE caused by death, resignation, or removal of an elected board member. In case no candidate is interested, or there was no other certified candidate, the governor “shall appoint someone from the senatorial district.”
S.B. 22-26 states that if no candidate is interested or there was no other candidate in the election, the vacancy “shall be filled by a special election” to be conducted by the Commonwealth Election Commission within 30 days after the vacancy is declared.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education and Welfare, in endorsing the measure’s passage, said the governor’s executive function to fill the seat of an elected education board member “does not manifest a true representation of the people of the respective senatorial districts.”
As for the appointed teacher representative to the board, S.B. 22-26 states that the education commissioner will submit to the governor the name of the second candidate in the teacher representative election in the event the appointed teacher representative is not able to serve the term or resigns.
The bill also requires Public School System employees to resign once they are certified as duly elected members of the board.
Speaker Edmund Villagomez, Vice Speaker Blas Jonathan Attao, House Floor Leader Ralph N. Yumul and House legal counsel Joe Taijeron confer during a break from a House session on Tuesday.
