The federal stipulated orders, he added, will also force CUC to make the needed changes.
Malae said they will get the right people on board to solve CUC’s problems.
CUC is hiring an executive director, a deputy executive director and 18 other personnel, mostly in the water and wastewater division to comply with the stipulated orders.
Malae said CUC is unique among all the utilities on U.S. soil since it is the only one that cannot provide 24/7 running water to all its customers.
“CUC cannot afford to traverse the same path that got it into trouble in the first place,” he said.
Skilled power plant workers and funding for the systematic overhaul of the engines must be available at all times, he added.
Funds should not be available only when the engines are about to fail catastrophically, he said.
“We must apply the same sense of urgency to solve water and wastewater problems as we do power generation,” he said in an e-mail interview.
“It also calls for the continued support of government leaders which fortunately CUC is receiving. Even the armchair quarterbacks in the community have a role to play,” he added.
According to Malae, CUC needs about three years to solve its problems with the right people on board.
For CUC’s power generation, he said they hired 19 nonresidents on two-year contracts to address “the very serious problem of power generation collapse.”
But the immigration system and labor laws that keep changing are working against CUC, he added.
“We have to keep asking the governor to continue with the emergency declaration in order to allow us flexibility to keep up power generation operation and maintenance,” Malae said.
He said CUC was able to meet the mandated levels of staffing for certified water and wastewater operators for the treatment and distribution group by overhauling the existing pay system.
Before the closing of the job vacancy announcements on Aug. 2, Franklie Cepeda, CUC’s human resource manager, said they received 32 résumés, mostly from off-island applicants.
CUC is now in the process of reviewing the applications for the positions of the executive director and deputy executive director.
