The commission is to be a 13-person team comprised of 11 voting members and 2 non-voting members. The Legislature will activate the Commission and dissolve it once their job is done. Before their work is done they are to make recommendations about ballot questions that should be placed before the voters of the CNMI for them to decide on.
Six voting members will be island residents so that all islands are represented. Two members must live on Rota, two must live on Tinian and two must live on Saipan. The Island Mayors, select one member each and the Legislative Delegation from each island appoints the other one. There are no restrictions on who may be an appointed member in this class except that they must be at least 25 years old, be an NMD or a U.S. citizen, not be a felon and they must have lived in the NMI for at least 5 consecutive years when appointed.
The other 5 voting members will be appointed by the Governor but they must have certain qualifications: one must be a woman, one must be of Carolinian descent and two must be from the business community. Nominations for this class of member are supposed to come from special interest groups, and from the public at large. Anyone can nominate. The Governor will make the final selection from these nominations. The same age restrictions etc. apply to these 5 members.
Finally there are to be two non-voting members, the current Speaker of the CNMI House and the current President of the CNMI Senate.
All of these people are to be appointed within 60 days of the time this bill becomes effective. If a slot becomes vacant it is to be refilled within 30days. Once appointed they are to get right to work and continue working until a Joint House/Senate Resolution deems their work complete and dissolves the Commission. At their first meeting they are to elect a Chairperson and assign duties to each of the members. Future meeting can be called by the Chair or by any 3 members. They can meet as often as they choose but not less than once per month.
In next week’s article we will see how much this will cost us and determine if we stand to gain or lose. We’ll also look at how public these proceedings will be. Will the public be notified? Will they be under the Open Government Act? Will the meetings be open to the public? For now, this is Stanley Tudela McGinnis Torres of the 17th CNMI Legislature. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments about this week’s article. 664-8903 or [email protected]
REP. STANLEY T. TORRES
17th CNMI Legislature
