COMMONWEALTH Ports Authority Board Vice Chairman Roman Tudela has resigned, but the chairwoman, Kimberlyn King-Hinds, said she will perform her job until her term expires in October.
Tudela was member of the CPA board from 1998 to 2002, and from 2015 to 2023. He did not attend the board meeting on Tuesday. Another board member, Barry Toves of Rota, was on leave.
In an interview, King-Hinds told reporters that “it’s the prerogative of the governor to appoint [my] replacement” once her term ends.
Until such time, she said, “we have work to do.”
King-Hinds said CPA is now focused on meeting its commitments to federal regulators regarding audits and compliance. This involves weekly and monthly compliance reports, and affects CPA’s ability to apply for competitive supplemental funding from the federal government.
She said CPA is hoping to secure federal funds for, among other things, a commuter road and the replacement of a leaking canopy.
She noted that CPA was already in austerity even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the Commonwealth. That was “the reflection of the state of economy,” she said. “When you are only operating 64 hours, that’s all you can afford to pay your employees because of the amount of money you are generating. That’s pre-pandemic. That is an issue that the people should start talking about because at the end of this fiscal year, we would have exhausted our federal funds.”
She said CPA’s fiscal year 2023 budget is mostly supported by American Rescue Plan Act or ARPA funds, “and we’ve stretched them out as much as we can.”
Right now, she said CPA is not getting revenue from the central government or from arrivals.
King-Hinds said in 2017, CPA was generating adequate revenue and was maintaining 100% operations. It was in 2019 when its revenue plummeted following Super Typhoon Yutu, which hit Saipan and Tinian in October 2018. Then in March 2020, the global Covid-19 pandemic all but shut down the tourism industry.
Commonwealth Ports Authority Board Chairwoman Kimberlyn King-Hinds, center background, presides over a CPA board meeting at the Port of Saipan in Puerto Rico on Tuesday. Also in photo are CPA Executive Director Christopher Tenorio, board members Joseph Diaz, Ramon A. Tebuteb, Thomas P. Villagomez, and Pete P. Reyes.
