By Zaldy Dandan – Variety Editor
A “CONCERNED citizen” says the CNMI’s current problems, including those at CUC, are the direct result of a “lack of true leadership.”
This reminds me of the following quotations:
1) A supporter of 1952 and 1956 presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson once told him, “Every thinking person in America will be voting for you.” Stevenson replied, “I’m afraid that won’t do — I need a majority.” (He lost twice to Ike.)
2) Democracy, according to journalist H.L. Mencken, “is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”
What am I getting at? This: In many democracies such as the CNMI, there is no real constituency for “true leadership,” which requires doing what is right, not what is popular.
It is right — and best — for any nation or jurisdiction to cut costs, streamline government bureaucracy, and prioritize spending on public health, public education, and public safety. But it is widely popular to hire more government officials and employees, give them pay raises, provide generous pensions to retirees, create scholarship programs, fund medical referrals, provide allowances to medical patients, and, in the case of CUC, make its services “more affordable” regardless of the cost.
“Everyone” is for “small government,” but no one wants to lose their or their loved one’s government job. No one wants pay cuts or a reduction in benefits and services provided by the government. No one wants to pay more taxes or fees.
Few people were complaining when global fuel prices were low and, consequently, CUC’s Fuel Adjustment Charge — which pays for fuel — was also low. But when global fuel prices skyrocket for reasons beyond the CNMI’s control, or when a typhoon hits the island, damaging infrastructure, including CUC’s, then everyone — or most of us — complains about CUC’s ineptness and its managers’ “high salaries.”
Never mind that the hiring of CUC’s key managers is governed by federal stipulated orders, which require pay high enough to attract and retain qualified professionals — often exceeding CNMI government pay caps. This means that even if the current key managers are fired, their replacements are likely to receive “high salaries,” or perhaps even higher ones, considering the daily stress and political pressure involved in performing such thankless jobs.
The alternative is a return to the good old days, when CUC’s key executives were political allies, cronies, or relatives of whoever the governor was. How did that work? See the report of the House public utilities committee, which conducted an oversight hearing on CUC in the summer of 1992, or the 2008 federal stipulated orders themselves. (Spoiler alert: CUC was described by the U.S. Department of Justice as a “grossly dysfunctional, extremely politicized, frequently noncompliant, and generally mismanaged entity….”)
CUC is supposed to be an autonomous public corporation. In practice, politicians choose the board members, including those of the regulatory body, CPUC. Moreover, governors and lawmakers meddle endlessly in CUC’s operations even as it tries to comply with strict federal rules, while also relying on federal funding.
This is a setup favored by politicians, who can grandstand and micromanage CUC while making it the patsy for popular policies that ultimately harm the utility system — and the public.
As the Office of the Public Auditor noted in a 2017 report, CUC “has not achieved its purpose to operate as an independent public agency with the legal and political independence to perform as a non-subsidized, autonomous corporation due to interferences by the Legislature, various governors, and the boards of directors throughout the history of CUC.” Specifically:
• The Legislature, despite requiring CUC to recover all costs through an adequate rate structure, passed laws that did not provide sufficient autonomy and, at times, legislated rate and fee reductions.
• Various governors, through the board appointment process and the use of emergency declarations, have exercised operational control over CUC.
• Boards of directors, absent clear statutory limits, developed by-laws and regulations allowing participation in day-to-day operations instead of focusing on strategic planning, budgeting, and policy.
In addition, the establishment of CPUC created another layer of difficulty, making it harder for CUC to operate independently.
We can keep blaming CUC, but those truly in charge are in the executive and legislative branches — including those who publicly criticize CUC while consistently failing to appropriate enough funding to pay the government’s own utility bills.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, and I’ll probably vote for you.
Send feedback to [email protected]
Zaldy Dandan is the recipient of the NMI Society of Professional Journalists’ Best in Editorial Writing Award and the NMI Humanities Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism. His four books are available on amazon.com/.
