ATTORNEY General Robert T. Torres has informed the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council that it has no legal right to enact ordinances.
“Only the senatorial district representatives (are given) the authority to enact local ordinances. The CNMI Constitution does not grant any other governmental body the authority to enact local laws. Therefore, it is in the opinion of the attorney general that there is no legal authority for the….council to enact local ordinances,” Torres said in a legal opinion he sent to Gregorio V. Delon Guerrero, the council’s chairman.
The Council wanted to enact local ordinances, but Torres explained that under Article 2, section 6 of the Constitution, laws that relate exclusively to local matters within a senatorial district may only be enacted by the Legislature or by any affirmative vote of a majority of the members representing the district.
Torres told the council that it could not bring the issue for resolution to the Commonwealth Supreme Court.
“Since the…Constitution clearly does not grant the municipal councils the authority to enact local legislation, there is no dispute to certify to the Supreme Court.
He said the “most appropriate means” of achieving the council’s goal is for it to await for the Legislature’s action on the recently proposed Local Initiative 13-1 of Rep. Oscar M. Babauta, Covenant-Saipan, which seeks to authorize municipal councils to enact laws.
