Commonwealth Ports Authority board nominee Jose C. Ayuyu, right, and his brother, former CPA board member Pete P. Reyes, during Ayuyu’s birthday celebration last year.
COMMONWEALTH Ports Authority board nominee Jose C. Ayuyu said the CPA board and managers should “work more closely” with Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, who will “ultimately have to answer to the people who elected him.”
During a confirmation hearing on Friday, Ayuyu, a local businessman, along with retired U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Dolores P. Kiyoshi and Department of Fire and Emergency Management Services Deputy Commissioner Steven Mesngon were given the opportunity to share their thoughts with the Senate Committee on Executive Appointments and Government Investigations.
The three have been nominated by the governor to the CPA board.
The first one to speak, Ayuyu provided a brief background of himself and his current position as president and chief executive officer of McDonald’s Restaurant on Saipan, which has over 100 employees, and on Guam with over 400 employees.
He said he is “kind of semi-retired now and currently transitioning the business to my son, Joe Jr.”
Ayuyu said the key to success of CPA “is the person in charge.”
Asked by the committee chair, Sen. Celina Babauta, about the government’s dire financial condition, Ayuyu said “it is a situation across the board, so the question is, are we willing to make the sacrifice?”
Perhaps “we can take a second look at how we are doing things. Maybe there are different ways of doing it and becoming more efficient,” he added.
“I would like to also see that the CPA board and managers work more closely with the governor, the elected person who ultimately has to answer to the people who elected him to office,” Ayuyu said.
He said it has been his observation not only in the CNMI but on Guam as well that once a board of directors are put in place, “they tend to forget that they have to answer to the people for what they do.”
His goal as board member, Ayuyu said, is to leave CPA “operationally and financially in a better position than when I first joined the board.”
Kiyoshi, who spoke in Chamorro, talked about the need for honor and integrity in serving the people of the Commonwealth.
A former senator, Mesngon, who also spoke in Chamorro, answered Sen. Babauta’s question about his residency. He said he is currently on Saipan for economic reasons as he works here, but he is a resident and registered voter of Rota.
