“If you have good executive director that is there for many years, there’s stability,” he said in an interview with the Variety.
Camacho, who resigned from his post on Oct. 4, has reactivated his firm EFC Engineers & Architects Corp.
A long-term position for the office of the executive director is “absolutely important” since CPA runs the islands’ airports and seaports, he said.
“It is the lifeline of the CNMI. We are not like other countries that are interconnected with roads or trains. Our means of transportation is by boat or airplane — we’re really isolated,” Camacho said.
“The CNMI seems to not understand how critical or how important CPA is,” he added.
When there’s stability in CPA’s leadership, Camacho said personnel will better perform and can secure more federal funding.
“[The Federal Aviation Administration] is the primary source of funding and it will be more comfortable with CPA if it has stable leadership,” Camacho said.
Had he not resigned from his post, Camacho said he would have trained for six months or so a younger and educated person, preferably an engineer or a business major, as executive director.
“I would have stayed for another year…and made sure that CPA wouldn’t hire unqualified people. That’s my vision and it fell short because of what had happened,” he said.
Camacho earlier told the CPA board of directors that he would not be renewing his contract this November.
He resigned on Oct. 4 due to the board’s “micromanaging” — which was also the complaint of his predecessor, Clyde K. Norita.
Camacho, who assumed the CPA post in Nov. 2008, said the executive director’s job is “daunting” but he prepared himself to set and meet his targets.
“Better ask the people and staff,” Camacho responded, when asked how would he rate his performance.
