The governor’s special advisor for policy and programs, Kimo M. Rosario, poses for a photo after an interview on Wednesday.
Photo by Emmanuel T. Erediano
GOVERNOR Arnold I. Palacios’s new special advisor for policy and programs, Kimo M. Rosario, on Wednesday justified his $85,000 annual salary, saying “my worth is actually more than that.”
Last week, the governor issued an over-the-cap certification allowing Rosario to receive an annual salary of $85,000. The cap set by the Compensation Adjustment Act is $65,175 per annum. The governor informed the Legislature that Rosario will be his special advisor for policy and programs.
In an interview, Rosario said that as special advisor for policy and program, he is an employee of the Office of the Governor. However, he said, 70% of his time will be spent providing technical assistance and support to the Public Assistance Office, which works directly with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. His duty includes finding ways to expedite federally funded projects that are time-barred — meaning, if the fund is not spent, it will be “recaptured.”
Because 70% of his time will be dedicated to these tasks, “I am saying for the record that 70% of my salary is covered by the federal government.” He said $60,000 is federally funded, and only $25,000 is funded by the CNMI government.
“I’m actually saving the CNMI government because most of my salary is federally funded,” Rosario added.
He said that in February 2025, the governor formed the CNMI Disaster Recovery and Mitigation Infrastructure Working Group, which is tasked to “ramp up expenditures and speed up infrastructure projects funded by various disaster recovery and mitigation grants.”
In his memorandum creating the group, the governor said the federal government awarded the CNMI over $500 million in disaster recovery and mitigation funds in 2019 and 2020. The goal of the working group, he said, is to ensure that 100% of all disaster recovery and mitigation funded infrastructure projects break ground within the prescribed periods of performance and expend no less than 80% of the funding for these projects by Dec. 31, 2026.
“I have already come up with ways to speed up these projects,” Rosario said.
He added that “my worth is actually more than that,” referring to his $85,000 annual salary for a CNMI-wide task. When he was working for the Public School System, he said he was in-charge of overseeing FEMA-funded school projects and was getting $90,000 per annum.
Rosario also cited 1 CMC Subsection 8248, the law governing government employees’ salary ceiling, stating that “any other professional positions principal to federal programs and required to meet federally funded grant objectives, may receive an annual salary in excess of the salary ceiling.”
He likewise provided a copy of his résumé that indicates, among other credentials, his 25 years of executive management and administrative experience and over 15 years of experience in policy development, analysis, review, research and synthesis.
