Kimberlyn King-Hinds
Pete P. Reyes
FORMER Commonwealth Ports Authority Board Chairwoman Kimberlyn King-Hinds and Board Member Pete P. Reyes commended CPA’s staff and management for their “hard work.”
King-Hinds and Reyes’s second and last terms ended on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.
In her remarks during a CPA board special meeting on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023, King-Hinds said:
“For the record, today…will be my last day and it has been my great privilege and honor to serve all of you and the people of the Commonwealth. I thank you so much for the support over the years. It has been truly a pleasure to work with all of you.”
She added, “To the staff and management, I want to say I’ve seen a lot of growth, a lot of progress…. We started from the bottom and now we are here. And we really did start from the bottom in terms of a lot of these issues and I know that the [newspaper] headlines do not reflect your hard work, your sweat and toil. Your years of hard work that have not been recognized through compensation.”
“And whether I’m here or somewhere else,” she said, “I will be your champion and I will continue to advocate for the transportation needs of the Commonwealth and I will continue to be a champion for the economic growth and development of the Commonwealth. And I want to remind all of you how critical the role that you all play in the development of the CNMI economy.”
King-Hinds said CPA personnel “are one of the toughest people that I know. You have endured tremendous adversities to include two super typhoons and a pandemic, a downturn in the economy, and yet you stuck around. I want to say thank you for sticking around and I want to thank you for your commitment, and I want to close by saying I love you all and I wish you all the very best.”
Grateful
In his remarks, Reyes said as a member of the CPA board for almost a decade, “I feel like CPA is part of my family — I enjoyed the journey.”
He said CPA has gone through several typhoons, but “I have never seen other employees that worked as hard as you guys.”
Sometimes, he added, “there were differences of opinion, and yet we’ve survived.”
Reyes said he is very grateful for having the opportunity to be a part of the CPA team.
He said he will continue to be a strong advocate for CPA and will make sure that it “does not go down.”
He said he is confident that his brother, Jose C. Ayuyu, who was nominated by Gov. Arnold I. Palacios to the CPA board, is “a guy that is not going to be persuaded or moved by politics and run this [board as a] political arena.”
“I have every confident that he will work as fairly as possible and reject any possibility of CPA being ran politically. Because we are not political animals here,” Reyes said.
Turning to board member Antonio B. Cabrera, Reyes said, “And yes, Director Cabrera…we have to search for the best qualified people to come in and take over the helm of CPA and we need to make sure that this person is equipped to run it. But we don’t want [Bruce] Jorgensen. He is not the answer…. I want to make sure that you, [board] members, keep up what you are doing. Resist any political interference that would damage the reputation of CPA.”
Reyes then thanked the CPA team as well as the airport and seaport customers for their patience.
To the CPA employees, he said, “Take pride, don’t let headlines affect your performance here. Take pride in what you do. I tell you, during my experience with the board, I had all my pride that I have with the CPA family…. Don’t let politics interfere with the operation of CPA,” he said. As someone once noted, he added, “politics is a recipe for complete disaster, so with that, I rest my case.”
