In his amended reply filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands regarding Civil Action No. 09-00023, Roe, et al., versus Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, et al., attorney Bruce Lee Jorgensen said the notes he obtained showed “the board’s scheme to circumvent existing bylaws so as to initiate — on three days’ advance public notice — an election on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009, for immediate selection of new board officers prior to the forthcoming CNMI gubernatorial election rather than electing such officers during February 2010 as mandated by existing bylaws and which thereby would transpire after prospective election of a new CNMI governor in place of the existing governor named a defendant in this proceeding.”
A check at the Retirement Fund Web site shows that the meeting was scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Acting Fund Chairman Pedro Dela Cruz, also one of the defendants in the case, called for the meeting but the election of officers was not on the agenda.
Dela Cruz became the acting chairman by succession following the resignation of then-Fund Chairman Juan T. Guerrero, an Independent gubernatorial candidate.
The Fund is governed by a seven-member board of trustees. Three of them should be from Saipan; and one each from Rota and Tinian. One should represent the Carolinian community and another should represent the women’s group.
All of them are political appointees of the governor whose appointments are confirmed by the Senate.
Jorgensen said his clients are not convinced that the board can best decide on the retirees’ future.
He said he was told that “payment of the judgment may not be facilitated or effected by the CNMI absent prior legislative appropriation of funds.”
The Fund earlier won by default its lawsuit against the CNMI government for its failure to pay its employer contributions, which, as of April, amounted to over $231 million.
