There is one more public hearing and it is scheduled tonight at the multi-purpose center in Susupe.
Yumul, R-Saipan, said “it is not enough to make an educated guess as to the sentiment of the community.”
The chairman of the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation’s Ways and Means Committee, which is conducting the hearings with the Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee, Yumul said that if only a few people show up tonight, he will not make a position on the controversial measure.
The committees, he added, will have to take note of the minimal participation of the public hearings which would mean that the very few people who came “did not really represent the people of Saipan.”
Yumul said “the only true way” to get the sentiment of the people is through a referendum.
Deleon Guerrero, Ind.-Saipan, said it seems strange that people from both sides of the issue are not attending the public hearings.
Deleon Guerrero, who co-sponsored H.L.B. 17-44. said there has to be another way to get more feedback from the people.
“This is something that will affect all of us in so many different ways,” he added.
Some would consider the “silence” of the people as support for the measure, he said.
Those who attended the public hearing at Kagman Elementary School on Friday evening were Roman Matsumoto, Vicente Sablan and Glenn Hunter.
Of the three, only Hunter spoke against it.
