Muna said the decision not to renew Megarr’s contract was made before the Feb 23, 2010 status conference in federal court contrary to the claim of Bradley R. O’Brien, senior attorney of the environmental enforcement section of the environment and natural resources division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Muna said Megarr was advised in Dec. 2009 that “at the expiration of his contract, CUC was going to announce [a vacancy for] the position of deputy director for water and wastewater.”
Muna said Megarr was invited to apply for the position.
As of Saturday, CUC said it had seven applicants to evaluate for the position.
O’Brien, in a letter to Muna, said Megarr claimed that he was directed by CUC to “purposely submit inadequate deliverables that would not meet the [federal] stipulated orders’ requirements.”
Asked to comment, Megarr said he fully supports the Fitial administration’s prerogative to hire “whom it sees fit to serve in executive level positions.”
Megarr said he is thankful for having had the opportunity to serve the CNMI community.
“I respectfully suggest that DOJ’s focus with regard to its documentation request is on stipulated order compliance and not on any specific hiring decision,” he said.
Megarr said he agreed with much of Muna’s assessment of the improvements in CUC’s water and wastewater service.
Disgruntled employee
Muna said the comments of Megarr during the status conference in federal court were “very disappointing and undermined CUC’s sincere efforts to comply with the stipulated orders.”
He added, “The comments of Megarr can only be characterized as coming from a disgruntled employee who was very much aware that his contract was not going to be renewed.”
Muna said Megarr “has had a front row seat to the power generation crisis (knowing the adverse effect to water and wastewater operations if not resolved); has witnessed CUC’s challenges; and has even contributed to CUC’s progress in complying with the stipulated orders in tandem with other CUC staff.”
It is “perplexing” that Megarr could claim that CUC did not intend to comply with the stipulated orders, Muna added.
CUC is complying and continues to make its best effort to comply with the stipulated orders, he said.
Achievements
In a statement on Saturday, Muna enumerated the following “achievements”:
• CUC has successfully recovered from a power generation crisis that also threatened to trigger a water and wastewater crisis, if not a catastrophe.
• Engineer Wallon Young, deputy director for electric utility system rehabilitation, was hired and millions of dollars were invested to ensure the power generation crisis was resolved.
• An assistant executive director for operations, Abe Malae, was recruited and engaged in Sept. 2009. Malae successfully turned around American Samoa Power Authority while he served as its executive director from 1997 to 1999 and in 2002-2004. ASPA, like CUC, is a public multi-utility service company.
• A chief financial officer, Charles Warren, was hired in Feb. 2010. Warren is a certified public accountant who has had a successful career in the private sector and is familiar with public entities.
• U.S. Department of Public Health engineers Capt. Robert Lorenz and Cmdr. Kenneth Esplin have been with CUC since Sept. 2008 and assigned to water and wastewater. Esplin was tasked to monitor stipulated order deliverables.
• $4 million of capital improvement project funding was reprogrammed to address stipulated order requirements.
• 17 water wells were down at one time but service has been restored and CUC has secured an inventory of water pumps.
• Chlorine supplies which were previously deficient are now consistent and reliable.
• CUC has worked closely with the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission to ensure utility rates charged are necessary and progressing toward full cost recovery. CUC has currently petitioned the CPUC to bring water and wastewater rates to a level which will finally achieve full cost recovery, which includes funding of stipulated order requirements.
• CUC has been quick to replace collapsing sewer lines and has secured $500,000 of CIP funding to pay for these contingencies.
• CUC water and wastewater personnel are being trained with the intention of achieving certified operator qualifications. A couple of employees have already successfully attained certified operator status.
• Contracts have been awarded for Tank 104 used oil disposal, construction of secondary containment berms, major repairs to the Sadog Tasi wastewater treatment plant, and major repairs to the Agingan wastewater treatment plant.
• CUC purchased wastewater lift-station pumps to ensure redundancy or backup at lift stations.
• Over 4,000 water meters to replace failed meters have been installed in the past six months.
Muna said these “achievement and actions” reflect CUC’s “sincere desire to comply with the stipulated orders, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.”
He assures O’Brien that CUC intends to comply with the stipulated orders.
As of February, however, CUC had already incurred over $4 million in penalties because of its non-compliance with the stipulated orders.
