Saipan Mayor RB Camacho, 2nd right foreground, and his staff appear before the House Ways and Means Committee on Monday.
SAIPAN Mayor Ramon Blas “RB” Camacho on Monday asked the House Ways and Means Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Ralph N. Yumul, to identify redundancies in other government agencies instead of approving the proposed cuts to his office’s fiscal year 2025 budget.
Camacho requested a $4.26 million budget for the Saipan Mayor’s Office in FY 2025, but Gov. Arnold I. Palacios has proposed $2.28 million only.
The FY 2024 or current budget of the Saipan Mayor’s Office is $785,033, but it also received about $6.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Under the governor’s FY 2025 proposal, the mayor’s salary was also reduced to $79,413 from $110,130. The salary of his chief of staff, Priscilla Iakopo, was reduced to $58,935 from $76,615 and the salary of operations director Joseph Attao was reduced to $50,633 from $61,292. Moreover, no funding was proposed for the operation of the mayor’s office in FY 2025.
In his remarks during the budget hearing on Monday, Camacho said he does not support the proposed cuts. He said, “Maybe we have to revisit all agencies and see if there are redundancies. I think it’s about time to revisit them. And for the mayor? The people need me. The people need the mayor.”
But Camacho said it’s not about him. “It’s about us, it’s about the municipality,” he added.
The Saipan mayor said his top priorities are a safe community, safe villages and a clean island.
He urged the committee to take a look at the other agencies’ budgets.
“This is the about the needs in our community. I’ve been doing my very best to promote the major resources here in our island — the land and the water. We are no longer on the luxury mode. We are on a survival mode,” he said.
“The people are suffering, crime is rampant, and it’s really alarming,” Camacho said.
After he first reviewed the budget proposal, he said he met with the governor, Finance Secretary Tracy B. Norita and Special Assistant for Management and Budget Vicky Villagomez, and in that meeting, he remembered the governor “clearly stating that it is unconstitutional to cut the mayor’s salary.”
“Even myself, I don’t understand. They didn’t cut the [salary of the] governor, they didn’t cut the lieutenant governor, they didn’t cut the justices, but it’s coming down to the mayor? That I cannot comprehend Mr. Chairman,” he said.
The governor and the lt. governor receive an annual salary of $120,000 and $100,000, respectively. The chief justice receives $130,000 a year; an associate justice, $126,000; the presiding judge, $123,000; an associate judge, $120,000; and the attorney general, $130,000.
Camacho also noted that the number of his staff was reduced under the governor’s FY 2025 budget proposal.
He said, “The mayor is killing himself out there in the community” to promote village projects.
“And as I promised you all, let me do the dirty work and [you] just focus [on the] financial [aid] to the mayor. That’s all I need. It’s my job to work with you so I can work in the community,” he said.
He said his office lacks manpower amid an islandwide demand for 24-hour service.
“Every week somebody is dying in our community. And the mayor is the first responder to help our community members who lost their loved one. So again, please I’m begging you all to reconsider whatever proposal there is to cut the mayor’s budget and let’s all work together to promote a safe community, safe villages and a clean island,” Camacho said.
