ONE hundred days is too short a period to judge a new administration. Here in the CNMI it takes over 100 days just to confirm new Cabinet members, so 100 days in other places is more like 300 days here. Let’s judge BB after 300 days!
On second thought, maybe we can do a little judging right now. For example, it does not appear that our top government and board officials are doing less airplane travel. Every time a government official spends $3,000 (or any amount) on a valid trip or a junket, that $3,000 could be used to pay overtime to some cops so they would then have a chance of earning a halfway decent living while protecting us.
I’m not saying that all travel should be curtailed, but when government employees are seeing smaller paychecks because of reduced working hours in order for the government to save money, we should look very carefully at every cent the government spends for flying and per diem. There are better used for much of our airplane travel dollars in this day and age of video conferencing and other hi-tech ways of communicating.
Sometimes I think that many of our officials cannot wait to get on a plane to escape the rigors of the jobs they fought so hard to get! I urge all of our officials, particularly the governor, the lt. governor, the Washington representative, the legislators and their entourage to stay put for the next 100 days. Stay with us––don’t fly! Settle down! Pete A. stay in Washington. You are our non-voting delegate lobbyist. Make it a point to meet 50 new U.S. members of Congress in the next 100 days and leave the summits to Bush, Powell and other world leaders. BB, stay right here on Saipan, Tinian and Rota.
Governor, I know that you and the lt. governor could be off-island at least 180 days a year each on absolutely, legitimate, important-to-the-commonwealth official business. But all the problems you could ever want or dream of are here at home, and most of them can be dealt with right here and need day-to-day, hands-on attention and follow-up, follow-up, follow-up, each and every day. Many of our bureaucrats have gone without true leadership for so long, they have no idea how to solve problems, so there’s no sense in delegating anything to them until they are taught to act on their own. You promised to solve our problems. Your commonwealth family is crying—it needs your leadership for the next 100 days. Save us some per diem.
There is a Chamolinian custom that I like. Before guests are invited over to one’s house, it is cleaned up and made as neat as possible within each family’s means. Governor, you could spend all your time visiting places to drum up tourists, just like Froilan did in hunting for lessees for hotels and golf courses on public land. Even if this is a worthwhile use of your time, before you do any more traveling to invite additional guests from Korea, China, Taiwan or Japan, let’s follow the local custom and clean up our house first.
Saipan looks mighty shabby these days and the “Fountains of San Antonio,” belching its nasty smelling effluent on Beach Road, is not the kind of thing we want tourists to see. Stay here for 100 days and get the waste water situation fixed. Put the fountains out of business. Remember, our motto is blue, blue, blue, not brown, brown, brown!
There are many pressing health care/insurance/referral problems in the CNMI and the two most experienced, competent people we’ve ever had in government to tackle these problems are the governor (a former health planner) and Secretary-Doctor Hofschneider. They should go on a retreat for three or four days with no interruptions, just to talk about health care. They should analyze methods of fighting the CNMI’s biggest addiction and health problem-–overpartying leading to complications from diabetes resulting in all kinds of diseases and then death. They should think and talk, think and talk. They should meet every day and get others involved from time to time as needed. They should present a commonwealth health plan to the public for its input. To be creative and accomplish such a thing, they must stay out of airplane seats—for 100 days!
The garment industry can and should pay more in taxes. It doesn’t take 100 days to figure that one out, does it? The 13th Legislature has too many garment representatives and will never hold in-depth hearings on the garment industry. The 13th will disappoint us. But, the administration, through its Department of Commerce, can investigate this industry by looking at production, revenue and shipping, hiring an independent consultant and auditor and letting us know how much money this industry really makes. Remember a dollar a garment? An idea whose time has come! Governor, now is the time to raise revenue from the garment industry. Have you given back the donation? Take the issue off the back burner and get it going. Stay here and make it happen. Stay out of airplane seats for 100 days. Let Diego go!
We don’t need another 100 days to pass before we start leveling the playing field in the tourism industry. Make the SandCastle hire locals at $10 per hour, plus benefits (Hawaii starting wages). After all, they have a qualifying certificate and probably won’t be paying any taxes at all, even with the dinner show going for $68 per person, $10 an hour for wages and you, governor, will supply the labor. Real honest-to-goodness Chamorros and Carolinians who can carry a tray. Help the local water sports operators compete evenly with the Japanese and Korean tour companies. Don’t be afraid to warn them that we make the rules. Stay here. Get involved. Follow up. It will be hard work, but great fun!
BB, biba the first 100 days! The next 200 days are more important. Time to put it into a higher gear. We all want you to succeed! Stay.KENNETH L. GOVENDO
Dandan, Saipan
