Lack of funding was always cited as the main reason, but those were the days when the garment industry was still raking in close to a billion bucks a year and tourists were still a plenty. The funding needed by the dog control law was peanuts back then.
In 2001, Saipan mayoral candidate Juan B. Tudela vowed to really really implement the law. He knew he had to get funding, but he promised to get it anyway. He hasn’t, eight years later. And with only a few months left before his term ends, it is now likely that he won’t.
The mayor’s record, however, is not unique. Like his predecessors, he went on a lot of junkets and hired a lot of relatives. What’s all the fuss? he, more or less, said when asked by our reporter.
Thank God, in any case, for mayoral term limits.
This November, Saipan voters will get a chance to choose a new mayor. The incumbent’s failure to implement a 14-year-old law is emblematic of the utter uselessness of the office itself, but the post still exists and voters must elect someone to fill it.
I urge voters to take a close look at the nine Saipan mayoral candidates and ask themselves these questions:
Who among them represents the new era that has arrived in the CNMI whether we like it or not? Who has new ideas? Who does not represent the way things are? Who does not fit the status quo?
Now if you believe that the island should not be overrun with rabid mutts, who among the candidates is the most likely to prioritize the construction of an animal shelter? Who will dare fund this project instead of hiring relatives and supporters? Who do you expect will not go off-island frequently so the office can use the funds for worthwhile community projects?
This candidate probably won’t get another term, but boy, what four years Saipan will have during his/her tenure.
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The Legislature did not act on the elected AG initiative, a proposal that has been up in the air for years now. The arguments for having an AG directly accountable to the people are pretty compelling, but like any other similar reform measures it must not be considered a “cure-all.”
Indeed, the CNMI can abolish municipal councils, have an elected AG and a part-time Legislature and still have the same problems it’s experiencing right now. These will be nothing more than cosmetic changes if the commonwealth does not get to the root of its fundamental problem — a Santa Claus government that is expected to hire voters, pay them a lot for doing nothing, while elected officials award contracts to supporters, dole out homesteads, send everyone on medical referrals, grant scholarships, mail fat retirement and rebate checks on time, provide cheap but reliable power, cover all potholes, pick up roadkill, buy fundraising tickets and pay for their constituents’ cable TV, CUC or phone bills.
Voters demand change, but they themselves must change first. Otherwise they will end up electing “new” faces every election year without seeing anything new in the way their government is run.
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