Community Education--House Legislative Initiative 16-13

On the November ballot, voters in the CNMI will be asked to consider three proposed amendments to the CNMI Constitution. Here is information on one of them: House Legislative Initiative 16-13.

HLI 16-13

This legislative initiative amends Article III, section 20 of the CNMI Constitution by adding a new subsection (c). The new provision prohibits the CNMI Legislature from increasing benefits to members of the Retirement Fund unless the CNMI government has satisfied its obligations to the Fund under the law or unless the Retirement System is fully funded.


PROS: The provision attempts to prevent further harm to the Retirement Fund from the pressure of providing greater benefits to its members. It prevents the Legislature from an outright increase of benefit payouts.

CONS: The protection is weak. There is no protection against increasing costs to the Fund that could occur from other means like raising salaries of its staff or from incurring other obligations that could run the Fund into the ground. It is also unclear how broad the scope of the prohibition is—for example does it encompass rule changes on double-dipping; would it protect against full benefits for Austerity Friday employees? It leaves room for debate and disagreement on whether the conditions for overcoming the protection have been met—if the CNMI and the NMIRF disagree on whether all obligations have been paid, whose opinion controls? If the CNMI goes bankrupt and its obligation to the Fund is discharged, has it satisfied its obligation? If the CNMI pays all of its obligation but that is not enough to fully fund the system, can benefits still be raised?

SUMMARY: The Legislative Initiative amends the CNMI Constitution to provide some protection to the Retirement Fund that presently does not exist. That protection may not be strong enough to address the many and varied problems described in the initiative, but it is more than presently exists.

Back-To-School Project STARTING

The Marianas Office is once again gearing up for its BACK TO SCHOOL PROJECT. Every year we distribute free book bags containing school supplies to needy kids in grades 1 through 12.

We need donations!!!
If you want to help, we accept in-kind or in-cash donations. Typically, we give a back-pack with a binder, filler paper, folder, notebook composition book, pens, pencils and erasers. Extras may include a pencil bag, crayons-glue-scissors-ruler for grade school kids, protractor-compass-graph paper for middle school kids, and typing paper-correction tape-art eraser for high school kids. We will also distribute all school supplies donated, so feel free to choose what you would like to see in the hands of kids--like dictionaries or other books, calculators, colored pencils, etc.

Call or e-mail anyone here and we'll arrange pick-up of your donation.

About recipients:
If you know someone you think especially needy, let us know. We are compiling our list now.

We try to reach out to kids in Saipan, Tinian and Rota. If we gave back-packs last year, we are not likely to give another one this year. We target the neediest and so we will want/need information about the family's financial situation. (We already have this information about our clients.)

Open for Domestic Intake/Comment Moderation

The Marianas Office will be open for domestic intake (divorce, paternity & child support, adoptions, guardianships, etc.) from August 9 through August 12, 2010. Intake hours are 8 AM to 12 Noon; 1 to 4 PM.

People interested in applying for MLSC help on a domestic matter should bring

1) proof of their household's financial eligibility (tax returns or pay stubs or benefit notices for all household members; resources/land ownership info);
2) a copy of all relevant documents (marriage certificate, birth certificates, land and marital assets info/titles, etc., )
3) a brief statement of what the problem is and what you want MLSC to do to help you. (e.g. I am separated from my husband because he was violent towards me; and I want MLSC to help me get a divorce. I want custody of our children and the family home.)

Applicants should also be prepared to answer questions from our intake workers.

You can set an appointment for intake by calling ahead--234-6243 or 234-7729--or just come in and wait your turn.

P.S. I have turned on comment moderation because of the amount of spam we've been receiving on this blog.

Immigration Forum Links

I have updated the table of articles by Maya Kara and Bruce Mailman on immigration matters. Their first articles were published in the Marianas Variety and those links no longer work. I've left them on the list, though, in case you want to track down the articles in hard copy.
The later articles are in the Saipan Tribune and those links are now up-to-date.

There is a lot of good information here and I encourage readers interested in the immigration topic in the CNMI to read these articles. I don't always agree with the opinions of Maya and Bruce, but their information on the law is reliable.

Managaha

We had our Marianas Office "Burnout" retreat on April 30, 2010 at Managaha.

This is a day we take to talk with each other in a formal way, but in a relaxed and beautiful setting away from the office, to discuss what we do as an office, our successes, what we could do better, our failures, and anything that touches on life at MLSC. We are so busy in our daily work that we seldom have time to take for this kind of reflection. The hope is that by doing this, we'll spot trends and find ways to do what we might not otherwise get around to. At the very least, we have a nice day where we get to know each other better and stave off burn-out by taking time to appreciate the beautiful place where we live.

Marianas staff on the day-long retreat included Maria P. Muna (who has been with MLSC since we opened in 1971), Polly Anne Sablan, Lolita Nazaire, Juanette Sablan, Dimitri Varmazis and Linda Wingenbach. And me (Jane Mack). This year Frank Rogopes from the Marianas Office didn't come, but Ben Tured and Ben Weber from Central Office did.


This was the view from our "front lawn." We opted for the northern shore of Managaha.


Lolita cracked firewood.


Linda made her cooking preferences known.


Maria, Lolita, and Dimitri stopped for a moment for the camera.


This is what our pala-pala (i.e. shelter) looked like from one side.


Here's another view of our pala-pala.


Another view from "our" beach.


The distance from the beach to our pala-pala.


Certain areas around our campsite were marked off to protect bird habitat.


Ben Tured (Polly Anne and Juanette in the background).


Maria and Lolita exploring a bit. (Or did they go to the concession stand for coffee?)


Another protected zone.


Dimitri in deep thought (or just sleepy).


Ben Weber, relaxing, and modeling his ocean-rescue-ready shorts.


Linda on the move.



Ben Tured with his betel nut.


Polly Anne and Juanette tending the barbecue. (Food was delicious!)

Implicit Bias

The CNMI Bar Association has announced that Judge Mark W. Bennett will present a CLE presentation on implicit bias in jury selection at our Thursday bar meeting. The Bar Association also circulated his article, Unraveling the Gordian Knot of Implicit Bias in Jury Selection: the Problems of Judge-Dominated Voir Dire, the Failed Promise of Batson, and Proposed Solutions, published in Harvard Law and Policy Review in February 2010.

I think most lawyers are aware of implicit bias--by themselves and their colleagues, from judges, clients, witnesses, and jurors. It's somewhat a human phenomenon to engage in racial, gender, language, and other stereotyping, even when we fight against it.

The article mentions the IAT, an online "test" to help measure your hidden tendencies. The Implicit Association Test may hold surprises for you, if you dare take it. It seems very simplistic in its premises, but I think it can be used as a personal tool for exploring one's own potential for implicit biases.

The most positive note in the article by Judge Bennett is the power of professionalism and training to reduce and eliminate the implicit-preference tendencies. This effect was seen in both emergency room professionals and police. As Judge Bennett mentions, it is imperative that we achieve similar results in the justice system/judiciary.

Open for Domestic Intake

The Marianas Office is open this week (April 5-9, 2010) for intake of domestic cases. These typically include divorce, paternity and child support, adoption, and guardianship.

Intake hours are from 8 AM to noon and 1 PM to 4 PM Monday through Thursday; and 8 AM to 9 AM Friday.