Tinian Municipal Council and finance divisions answer committee questions on fringe benefits, rent and special accounts

The Tinian Municipal Council and Tinian resident directors from the Department of Finance answered committee questions about small allocations, benefits variances and where utilities and rent charges are reflected in municipal budgets.

Municipal Council Anna Marissa Nicholas, acting chairperson of the Tinian Municipal Council, told the committee the council currently has seven employees and no vacancies. Members asked about a $3,000 contribution-and-donations line in the councils request; Nicholas said the funds are used for small requests such as water donations for public events and traditional community needs and that the council does not maintain a separate special account for donations.

Utilities and rent Committee members clarified that the municipal councils utilities are paid by the Department of Public Lands because the councils office is housed in a DPL building; the council therefore did not request a utilities appropriation. Separately, the mayors office and other departments discussed a likely spreadsheet typo where the governors worksheet showed $9,048 for office rental while committee and mayoral staff discussed a $96,000 annual rental figure for mayors office facilities; the mayors staff and OMB said they would reconcile that line.

Department of Finance divisions Resident Director Ardi (Marissa) Mendiola walked the committee through procurement services, revenue and tax, financial services and customs/biosecurity. She flagged several technical issues: - OMB adjustments to fringe-benefit calculations cause differences between municipal submissions and the governors proposal because OMB recalculates benefits based on actual employee elections at the time of compilation. - Financial-services payroll line items show what appears to be partial funding for two accounting staff; OMB agreed to verify and correct underfunding for those FTEs. - Revenue and taxation said specialized overtime is requested for peak tax-collection periods to process filings and data entry.

OMB/Finance follow-up OMB told the committee it will verify two underfunded FTEs identified in the finance division and communicate corrections to the legislature. Secretary of Finance confirmed the MOU for CUC arrears and explained that the MOU included an amount to encourage transition to prepaid billing for government accounts; she also noted some arrears and account balances are being reconciled and will be part of a status conference with the court.

Committee direction Members asked the council and finance divisions to provide account-level documentation and narratives supporting repair-and-maintenance, rental, and utilities requests and for OMB to provide corrected fringe-benefits calculations before further appropriation action.