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DIVISION 2: EXECUTIVE BRANCH
§ 2803. Powers and Duties of Department of Public Lands. (a) The Depart ment shall be responsibl e for the administration, use, leasing, development, and disposition of all those lands defined as public lands by N.M.I. Const. art. XI, § 1 or any other provision of law, subject to the provisions of this chapter and except as limited by transfers of freehold i nterests to in dividuals, entities, or other government agencies. The Department’s authority does not extend to the issuance of land use perm its and licenses, except as specific ally provided for in this Act, a nd does not limit in any respect the authority of other Commonwealth agencies t o issue per mits and licenses pursuant t o their respe ctive enabling legislation. (b) The Department shall submit each year a proposed annual bu dget for the next fiscal year in accord with the bud geting and planning procedures applicable to all departments of the Executive Branch. Within its propo sed budget, t he Department shall itemize all personnel, travel, and other expenses for the fiscal year in question; the sums required to b e expended during the year with respect to its leasing responsibilities and the h omestead program; sums required to be held in reser ve for approved hom esteads or other Department programs in the next two fiscal y ears; a detailed statemen t of all other Depart ment assets, liabilities, revenues and expenditures; and the esti mated sum to be tra nsferred at the end of the fiscal year to the Marianas Public Land Trust. (c) There is hereby established a f und to be known as the “DPL Operations Fund” which shall be maintained by the Department of Finance. The bank account(s) for the DPL Operations Fund sh all be separate and apart fro m the General Fund Bank Account(s) and other funds of the Co mmonwealth Government. All records and accounts shall be maintained in connection herewith. (1) All revenues received by the Depart ment, from whatever source shal l be deposited in the DPL Operations F und bank account(s) in banks located in the Commonwealth that are insured by the FDIC. (2) All appro priations by the Commonwealth shall be allotted for authorized disbursement of expenditures as approved in the budget. (3) All debts, liabilities, obligations and operational expenses of the Department including land compensation judgments shall be paid fro m the DPL Operations Fund bank account(s). (4) No expenditures not included in the approved budget, and no debt, obligation, or liability shall be incurred or created in any fiscal year, in excess of the amounts specified therein for each purpose. (5) The expenditure authority of all fu nds collected by the Depart ment or appropriated to the Department by the Commonwealth shall be the Secret ary of the Department, or designee. (d) The DPL shall as sess, manage and collect all mining permit fees for the use of CNMI public lands. If the DPL or any of its predecessors issued a Commercial Mining Permit, and received and accepted payment pursuant to sai d permit, such permit shall be held valid and enforceable for the period covered by said payment(s), and shall not be term inated or voided during said period except by the written consent of both the permittee and the DPL.
TITLE 1: GOVERNMENT
DIVISION 2: EXECUTIVE BRANCH
(e) If the DPL delay s or prevents the permit holder from performing any act required by the permit without the fault and beyond the reasonable control of the permit holder, the tim e to perform such act under said perm it shall be excused, and the permit holder shall be given reasonable ti me necessary to perform su ch act. (f) The effective date of this Act shall be retroactive to February 22, 2006. Source: PL 12-33, § 3 (103); repealed and re-enacted by PL 15-2, § 3 (103), modified; subsections (d), (e), and (f) added by PL 15-21, § 4; subsection (c)(3) amended by PL 16-31. Commission Comment: The Board of Public Lands, which succeeded the Marianas Public Lands C orporation, was abolished by PL 12-71, § 2 (a) and replaced with th e Marianas Public Lands Authority without conforming amendments to other sections of the act as enacted by PL 12-33. See comment to 1 CMC § 2801 regarding the conflict between subsection (d) above and PL 12-71, in addition to other technical deficiencies. The Commission corrected the spelling of “permittee” in subsection (d) pursuant to the authority granted by 1 CMC § 3806(g) to correct manifest clerical and typographical errors. PL 15-21 was enacted by override on July 28, 2006, and contained the following provisions, in addition to severability and savings clauses: Section 1. Title. Th is Act may be cited as th e “Amendment and Clarification of Public Law 15-2.” Section 2. Findings and Purpose. The Legislature finds that the CNMI government’s ability to function and provide critical p ublic services is severely hampered by decreasing financial resources. The shortage of financial resources precludes the funding, construction, and provision of necessary infrastructure to provide and maintain safe an d sustainable settlements in the Northern Islands. The island of Pagan possesses natural resources that could be mined, quarried, and extracted for commercial purposes, generating income for the government and providing said necessary infrastructure on the Northern Islands. The Legislature further finds that there exist a valid commercial mining permit issued on September 8, 1995, by MPLC, for the mining and extraction of pozzolan from the island of Pagan, and that the requisite Environmental Impact Study is co mplete and the Coastal Resources Management Permit has bee n issued and is in force. The permitee [sic] has been generating revenues for the government via payment of its annual permit fees and that the pe rmitee [sic] is current in its payment of fees through December 31, 2006. Accordingly, the Legislature finds that Commercial Mining Permit No. CP95-01s is still valid and in full force and effect. The Legislature additionally finds that the majority of the residents of the Northern Islands, and all surv iving former Mayors and the current Mayor of the Northern Islands Municipality have signed a petition urging the CNMI government to support the valid permit for Pagan mining project and to assist in the speedy implementation of t he mining operations. The Ninth Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council passed Resolution No. 9SM-1RS-06 on March 29, 2006, in support of the
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DIVISION 2: EXECUTIVE BRANCH current Pagan mining project and ur ging the CNMI government to support the project. The House of Representatives passed H.R. 15-24 on February 28, 2006 in support of the current permit holder’s mining project. The Legislature finds that, consistent with the CNMI Court’s decision in Camacho v. Marianas Public Land Corp., Civ. No. 90-0244, actions or inactions of the MPLC and MPLA are binding to DPL. Therefore, any permits that the MPLA issued and/or upheld under its official capacity shall be valid, binding and enforceable to DPL. In Camacho v. Marianas Public Land Corp., Civ. No. 90-0244 the Court held that “MPLC and LM O are both organs of o ur local government, whether it be the Trust Territory or the Commonwealth. [The LMO was the predecessor in interest to MPLC]. Simply because the CNMI acquired Commonwealth status did not free its newly established agencies from responsibility for the acts of their predecessors in the Trust Territory. Therefore, actions taken by LMO are binding on M PLC. To accept MPLC’s argument [that its pre decessor, LMO, exceeded its authority, was negligent in performing the 1979 survey, and that MPLC is in no way accountable for actions taken by LMO] would allow it to disregard any act LMO performed in its official capacity. The adoption of this policy would result in chaos”. Therefore, the Legislature finds that the MPLA’s action in confirming the validity of and acce pting payments for Comm ercial Mining Permit No. CP95-01 S is binding and enforceable to DPL. The Legislature also finds that the action by the Department of Public Lands on May 3, 2006, terminating Commercial Mining Permit No. CP95-0l S, is th erefore, unlawful, inconsistent with the wishes of the people, and not in the best interests of the Commonwealth. The Legislature further finds that any Task Force established or created for the Mining Operations in the Northern Islands after February 22, 2006 is ap plicable only to all n ew mining applicants. Such Task Force shall not have any effect on mining permits already granted and valid as of February 22, 2006. Section 3. Purpose. The purpose of t his Act is to amend and cl arify Public Law 15-02 by adding sub-sections (d), (e) and (f) to Section 103 authorizing the DPL to assess fees for mining permits and to recognize, approve, validate and e nforce all existing commercial mining permits where the annual mining permit fees have been paid as of February 22, 2006 and where the CNMI government has accepted the payments; ... Section 5. JG Sablan Mining Permit. Notwithstanding any provisions of PL 15-2, as amended, to the contrary, the commercial mining permit issued to JG Sablan Qua rry, Inc., by the predecess or of Department of Public Lands is hereby declared valid and enforceable pursuant to the terms and conditions of the permit, provided that: (i) the area on the island of Pagan on which JG Sablan Quarry, Inc. may carry out mining operations is limited to that parcel designated as “Parcel A” a s indicated i n the rec ords of the Department of P ublic Lands; and
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DIVISION 2: EXECUTIVE BRANCH (ii) the Department of Public Lands shall g rant a tem porary ingress/egress easement to J G Sablan Quarry, Inc. over other public land areas on Pagan for the purpose of moving mining equipment, supplies and products to Parcel A from the port and vice-versa. This section shall apply only for as l ong as the permit to JG Sablan Quarry, Inc. is in effect and , for this reason, this section shall not be codified in the Commonwealth Code. Section 6. Funds for PSS from JG Sablan Quarry, Inc. In addition to the fees paid by JG Sablan, Inc. to the Department of Public Lands pursuant to the mining agreement, JG Sablan, Inc. agrees to amend the mining agreement to in clude a provision in which JG Sablan, Inc. shall pay $50,000.00 each m onth to the Public School Syste m beginning January 1, 200 7. The $50,000.00 each month shall strictly be used for classroom maintenance and renovations, textbooks, classroom, and instructional materials. The Commissioner of Education shall be the expenditure authority of the funds. Public Law 16-31 was enacted into law by override on March 10, 2009. PL 16-31 contained severability and savings clause provisions and the following: Section 1. Findings and Purpose. The Legislature finds that the Department of Public Lands is task ed with the responsibility of administering the Comm onwealth's land exchange program, which includes land compensation in cases where land exchange is not a viable or desirable option. The Legislature further finds that the Department of Public Lands is a party to lan d compensation cases filed in court and should be responsible for paying final judgments, if any, to land compensation claimants. Land com pensation judgments usually include interest which is compounded until the judgment is paid in full there by making it imperative that the judgments are paid as soon as possible. The Legislature finds that the Department of Public Lands has the ability to satisfy land compensation judgments. Accordingly, the purpose of this legislation is to authorize the Department of Public Lands to pay for final land compensation judgments using its operations fund bank accounts.