Does Taotao Tano office controversy reflect a Fitial-Villagomez split?

We've all read about the controversy over allowing Taotao Tano to use a government building for free office space. Taotao Tano was reported in the press to have been authorized to use the building by Lieutenant Governor Tim Villagomez, who was acting governor at the time. We soon heard from Charles Reyes, the Governor's spokesman, that it was improper to allow Taotao Tano to use the government building for free. Reyes, you will recall from emails that were leaked to the press, had a bit of an argument with Taotao Tano President Greg Cruz over the fact that Cruz was not given a job by the CNMI government. Cruz then called for Fitial's impeachment. This episode has already been discussed on the blogs, but here's a larger question: Do these events reflect a split between the Governor and the Lieutanant Governor? Was the Lieutenant Governor really behind the original decision to grant Taotao Tano the free use of government property for office space, or was his role not properly characterized in the original press reports?

Even if Villagomez's role was simply to forward Taotao Tano's request to the appropriate authorities, what does it say about Villagomez that he would even give the time of day to someone who was calling for his boss to be impeached? And if Villagomez had a larger role, what would that suggest? And would the Lieutenant Governor have become Governor had the impeachment effort succeeded? (OK, maybe that's getting too far into conspiracy theory crazy-ville.)

And another question: What happened to the chairs that went missing from the office after Taotao Tano moved in? Here's one theory: They were burned for fuel during one of CUC's many outages.

Rif(t) Raff Ruffle

Oh my. Yesterday's news kind of taken me slightly off my seat when it was reported that the top two CNMI officials have had a rift for a long time now. I thought I could see it right before my eyes long before the rift between Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and his Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez.

I heard that the second head has not had the power of any sort to run the local government. Former Lt. Gov. Diego Benavente was tasked to handle the Water Task Force then. For Villagomez now, what he has done so far is to act as governor whenever (which was frequent) the governor was away for medical treatment or signed minor bills, laws or proclamation letters.

During that time of austerity, the Lt. Gov. signed something about the austerity Fridays that excluded some people including those are working at the Public Health. I remember the governor retracted that authorization and quipped on how surprised he was that "my Lt. Gov." was signing such document.

What does this tell us, I mean the rift between the two?

Again, you tell me.

The Reveler

Power Rangers Power Off!

A Taiwanese utilities corporation is now on the island providing a "free" assessment of the power plants around the CNMI. The ever huggable Saipan Mayor brought the group from Guam after being referred to by Taiwan's North American Affairs minister in July.

The Mayor hosted a dinner for the group together with the Acting Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez. The highlight of the meeting was that the power company initially concluding that the main cause of power problem here in the CNMI is maintenance of the power plant.

As the dinner went on, the power in that area suddenly went off. "Mayor, meeting this group is very timely huh?" quipped the acting governor.

Was the blackout part of the setup, to make the meeting more credible, thus provide more drama?

The Reveler