Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga has asked chief executive officers (CEOs) of ASG’s semi autonomous agencies to provide their recommendations on board members for authorities, which are governed by boards.

At last Thursday’s cabinet meeting, Lolo said he and Lt. Gov. Lemanu Peleti have been asking the CEOs of the authorities to “provide some recommendations on board members” because “we are in the process” of re-selecting or selecting members of boards.”

“Our intention is to select mostly from the community, only those boards required by law and appointed by law,” he said, adding that he and Lemanu would like to “see the private sector involved in serving on these boards.”

He asked the CEOs “to give us some recommendations on the membership” for authorities such as American Samoa Power Authority, American Samoa TeleCommunications Authority, American Samoa Community College and LBJ Medical Center.

Lolo said the recommendations are important — “so that we know at least how you feel about the membership, make sure they serve you the way they should. So if you can do that, let us have some recommendations.”

“We also asked the board [of the authorities] to start acting on re-selecting the CEO,” he said, adding that he wants to make sure that service continues to the public during the transition period without interruption.

“We want to make sure that we continue with what we’re doing and make sure we have the authority to run each department and office,” he said.

DOI FIELD REPRESENTATIVE

It was also during the cabinet meeting that the governor acknowledged and once again thanked Interior Department’s field representative in American Samoa, Lydia Faleafine Nomura, who from the start of the Lolo Administration was invited to attend all cabinet meetings.

Lolo says Nomura has “played a big part in this administration. I can vouch that there is never an administration closer to DOI than this administration.”

The governor said that many times he personally received calls from the Interior Assistant Secretary to make sure that American Samoa is getting what it wants to move forward. He also thanked DOI Office of Insular Affairs executive director Nikolao Pula and his staff in Washington D.C. for their continued support.

“They have been very helpful and very supportive of our programs and things we are doing on island,” he said, and also extended sincere gratitude to Interior Assistant Secretary Esther Kia’aina.

In response, Nomura expressed gratitude to Lolo and Lemanu, saying that they have thanked her and OIA countless times for all of the work that “we tried to do to help our people.” She thanked the governor for allowing her to attend cabinet meetings and she thanked directors for accepting her at cabinet meetings in the past four years.