La Fortaleza: Show must go on with downsized fiscal board

La Fortaleza Chief of Staff Francisco Domenech

By The Star Staff

La Fortaleza Chief of Staff Francisco Domenech said Wednesday that regular meetings with the remaining two members of the Financial Oversight and Management Board, as well as the board’s executive director, Robert Mujica, will continue in the wake of the White House’s dismissal on Tuesday of five of the oversight board’s seven members.

“As Governor Jenniffer González Colón stated, as Chief of Staff and Executive Director of the AAFAF [Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority], I will continue holding the weekly meetings and communications we have held since the beginning of the four-year term with the Executive Director of the Oversight Board (OB), Mr. Robert Mujica, as well as with the rest of the OB staff,” Domenech said in a press release. “Pending matters remain, as does the management and work plan for the upcoming issues to be addressed. Nothing has changed, which includes continuing to advance energy issues, debt restructuring of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), compliance with the Fiscal Plan, among other matters.”

The La Fortaleza chief of staff emphasized that “[a]s is often the case in private and public companies, it is a matter of continuing to work in the same way and with the same goals, with a different number of members.”

“At the same time, all this work we have done and will continue to do is aimed at ensuring that the Board ceases to operate in Puerto Rico, and that our elected leaders are ultimately the ones who make all governance decisions on our island,” Domenech added.

“Likewise, once President Donald Trump appoints the five new members of the Board, we will arrange a meeting between the Governor and this servant to establish an effective working relationship,” he said.

The senior La Fortaleza official went on to stress that as “the governor’s public policy dictates, all the people can rest assured that this situation will be handled with the commitment made from day one, always seeking the general well-being of everyone in Puerto Rico and the disappearance of this vestige of our colonial status as quickly as possible.”

As previously reported by the Star, the oversight board confirmed the dismissal of Arthur González (chairman), Cameron McKenzie, Betty Rosa, Juan Sabater and Luis Ubiñas on Tuesday, as officially notified by the White House. No naming new board members had been announced as of press time Wednesday.

Various political figures reacted later on Tuesday to the removal of five oversight board members by Trump, expressing concern about the impact of the decision on Puerto Rico’s fiscal processes and the future of debt restructuring.

“The people of Puerto Rico have persevered through blackouts, failures, and broken promises. What the Trump administration appears to be delivering is another deal behind the country’s back that puts investment funds above working families,” said U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), who serves as the minority spokesperson on the House Natural Resources Committee, in a written statement.

At the local level, Speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Nuñez blamed the island territory’s colonial status for the unilateral imposition of new members on the oversight board.

“It is the most blatant example that we live under a colonial regime, where we lack the political power to make our own decisions,” Méndez said.

“The imposition of the Fiscal [sic] Oversight Board under the PROMESA [Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability] Act in 2016 exposed the lack of true autonomy,” the House leader added. “Puerto Rico does not control its finances, and many of its political decisions are subordinated to an entity imposed by Washington.”

Sen. María de Lourdes Santiago of the Puerto Rican Independence Party asserted meanwhile that “the dismissal of five members of the Fiscal Control [sic] Board does not respond to a sudden awareness of fiscal and democratic responsibility,” but rather to a struggle between sectors of investors interested in taking advantage of the bankruptcy of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.

“The Board did not come to rescue the country,” she said. “It came to protect the financial predators who benefited for decades from the triple exemption and still want more, even at the risk of a second bankruptcy.”

In an official statement, Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández Rivera expressed his commitment to ensuring that new appointments to the board respond to the interests of the people of Puerto Rico and not the interests of those who “want to increase electricity prices to pay the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s debt.”

Gov. Jenniffer González Colón reacted to the decision by pointing out that President Trump exercised his power under PROMESA.

“My administration has worked and maintained direct communication since day one with the entire Board and its staff,” she said. “This work will continue with the new members to put an end to the Fiscal Board’s [sic] presence in Puerto Rico.”

The federal entity was created in 2016 under PROMESA with the purpose of restoring fiscal responsibility and access to capital markets for the Puerto Rican government.