Editorial by Troy Torres, Kandit News & Views
The irony is too thick, and we would be remiss if we did not point out that if Douglas Moylan wants to be consistent in his campaign to smear meth users, he should plaster the photos of his own employees who tested hot in the next billboard.
According to the attorney general’s statements and to media reports, three Office of the Attorney General of Guam employees tested positive for illegal narcotics, and another employee refused to take the drug test following the discovery of nearly four grams of meth on the OAG’s ninth floor offices at the ITC Building. The admission came only after a viral message informed the public that OAG employees in fact tested positive for drugs. It is becoming a pattern at the OAG to not release such information until after whistleblowers corner the OAG.
“Based upon the [Department of Administration] Personnel Rules I cannot disclose who tested positive,” Mr. Moylan said in his media statement. He’s right; but the public has a reasonable expectation that all four employees should be terminated. GovGuam – and the AG himself – has long lauded its zero tolerance drug policy with the caveat of second chances if a GovGuam employee admits to his employer of his drug use and enters rehabilitation BEFORE testing positive for drugs.
“I will terminate immediately any unclassified employee who tests positive,” Mr. Moylan said. “For classified employees my hands are tied, because they have procedural rights I am bound to follow. If given discretion at any point I will terminate even a classified employee if meth is detected.”
The DOA personnel rules and regulations spell out due process rights of employees accused of misconduct. In terms of the complement of the rules and regulations with the zero tolerance policy, the expectation would be for Mr. Moylan to initiate adverse action leading to termination utilizing the disciplinary process.
If that’s where this is headed, fine. Some people can now rest easier with a fuller understanding that the meth found at the OAG more likely was left by an employee than the conspiracy theory Mr. Moylan peddled that his political opponents planted the drugs there.
What should be far more embarrassing for the office of the local chief law enforcement officer is the math of three people testing positive and one employee refusing to be tested all on the same day. Over the years, GovGuam agencies have instituted spot check drug tests of employees. Some of these agencies, like Guam Police Department and Department of Public Works, have far more employees than the OAG. Most of the time, in my experience and recollection, all employees tested test negative. On rare occasions an employee or two will test positive. Those employees would be terminated. But think about this— those one or two employees would represent less than one percent of the agency workforce.
The Office of the Attorney General – which has harassed other agencies about his allegations of the presence of meth in those agencies – had three people (and one who refused to test) test positive in one day. According to the AG, the employees of the OAG who were tested were only those who work on the ninth floor of the ITC Building. That floor contains the OAG’s child support and victims’ services divisions. According to the OAG’s staffing pattern, there are 56 employees in those divisions.
That means nearly 10 percent of a large sample size of OAG staff are either active meth users, or for some reason unwilling to prove that he or she is not.
If anyone deserves to be on an anti-meth campaign billboard, it is those four unnamed law enforcement employees. While it is tempting to push such a smear, that’s exactly what it would be and what the previous anti-meth billboards are – smears that serve no good purpose. They don’t convince meth users to quit. They don’t cause young people to say no to drugs. They just shame people with mental health issues.
And so if it is okay to shame these private citizens, then why shouldn’t we also shame those whose salaries we have paid at the OAG? The answer is that it’s because it’s wrong. All of it is wrong.
These distractions have taken our focus off what is truly important with regard to public health and criminal justice: Doing things that actually convince meth users to quit, and preventing citizens from ever picking up the pipe to begin with. Concentrating on investigations into drug trafficking. Focusing on proper prosecution of traffickers and money launderers.
Billboards don’t make the cut, but those four employees should be.
