Guam Governor Lou Leon Guerrero, a Democrat, is hopeful the incoming Republican legislative majority will be more productive and willing to work with her than the Democrats who lead the current legislature.
In a December 10, 2024 phone interview with Patti Arroyo on The Wave 105.1 FM’s Mornings With Patti show, Ms. Arroyo asked the governor for her thoughts on incoming Republican Senator Tony Ada’s comments in the interview prior that seemed to support the idea of having the next legislature help move the development of a medical campus along. Among Mr. Ada’s points were that the issue of where to build the medical campus (which will include the new Guam Memorial Hospital) will be a moot point – a “done deal” – by the time the new legislature is inaugurated in early January.
“I asked him if there will be any challenges by his colleagues talking about the building of a medical complex,” Ms. Arroyo told the governor at the start of the portion of the interview regarding the new hospital. “And he believes … it’s a done deal because the governor has already committed funds, federal funds to this, and it’s just a matter of keeping an eye on how the funds are spent. But for the most part, he didn’t sound like there would be any effort to thwart or stop something that is already full speed ahead.”
“He’s very prudent to say what he said,” Ms. Leon Guerrero said about Mr. Ada, who will become the chairman of the powerful Rules committee and is regarded quietly as the true leader of the new legislature, according to inside sources. “He’s out there very much engaged with the community, and I’m pretty sure the community is saying to him, ‘Hey, let’s support the governor and let’s, you know, build that hospital. There’s land now. Let’s move in that direction.'”
“As one of the top leaders in the legislature, that’s a good thing,” the governor said about Mr. Ada’s amenability to working with the governor to move the hospital development program forward. “I feel there’s some reasonableness now in leadership in the legislature, and none of this, ‘Hey, I want it done my way, she wants it done her way’ kind of thing. [Because], you know Patti, it’s not about whose way it should be. It should be about what is the right way.”
Senators – led by current Speaker Therese Terlaje and current Rules chairman Senator Chris Barnett – the past three years have prevented the governor from moving forward with hospital development, creating impasse on the early-movement issue of where to build the hospital. The governor, using an independent report from program manager Matrix Design Group, first sought to build a medical campus to include the new hospital on Eagle’s Field in Fadian, Mangilao. When that effort failed, she moved on to a site further north in Eda Agaga, Mangilao. The legislature stopped that effort, but also failed to force her to build the hospital in the second-ranked location: Ypao Point. The Eagle’s Field location, according to the Matrix report, was ranked highest among the three options.
Several doctors vehemently opposed building the hospital anywhere but at Ypao Point. However, earlier this quarter the governor unveiled what amounted to a checkmate on the location issue. Utilizing a series of processes, she managed to orchestrate the purchase of private land right next to Eagle’s Field.
The land acquisition is well underway. About $12 million already has been obligated on the land acquisition using federal grant funds that would need to be repaid if a hospital is not built there. And about $100 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds will have to be given back to the federal government if unobligated by December 31, 2024. The sole approved project for the use of those funds is the interagency agreement to use that money to build the infrastructure that will be needed to develop the medical campus at Fadian.
The land acquisition is not complete, however, with half of the needed 100 acres for the medical campus that remains to be acquired. The government of Guam is working this month to acquire that land, either through negotiations with the private landowners, or through eminent domain proceedings.
If the land issue is resolved before the December 31 deadline without incident from the current legislature, then the far-more complicated matter of funding the development and possibly streamlining the procurement protest process on this program will ensue and fall on the incoming Thirty-eighth Guam Legislature.
Senator Chris Duenas will be taking charge of the government’s budget as the chairman of the Ways and Means committee. Freshman Senator-elect Sabrina Salas Matanane will take over from Ms. Terlaje as the chairwoman of the legislative Health committee. Mr. Ada also will chair the committee with oversight of land and environmental issues.
