Revoke AG’s Ability to Stall Hospital Development

The Guam Legislature needs to help Lou Leon Guerrero to develop the new medical campus in Mangilao. And by ‘help,’ I mean they need to remove the impediments to that long-awaited progress.

We have waited far too long for the government of Guam to replace Guam Memorial Hospital. Several legislatures composed of scores of senators on both sides of the aisle have managed only to impede the progress pushed by the governor and her predecessor Eddie Calvo. Had some current senators and former senators put away their pride, partisanship, and political ambition in favor of the greater good of our island, we wouldn’t be talking about a new GMH. We’d be using it.

Alas, here we are. Decades after GMH in Tamuning has outlived its purpose. Fresh from a three-year impasse on the location of a new GMH, thanks almost entirely to two or three obstructionist senators, one doctor, and now the attorney general. Despite these obvious political shenanigans, Ms. Leon Guerrero is moving swiftly to develop not just a new GMH, but an entire medical campus that will transform the back road to Andersen into a bustling city.

Her vision is a work of art.

 

Douglas Moylan has taken the administration to federal court, trying to stop the governor from utilizing federal funds already approved for the medical campus program. He has alleged that the way the funds were obligated was improper and illegal. The federal grantor said otherwise.

“My attorneys researched and issued two formal and public legal opinions that the governor and [Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority’s] medical complex is illegal,” Mr. Moylan said when asked why he has threatened to withhold his signature on any matter related to the new hospital development. “[Consolidated Commission on Utilities] member Francis Santos properly stated that they have a duty to protect our ratepayer moneys and require written contracts duly authorized.”

 

The reference to the CCU deals with the movement of approved federal funds from Guam Economic Development Authority to Guam Power Authority and Guam Waterworks Authority for the installation of power, water, and wastewater infrastructure at the Fadian medical complex location. The installation of these utilities means GPA and GWA will be connecting infrastructure from Route 10 Mangilao all the way through Fadian, translating to raw potential for every landowner along the way to benefit from the utilities connections. That means hundreds of undeveloped lots both privately owned and within the Chamorro Land Trust and Ancestral Lands inventories will be able to spring to life, creating unprecedented economic development at a rural level.

“The AG’s opinions on hospital land are politically motivated and wrong,” governor’s spokeswoman Krystal Paco-San Agustin said in response to Mr. Moylan’s comments. “The AG is jeopardizing $100 million. The AG has been blocking the construction of a new hospital since he refused to sign the no-cost lease of the Eagle’s Field. Now, he is not only attempting to block the construction of a new hospital once again, but he is also jeopardizing $100 million of federal funds that must be spent by the end of this year. It’s obvious that these attempts to block the construction of a new hospital are politically motivated because his analysis of Guam law is woefully inadequate and quite simply just plain wrong.”

It is unclear what documents for the progress of the development will require the attorney general’s signature, however Guam law specifies the AG’s role in signing off on contracts for form and legality if expenditures are above a certain threshold. And since Mr. Moylan in 2023 revoked the delegation of authority for special assistant attorneys general within the autonomous agencies to sign off on contracts for him, it appears the island may be headed for yet another impasse in hospital development.

“As part of Guam law the AG would have to review the contracts for being legal, which we have already opined cannot be approved,” Mr. Moylan said. “The elected AG has a duty to protect our taxpayers and ratepayers moneys by not authorizing illegal expenditures. Guam law likewise makes certifying officers personally and criminally liable for any authorizations that violate Guam law. We are watchdogs to protect our people.”

As for Ms. Paco-San Agustin’s contention that it is the AG’s actions that are jeopardizing the $100 million in federal funds expenditure, Mr. Moylan begs to differ.

 

“Leaders and government officials risk causing all of us to repay the federal government for the $100 million if illegally spent,” Mr. Moylan said. “The people elected one attorney to give all other government officials the legal advice if a matter is legal or not. For the governor and GHURA as well as GEDA and any other official to proceed in light of the two legal opinions exposes them to criminal prosecution as set forth in Guam law.”

The governor’s office pointed out that AG opinions are just that: opinions. They have no binding effect, neither are they considered to be law. And, according to Ms. Paco-San Agustin, Mr. Moylan’s opinion is wrong and worse, politically motivated.

“Remember, this AG has a record of wrongly accusing this administration,” she said. “He wrongly accused GRTA and DPHSS of corruption and lost both cases in court. The AG is again wrongly accusing the administration simply because he does not want the governor to build a new hospital.”

The Guam Legislature needs to see this for what it is. Another Simon Sanchez High School debacle in the making. Another round of politics. Another delay. Another impasse. Another loss for we, the people. And what makes this worse than the inability for GovGuam to build Simon Sanchez High School, is that we are talking about the island’s only public hospital. We are talking about lives at stake.

 

If federal grantors – and both U.S. Housing and Urban Development and the Treasury Department are notoriously known for their strict monitoring of federal grants – have given the governor their blessing as to the legality of the use of the funds, then what is the problem here? What is the holdup? For the past three years, critics of the governor including Kandit have searched to find any special interest that may be tied to the governor. All we were able to determine was that the governor did a bad job marketing this program, and that she should have been more transparent about her efforts from the jump. No one could find a shred of evidence or even one credible source to say that something fishy was happening.

In fact, the only special interest that has emerged is that of at least one doctor who has made it his mission to oppose the governor on anything she does without any real rationale. What ever that is about has nothing to do with any public purpose or interest. One also has to question why a doctor of all people would fight the development of a new hospital.

One must question why – in the absence of any compelling evidence of corruption or cronyism – any reasonable person at this stage would stand in the way of a new hospital for our people and the generations to follow.

The path forward needs to be cleared by senators.

First, the legislature must pass legislation similar to their statute that allowed GPA to proceed with improving the power system without having to deal with procurement protest delays. Senators can mirror that legislation to allow GMH construction to proceed while any protest is being reviewed. I would go a step further and require protestors to post bonds for the full amount of any contract in question; and if a judge finds that a protest was frivolous, that protestor would forfeit the bond to the government of Guam. Teach these selfish companies to take their greed elsewhere.

Second and more imminent, the legislature either needs to revoke the AG’s sole signatory authority, or altogether abolish the elected AG position, return that position to gubernatorial appointment, and instead authorize the election of a chief prosecutor.

We cannot afford another ridiculous delay to the development of this medical campus. Too much is riding on the success of this program. No more playing around.