By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

CONSOLIDATED Commission on Utilities commissioner Tom Ada has resigned from his post effective yesterday.
In his resignation letter addressed to CCU chairman Simon Sanchez, Ada said he wanted to avoid any “appearance of impropriety” because he was hired by a company after he was elected.
CCU has oversight over both the Guam Power Authority and the Guam Waterworks Authority.
Under Guam law, there is no provision for the filling of a vacated CCU seat. For now, Sanchez said CCU will operate with just four members.
This is not the first time that this has happened as CCU worked with only four members for two years after then CCU member Judy Guthertz resigned to run for senator in 2004.
Sanchez gave no other details about Ada’s resignation but an open letter circulated a few weeks ago by “a concerned citizen” accused Ada of a conflict of interest because of his involvement with SGS, which the letter writer said “provides hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of services to GPA and possibly to other utilities.”
According to the letter writer, SGS is an international company whose main competitor is trying to establish itself on Guam but cannot compete fairly “while Ada is the fox in the henhouse.”
Ada was elected to CCU in 2004, topping the CCU election and garnering 24,777 votes, which was nearly 50 percent of the total votes cast.
Ada has had a lot of experience in the utilities field, having worked as a manager at the utilities division of Raytheon in addition to being a former general manager of GPA and a deputy director of GWA.
He is also popular, having served many terms in the Legislature. Ada was also a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor.