Reading the news from Guam, gives me only one reality: “Nothing has changed and it seems that nothing will change.”
We are being held captive by a political system that rewards inefficiency and mismanagement. This best describes our present political institution: Dysfunctional. An utter lack of accountability and priorities. This comes from the very top elected officials.
We keep faulting our Government of Guam, implying that it is the actual employees that are at fault, and responsible for our mess. Yet when these same employees were privatized, e.g. GTA and DODEA Schools, they performed admirably and superbly, surpassing all standards. It is our elected officials and their policies and goals that are at the bottom of our problems. It is our electoral process that is at fault. I long for the days of our initial elected and appointed officials, when there was cohesion and productivity and accountability. We now have chaos.
Because our elected officials have used the Treasury of Guam (Gov Guam money) as their private banking pocket book, without any responsibility or accountability for repayment.
But there is no Treasury of Guam or GovGuam money as our politicians want the public to believe. The money that is now so freely spent without accountability or responsibility is our money, the people’s money, our own pocket book, you and I, everyone that lives on our island. There is no such thing as GovGuam money or Treasury of Guam, there is only our money, our pocket book. And until such time we all realize what is happening, and how our elected politicians are manipulating our thoughts and ideas, we will continue in our merry path to bankruptcy.
Our future income from the military windfall is already being spent and encumbered, even before we have received it. This is financial madness, as only a Guam politician can concoct. Our present elected officials cannot even keep our public rest rooms clean. Our elected officials have no shame or honor.
Our island theme song should be: “Give me Give me Give me.” Solution: an appointed island/city manager, and save on all the salaries of our elected officials.
Our present budget of $480,000,000 is not enough for an island like Guam with a population of 140,000 (politicians will say 170,000, highly doubtful, in the hopes of getting more aid and welfare).
But the city of El Monte, California, with a population of 120,000, run by a city manager, has a total budget of $40,000,000, and the city of El Monte pays for all of its services, fire, police, sewer, water, schools, health care, and everything else from this budget. More on city/island managers later on.

ALFRED C. YSRAEL
Temporarily in California